Cleary expecting tough battle
Thursday March 11 2010
CORK Under 21 boss John Cleary is expecting an all out assault on his team by Kerry in next Saturday's Munster Under 21 quarter-final clash in Austin Stack Park. The Kingdom are still smarting from the beating imposed on them at the same round of the competition by Cleary's charges. The Cork boss, however, feels that what happened last year won't affect what happens at the weekend in Tralee.
"What happened in 2009 is all done and dusted now as far as we are concerned, and, to all intents and purposes, a new year brings a new team, because fellas tend to come in and out of form at this time of the year, and you have to focus on the present.
" To get a victory in Austin Stack Park will be no small order, because if you look back at u-21 games between Cork and Kerry over the years, away victories are very much a rarity. But we will be drilling it into the lads that a pitch is a pitch, and maybe the experience running through the team will stand to us," the Cork boss told The Corkman.
This is a Cork side brimming with talent and experience and while Aidan Walsh is considered a doubt the Cork boss feels his experience could be a vital commodity if he's fit to start.
"Aidan Walsh and Ciaran Sheehan are involved in the Cork senior set-up at the moment, and we are hoping the newcomers like Rory O'Sullivan at the back, who was a minor last year and is a tremendous prospect, will come up to the mark.
" We believe we have achieved a good balance, and if the lads perform as well as they have been going in training, and we get the bit of luck on the day, I feel we could be in with a shout," Cleary said.
Having named his team for the clash with the Rebels on Tuesday night Kerry boss John Kennedy is looking to the game in confident frame of mind.
"It's a Munster final for us. We're playing Cork, the Munster and All Ireland champions, they have thirteen or so of last year's panel available to them and we have to be prepared for that.
" What happens afterwards, we're not looking beyond that. Sixty minutes and we could be gone. We have to be ready, mentally and physically for that game," he said this week.
- Noel Horgan
