Diarmuid Sheehan

Christopher Joyce has emerged as one of the Rebels’ top defenders over the past twenty-four months

HRISTOPHER Joyce has shown himself to be one of Cork’s best defenders of over the past two years with some sensational displays in 2018 marking him out as a key linchpin in what Cork are likely to do this Sunday.

The Na Piarsaigh clubman has been emulating some of the great Cork half backs with former club mate Seán Óg an obvious comparison. Joyce has been at the heart of all that is good about Cork this year and the half-back is, like his team mates, gearing up for the challenge ahead this weekend.

“It’s been great to sit back for the last number of weeks and see the other lads play it out and now we know who we are to play so it is all systems go for Sunday.

“If we had said at the start of the season that we would go through Munster unbeaten we would have taken that – it would have been a goal of the team so I suppose we are where we would have wanted to be.”

While Joyce is happy with his side’s lot to this point he is not blind to his side’s failings this season.

“We have played in patches but don’t think we have put a full 70 minutes in yet. We have had four weeks to try and figure out where we can find that from and that really has been the goal of the team since the Munster Final.”

Joyce has seen Limerick up close and feels that they are an impressive outfit that will bring plenty to the table this weekend.

“Limerick are a great team and gave a great display against Kilkenny and held them off when they came back at them. It probably suited them to go through the back door and to beat Kilkenny will be very good for confidence so they will be on a high but likewise we are on a high as well after winning the Munster title.

“Limerick performed very well in the league and beat the All-Ireland champions in that league so they are after getting some really big results this year and they are really starting to believe in themselves and that is really important for Limerick so I think losing to Clare probably ended up suiting them.

“They played three in a row and every team struggled at that stage. They came through the back door and beat Kilkenny – something they haven’t done in years so they come in here with no fear of Cork so they are going to come up to Croke Park full of confidence and it is up to us to put in that performance that we can be proud of and hopefully the result will look after itself.

“A draw down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh when they were down to 14 men – they had it all to do and in fairness to them they done it, they performed very well and we were lucky to get a draw in the end – it took a strong last 10 minutes from us so there is no doubt about it, we know exactly how good Limerick are and what we are up against.”

Cork were always likely to be called a one season wonder if they failed to impress in this season’s championship, but after securing the provincial crown Joyce is adamant that his side are where they should be.

“We are exactly where we want to be right now. We are Cork hurling. That is the one thing about Cork. You always have that belief going into any year. Kieran (Kingston) came in last year and we changed things up and we brought in a few young fellas and as I said you put on that red jersey you always believe in yourself and I think the performances came back then and in fairness to John [Meyler] and the lads they really carried that on and really drove us forward again.”

Losing the All Ireland back in 2013 hurt Cork hurling, but even though Joyce was around then he doesn’t consider it relevant now.

“I’m not looking back there. This is a whole new team so I wouldn’t even look there. We have one game ahead and that is the only game we are looking at right now. It is our only focus.”

Joyce, like all his compatriots came into this season not knowing what to expect, but now the defender is a fan of the new system.

“I suppose coming into this year’s Munster Championship you wouldn’t know what to expect but after finishing it I thought it was really good, I really enjoyed it. You had to put in a hard block (of work) early on, monitor your training, making sure you had the energy to go forward into all those games, injury wise as well you have to make sure you got your recovery sessions in but the more times you get to put on the red jersey and play for Cork the better.

“It is an absolute honour – we got to play five games in seven weeks so I don’t think any player would complain about that.”

Joyce is clear that Cork are in a good place and happy with the squad they have heading to Dublin.

“We know exactly what we have and we will pick from that panel. Every team has injuries so we just have to use our squad. We have a really good squad so there are no fears on that score.

“At the start of the year all we really wanted to do was to build up a squad really, we kind of knew what type of championship was coming and we knew we had all these games so it was very important to have that squad.

“You saw there during the