Ronayne confident West Cork fans will support Rebels in must-win encounter in Ahamilla

CORK boss Shane Ronayne is confident West Cork will come out in force to support his charges in their must-not-lose championship game on Saturday afternoon.

The Rebels manager is bringing his Munster championship-winning team back to Clonakilty for the second time in less than two months – and he is backing the local fans to play their part in a crunch game.

Cork head into this TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship Group 4 round three game against Tipperary (who lost to table-toppers Galway last weekend, 4-10 to 3-4) in Ahamilla (2pm) needing to avoid a loss to progress to the quarter-finals. It’s all on the line, given Cork lost their opening group game away to Galway (3-11 to 1-11).

‘We are hoping for a West Cork crowd to come out and get behind us again,’ Ronayne told The Southern Star.

‘It was a great day against Waterford in May, and hopefully we get that crowd to cheer us on; it makes a difference to the players, to hear that support from the fans. You could hear the home support getting behind Galway and I’m confident we will get a big crowd in Ahamilla again.

‘Clonakilty and the West Cork LGFA are putting in a huge effort to make sure we get as many as we can to Ahamilla on Saturday.’

A packed Ahamilla was the perfect host for the clash of Cork and Waterford in May. (Photo: David Ribeiro)

In their recent visit to Clon, Cork beat Waterford 2-10 to 0-4 in the Munster championship, and another home win against Tipperary would be enough to send the Rebels into the last eight of the competition, albeit as Group 4 runners-up so Cork will be away in the quarter-finals. To get there, Ronayne’s team need to be in Tipp-top shape to clear a tricky hurdle. When these two met in the Munster championship in April, Cork had just three points to spare in Cahir, 1-17 to 1-14 – Eimear Kiely, Doireann O’Sullivan and Ciara O’Sullivan were Cork’s top scorers.

‘There are no second chances now,’ the Cork boss pointed out.

‘As disappointed as we were with the result against Galway, we knew that if you win one game in your group you have a huge chance of going through to the next stage.

‘This is a huge game on Saturday. It is knock-out football. Given what I have seen at training since we played Galway, the players are very determined, they have put aside everything else, and they will be ready for.

‘We are working hard to make sure that the mistakes made against Galway won’t be repeated against Tipperary.’

In the immediate aftermath of the loss to Galway, Ronyane branded the Cork performance as ‘flat’. He sticks by that. The distraction of the dual issue in the week leading up to the championship opener didn’t help. Perhaps the emphatic Munster final win against Kerry played a part, too. Everyone is in agreement that more is needed against Tipp.

‘It was a flat performance by everyone, and the big thing is that it wasn’t a knock-out game and we have the chance to right the wrongs of it,’ says Ronayne who is looking for more consistency within games, as well as from game to game.

‘It’s something that we have looked at within games. We had a very good first half against Kerry, a relatively poor third quarter that day and were okay in the last quarter. We have spoken a lot about consistency within the game,’ he explained.

‘There are a few reasons why. We have some inexperienced players new to high standard inter-county football. A lot of our more experienced players were not consistent in their performance against Galway. All those bits that we have worked on for the last 18 months, they are all in the locker and the players need to take them out, and keep calm.

‘There was an element of panic against Galway in the second half, we still had time to get scores when we were a few points down, we went for goals too early; it was systematic of the performance on the day. We didn't use our heads on the pitch and on the sideline, and we are rectifying that for the next day.’

The plan is for an improved Cork to take a step forward on Saturday, roared on by its West Cork support.