Cork must sharpen clinical edge to take next step

JOHN Cleary doesn’t need a Kerryman telling him what he already knows after Cork lost to the old enemy, but former Footballer of the Year James O’Donoghue did anyway.

‘Cork need to get better shooters on the field. You can’t do all that running to go up the field and kick it wide,’ the former Kerry forward says.

O’Donoghue was pointing at Cork’s missed chances that left Kerry off the hook at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Poor shot selection. Some awful execution – Chris Óg Jones’ wide in the first half springs to mind. And poor execution – three second-half frees in a row from Brian Hurley (2) and Steven Sherlock to ratchet up the pressure on Kerry were all pulled wide. Shots dropped short too. That penalty aside, Cork missed an opportunity to humble the neighbours because they missed so many scoring opportunities. (GAA Statsman on social media recorded Cork’s scoring conversion rate at 62 percent, with Kerry at 78 percent)

It’s a familiar theme of John Cleary post-match press briefings this year: Cork don’t take enough of their scoring opportunities.

Kerry, meanwhile, did.

‘We missed too many scores,’ Cleary admits.

‘We had five or six wides in the second half, Kerry had one. That’s the difference. They are a top team and we are trying to get there. It was an opportunity today we had but unfortunately we didn’t take it.

‘Take the penalty out of it, we had enough chances to get over the line but unfortunately we didn’t.’

Cleary pointed to Kerry’s greater composure at times, and how their experience told. This is a developing Cork team that, at times, lacks that poise and experience to beat Division 1 standard teams. During the second half Cork, getting on top, won a free in front of the South Stand, Brian O’Driscoll, instead of taking a breath, rushed his pass and sent it straight to a Kerry player. It left Cleary frustrated on the sideline, and O’Driscoll acknowledged the mistake. Little moments that all add up.

This team is on a learning curve, but they need to learn their lessons too. If Cork continue to squander chances against the game’s elite, they’ll forever be looking up at them. There were times in the first half too when Cork, probing for the weak spots in the Kerry defence, didn’t pull the trigger when they could have.

The impact of Steven Sherlock and Eoghan McSweeney off the bench was notable as they kicked 0-2 each, but the absence of Cathail O’Mahony and Conor Corbett (both injured) must also be noted; they are two of the best young forwards in the county.

‘If we don’t take our opportunities and take our scores against the better teams, it will come back to bite us,’ Cleary agreed.

‘In the league we weren’t as prolific in scoring as we could have been, but at least we are creating the chances. Hopefully someday it will all come together. It will need to against one of the big teams. When you get your opportunities against the big teams you have to take them because they will take theirs, like Kerry did in the second half when the pressure was on.’

Cork have the threat, but need to be more clinical. They have scored 1-34 in their two Group 1 games, were the top scorers in Division 2 of the league, but they still need more to reach the next level and take down one of the big guns.

‘If Cork could just focus on kicking from a little further out, like Sherlock and McSweeney did in the second half, I think that will be a huge improvement for them,’ James O’Donoghue added, not that it’s new information for John Cleary. He knows Cork need to be more clinical; he has been telling us all season long.