Cork v Donegal: Away days crucial to footballers' promotion hopes

BALLYBOFEY and Marseilles would not normally have much in common, but for the Cork footballers and the Irish rugby team these destinations will probably have a similar feel over the next couple of weekends.

Andy Farrell’s Ireland will open their Six Nations title defence against France in the cauldron that is the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles next Friday, while John Cleary’s Cork side make the long trip to Ballybofey in deep Donegal for the opening round of Division 2 of the league on Sunday, in what are on paper probably the most difficult matches for both sides in their respective campaigns.

One feels that if both sides could open their campaigns with huge wins on the road that these wins could end up being the beginning of something huge for each respective team.

Cork are first to test their credentials, with their meeting with Jim McGuinness’ side occurring at MacCumhaill Park on Sunday.

The return of the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager has got Donegal buzzing again, with the expectancy being that they will be ‘winning matches’ under his tenure once more.

McGuinness’ charges lost the McKenna Cup decider to Mickey Harte’s Derry last Saturday by 0-12 to 0-6, but you have to fancy the winners of Sunday’s encounter to be hot favourites for promotion for next year.

The home team will start as slight favourites to get the second McGuinness era off to a flyer, but Cork won’t be making that long trip north just to be the sacrificial lambs to the homecoming of the prodigal son.

Cork look like they are trying to get more scoring power into the forward line this year after spending the guts of the past few seasons trying to make themselves hard to beat.

The defensive structure looks well established now, and it is time to go to the next level and get the scoring rate up to a level that could match the top counties.

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In saying that, the defence might actually get even stronger this year. Kevin Flahive and Sean Meehan will feel like new signings to the Cork management, while it looks like Sean Powter is being considered as a defender again.

With the likes of Darragh Cashman also emerging, this means that there is no shortage of defensive options this year, with real competition for places now.

It feels similar up front with Chris Óg Jones, Conor Corbett, and Eoghan McSweeney looking more comfortable at this level now, and Brian O’Driscoll and Ruairi Deane are now over 12 months into their second lives as Cork footballers, while the likes of David Buckley, Blake Murphy, and Mark Cronin look like they can make real contributions this year.

Dare I say it, for the first time in a long time, it feels like the Cork squad has real depth.

Cork look to have taken a significant step forward in terms of general fitness and in the strength and conditioning department.

And with Knocknagree goalkeeper Patrick Doyle looking the part in the role of sweeper-keeper, Cork looked more like a modern inter-county side in the McGrath Cup final win over Kerry at the weekend, albeit it wasn’t the strongest of Kerry selections for the fixture at Páirc Uí Rinn.

If Cork are to make the leap up to Division 1 this year then they are going to have to do it by winning on the road.

Four of their seven fixtures are away, with a visit to Louth next week being followed by further away days to Fermanagh and Meath.

Cork will obviously hope to win the home ties against Cavan, Kildare, and Armagh, but they will need big wins outside of Cork too, as in the past two years the teams that have gotten promoted have all won six out of seven league ties, bar Roscommon two years ago, and even then they won five and drew two of their games.

This shows that there is not a whole lot of leeway in terms of earning promotion, hence why a win in Round 1 is so vital. It certainly would be no great surprise if these two teams were to meet again later in the spring in the Division 2 decider at Croke Park.

You would certainly expect Sunday’s winner to be there anyway.