‘There’s huge quality in our group’
CORK football manager Ronan McCarthy will send his troops into action in just over a week against the old foe, Kerry, with the confidence that he and his charges have done everything they can to prepare, but performance is key above all else.
“We are not looking at this game as a free shot. We will take every game on its merits. We have been giving the guys the message that you have to go out and perform every time you play and this applies here as well.
“We will to go out against what is a very good side, a top team and meet them head on and see can we give a performance. I have said it many times there is huge quality in our group.
“You just have to look at our bench against Tipperary, it is a bench that will be even stronger again when we play against Kerry. I believe there is real intent in the team, they want to be successful, but we have to go out and deliver a performance.
“You can’t guarantee any result, but we must deliver the performance and see where that takes us.”
On a personal level McCarthy feels that he and his team have almost done all they can at this point and are now looking to get the finer points resolved before throw-in Saturday week.
“I am looking forward to it. I have a very simple philosophy on it. I have my own way of doing things. It has had some reasonable degree of success for me in the past and I know that when that team go out onto the pitch against Kerry that they are well prepared, there is real quality in the group and we have done all we can to get them prepared and after that whether it is victory or defeat you have to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself did you do everything you could.
“I kind of have to detach myself from it all. Of course, I want Cork to be successful and want these players to be successful but to some extent the work has already been done and we are only fine tuning things now.
“They have worked hard and the back-room team have worked very hard over the last six months so you are hoping that, just like the Tipperary game, you will get the performance on the night.”