CORK VIEWPOINT Denis Hurley

HAVING had a big win over Waterford in their opening game on April 11, for Cork manager or Cork manager Bobbie O’Dwyer the time between the two games has been about trying to find enough time to get together while avoiding too much work.

“There’s a constant balancing act when you’re dealing with intercounty level,” he says. “There are quite a lot of competitions going on, last week we had the

premier minor hurling, this week we have U-21 football championship in various divisions. There are still a lot of college games going on too, we have a Munster final this week, so it’s very difficult to get everyone together. That’s one of the challenges of being involved in a county panel. It’s an ongoing challenge. There are various championship competitions on, we had players involved in games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. That’s every night of the week and then you’re trying to rest the players too. It’s a challenge

but not an excuse.”

Cork had 27 points to spare over Waterford, but O’Dwyer knows it wasn’t a perfect performance.

“There were a lot of things that we were happy with,” O’Dwyer, an AIB employee in Killarney, says, “but then nearly every single thing that we did needs improvement. The further you go along in championship, you have to be tightening up and sharpening up what you’re doing. There’s plenty of room for improvement and plenty of work to do. We haven’t finalised the

panel yet. There are a number of knocks alright, so we’re reviewing that and we’ll take a decision on that over the weekend.”

Given the lack of a safety net there is a danger element, but O’Dwyer expects the team to be ready. “It is knockout competition. It’s all about getting a performance on the night. Cork will obviously be going down to Kerry as underdogs and Kerry will be very hot favourites. Cork will be looking to give a performance, we’ve a very honest bunch of players and we’ll see how it goes.”