CORK RELISH UNDERDOG TAG

DISMISSED at the start of the season as a spent force, Ashling Thompson insists she is relishing leading a Cork team that have defied the odds in getting back to the All-Ireland final. A string of high-profile retirements, followed by losses to tomorrow’s opponents Galway in the League final, and in an earlyround Championship game, had pundits writing off the Rebelettes’ chances of defending their All-- Ireland crown. But it was music to the ears of Thompson, who has succeeded her Milford club-mate Anna Geary as the Cork captain, who insists that she relished the role of being the ‘underdog’. ‘I like to be an underdog, I like to be vulnerable or people to see me as vulnerable. Because then they don’t know what to expect, so that’s why this year I think it makes it that bit more special to get to Croke Park, because even in the semi-final we were written off against Kilkenny. ‘We didn’t stand a chance, according to some, and I suppose the hammering we gave them sent the message back loud and clear about us.’ It did and more; their 4-10 to 1-10 mauling of Kilkenny means Cork will go into the final as marginal favourites. Cork trailed Galway by 11 points at half-time in the League final clash. But their response in the second half was a tipping point. They still ended up losing by three points (2-15 to 2-12), but Thompson insists that it felt more like that they had run out of time. ‘I think if we had another five minutes, we might have beaten them. But we weren’t really concentrating on winning the league, the All-Ireland has always been our aim.’ TV: LIVE on RTÉ 2 from 1.45 (Throw-in 4.0).