Hennessy looks ahead to Munster

HAVING led by 0-7 to 0-3 at half-time after playing with the wind, Fermoy weren’t going to take anything for granted in the second half.

By the time referee John Ryan blew his final whistle, the same four-point advantage prevailed and Fermoy manager Mick Hennessy acknowledged how his team hadn’t allowed complacency to set in.

“The way we looked at it was as if we were four points down and we going to go at it from that point of view,” he said.

“The instruction had been that we’d try and go against the wind in the first half and take it in the second half. It’s a strange place because the wind seems to be swirling, you kind of don’t know. You think you’re grand for a shot and the lads were saying that the wind pulls the ball when it gets up into the air.”

It was something St Michaels certainly found difficult, evidenced by the large wides tally, but that was down to good defending too.

“We noticed ourselves as one of their weaknesses if you make them shoot from distance, so we tried to make them shoot from around the 45,” Hennessy said.

“When they did that, the pressure came. We did look at it alright, but in the same sense, we had a good few misses ourselves at vital times. We worked on the defending side of things. We didn’t look threatened for goals, to be fair.”

Having reached the final two years ago, losing to Kiskeam, did the manager feel that experience stood to his players?

“I’d say so, but when we approached it, we completely blanked 2016,” he said.

“It was all about focusing on the next game. We touched base on it about two weeks ago for maybe 20 minutes and we took a few things we needed from it, parked it and focused on ourselves.”

Now, the focus turns to Munster. Since 2005, only Clyda Rovers have broken the Kerry provincial monopoly at the intermediate grade but Hennessy is relishing the challenge.

“I’m actually looking forward to he said.

“We will enjoy the night, we will enjoy maybe a couple of nights. But we will definitely get focused for that. I think Cork football needs to get back where it should be.

“If we can help in anyway in promoting Cork football again by doing something in the Munster championship, it will be fantastic.” it, can’t wait,”