Fitness addressed, Cleary wants Cork to be ruthless in big game’s major moments

THE day Cork’s 2022 campaign ended, John Cleary was already laying down the law for the following season.

On June 25th, 2022, Cork footballers were dumped out of the All-Ireland series after a 0-21 to 0-10 quarter-final defeat to Dublin. Half time that day, Cork trailed by three, but the Dubs pulled away in the second half. It had been a similar story against Kerry in the Munster semi-final the previous month – Cork were within a point after 51 minutes, but ended up losing by 12, 0-23 to 0-11.

Cleary identified those alarming fade outs as one of the key areas to address.

‘We said to the lads last year, after we finished up against Dublin, that if they wanted to be part of the panel going forward then they had to come back in good shape starting off,’ Cleary told The Southern Star.

‘When the 2022 season finished, there was continuity with the management team in place quickly. We have the same strength and conditioning guys who, in fairness, did a great job over the closed season, working out programmes for all the lads. They came back in very good shape for the start of the season. We had a good pre-season, and that’s why we are able to go the full 70 minutes this year.’

Ruairi Deane is one of the Cork survivors from the last time the Rebels met Mayo in the championship. The Connacht side won a qualifier classic in 2017 at the Gaelic Grounds, scraping a 0-27 to 2-20 win. Ian Maguire, Sean Powter and John O'Rourke all started that game.

Evidence of this was Cork’s recent All-Ireland senior football championship Group 1 game with Kerry at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Cleary’s charges went toe-to-toe with the All-Ireland champions for the full game, with Kerry just holding on to win by two points; that was a marked improvement from 12 months earlier. Fitness levels are better, the Cork boss says, and that will help his team go stride for stride with the elite. Now Cleary wants his Rebels to be more clinical in front of the posts, with Mayo in their crosshairs this Sunday afternoon at the Gaelic Grounds (2pm) in the final round of games in Group 1 of the All-Ireland championship.

‘Any team that is trying to progress or get up to the level that we want to get to, when the opportunity presents itself, you have to take it, and that means taking the scores when they are on. Unfortunately, we didn’t convert our chances against Kerry,’ Cleary says of the 1-14 to 0-15 loss that was notable for some poor Cork wides, especially in the second half where Kerry looked vulnerable.

‘That was frustrating,’ the Cork boss agrees, ‘We had worked so hard and done a lot of good things, but our execution, on five or six occasions, left us down. It wasn’t that we were shooting from bad angles, they were probably scores that we should be getting; that was the most frustrating part, that we didn’t get those scores.

Given Cork kicked 1-19 against Louth and 0-15 against Kerry, it’s not that the Rebels aren’t scoring. The fact is they are. They were also top scorers in Division 2 of the league. What lets them down is their ruthlessness against quality opposition; they must be more clinical in the pressure moments.

‘We have been doing it in training and we do think we are improving, but the real test is can you do it on the big day when the pressure is on?’ Cleary mused.

‘In fairness, it’s not that we are missing everything. We are scoring well enough, and it’s a good thing that we are creating a lot, but we’re not converting all the chances.

‘We are converting a certain percentage, but it’s the chances that we are missing at vital stages of games that are letting us down and costing us results, particularly against the bigger and better teams.’

The next chance to change that record is against table-toppers Mayo who have beaten both Kerry and Louth in their opening two Group 1 games. They are also Division 1 champions. This is another opportunity for Cork to test their progress against a Division 1 outfit, and with Cork’s championship fate on the line, there is jeopardy to this Sunday’s meeting.

‘This is a great challenge for us,’ Cleary said.

‘We have to concentrate on ourselves, on our own performance. At times we did okay against Kerry and we need to build on that while cutting out the missed chances and giving away scores we shouldn’t give away. This is all a process.

‘As we are looking at it now, we could finish first, second, third or fourth in the group; it’s that tight.

‘All we can focus on is the 70 minutes, hopefully we can get a performance, then the result will look after itself. If we are good enough, great. If not, a defeat on Sunday could leave us with a third place so we have to dust ourselves down and go again the following week.’

INJURY NEWS: Conor Corbett and Tommy Walsh have been rated as ‘50/50’ chances to face Mayo, according to Cleary. Both forward Corbett and defender Walsh missed the loss to Kerry last time out with hamstring injuries, but could be in line for recalls if they come through this week unscathed. Meanwhile, Cork defender Sean Meehan will not feature for Cork again in this campaign. ‘Sean had an operation last week and he is out for the rest of the championship,’ Cleary confirmed.