IT may not have been a vintage performance from Cork in their Division 2 opener against Cavan but the result influences the narrative heading to Louth this weekend.

John Cleary’s men got the job done – eventually – to edge past Cavan and put two points on the board ahead of an away trip to Integral GAA Grounds in Drogheda (1.30pm) this Sunday.

The target now is to back up that opening-round win with a second victory on the bounce. Cork boss John Cleary knows this.

‘It was small margins. On another day, we would have been coming out of here licking our wounds but we have done that in the past,’ Cleary explained after their narrow 0-24 to 2-17 win over Cavan.

‘Any day you don’t play to your potential and get a victory, there is a lot to work on. We’ll go back to the drawing board and go on to Louth.’

This is only the third time in the last ten seasons that the Rebels have won their opening league game, the others being to Offaly in Division 3 (2020) and Meath last year.

Also worth noting that unlike 2023 and 2024, Cork backed up a McGrath Cup win with an opening day league victory.

‘I even said recently, the last time we won the McGrath Cup, we lost the first round and it looked like it was going to be three in a row for a long time. Thrilled to get the two points. We can work on the performance part of it,’ the Cork boss said.

‘Hopefully the next day we can improve. Louth is a very tough place to go to but it’s a little bit easier with two points in the bag.’

Louth are also off the back of an opening day win after beating Offaly (1-21 to 0-19) away from home. The last two times Cork played in Ardee, they lost – 1-10 to 0-10 in 2023 and 2-9 to 0-13 in 2024.

The Wee County won the Leinster championship for the first time in 68 years last term, and had 11 different scorers in their opening-round victory last weekend. All-Star from 2024 Craig Lennon is one to watch, having hit 0-5 against Offaly, while marksman Sam Mulroy scored their goal.

To try and curb Louth’s threats, the Cork manager will be looking for improvements defensively. Conceding two goals against Cavan was a worry.

‘We wouldn’t have been happy at all conceding 2-17,’ he insisted.

‘I thought for the second half we had most of the ball. A couple of times, we had poor shot selection, poor passing and they were picking off scores. Then we had the breach. It looked like it wasn’t going to be our day.

‘The pleasing thing about it is when it looked like it wasn’t going to be there, fellas stood up and were counted and we drove on.’

If anything can be taken from week one, it shows Division 2 is as unpredictable as ever. Take the two teams relegated from Division 1 – Tyrone drew at home to Kildare (2-16 to 1-19) and could have easily lost while Derry fell to Meath (1-13 to 0-19).

As Cork head into their first away trip of the league campaign, they will look to build momentum with another win.

‘We had targeted the Cavan game once the draw was made. Having said that, I’m sure Tyrone were targeting beating Kildare at home and it didn’t happen. All the teams in this division are very competitive. Every game was going to be very competitive but the first game was a game we targeted. That we should be winning at home because we have a few tough away days coming up down the line,’ Cleary said.