Win means Cork’s fate is in their own hands –McCarthy
THAT Cork’s fate in division two of the National Football League is now in their own hands was one of the big positives for manager Ronan McCarthy after his charges beat Tipperary in round five of Division 2 of the National Football League at Semple Stadium on Saturday night.
The manager was obviously a happy man as he spoke to the Press following their 1-12 to 0-12 victory, their first success in the current campaign. Defeat would have condemned Cork to division three football next season, but the win and the momentum expected to accrue from it, gives high hopes of avoiding the drop with two games to go.
“A massive win, with an awful lot riding on the result,” was Ronan McCarthy’s summation of his side’s win over Tipperary in the fifth round of the National Football League at Thurles on Saturday evening.
It was Cork’s first win in the campaign and McCarthy said he was delighted to get the result and happy that there were some real elements of positive play in it.
“There’s a lot more in this team. That’s the message we’ll give them. We will excuse the hesitancy at the finish when we were hanging on a bit,” he said afterwards.
“I thought we played some really good football in the second half as we pulled away. When we saw the finishing posts we probably pulled back a bit and Cork
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5 created problems for ourselves but maybe that’s to be expected with the nature of the game and what was riding on it,” he added.
Was this the game to kick start Cork’s season? “People will say that. Certainly confidence has been an issue and the team has been desperate for a win. The fact that they have now got that win, hopefully will give them the freedom to go out and play with the quality we know they have,” he said.
McCarthy was particularly pleased with the impact his substitutions made. Brian Hurley, Seán Powter and Cian Kiely were called into action together after 53 minutes with Tipperary threatening ingthreatening a rally as they nibbled at Cork’s seseven points advantage.
“Look at the calibre of those cocoming in. We are a team that likes to play at a high tempo and we had ththose players to come in to continue to give us the energy going forward. ThThey all contributed to this win and we came out at the right side of the reresult,” he said.
And there was a further cause fofor satisfaction for the manager. “WWe now control our own fate in ththe league. That’s a big thing for usus, that we are not depending on aanybody else,” he said.
That fate will be decided in ththe coming weeks with Donegal vivisiting Cork on Sunday week and ththe final game away to Armagh. RetainingR Division 2 status will not be easy in the face of opposition of such quality, but as Ronan McCarthy said – Cork’s fate is in their own hands.
NFL Division 2
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