Cork v Donegal: Rebels looking to make the most of Páirc Uí Rinn

DUE to the Bruce Springsteen concert that took place at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh two weeks ago, Saturday’s intriguing All-Ireland SFC Group 3 Round 2 clash will be played at Cork's secondary venue.

The meeting of Cork and Donegal hasn't happened very often in the history of the GAA. The sides have met four times in championship, with both teams winning twice, but all of those games were played at Croke Park.

Home advantage does count for something and John Cleary and his management team will hope that is the case at the smaller surroundings of Páirc Uí Rinn. The decision to play the match at the Boreenmanna Road venue didn’t happen in recent weeks, it was known as far back as last November that this would be happening and despite not playing down the Páirc, Cork will be quite happy to be playing at Páirc Uí Rinn.

The Rebels are very familiar with the pitch as they do train there regularly so that won’t be a problem. There will be a better atmosphere generated and a tighter ground could play into Cork’s hands too.

REPEAT

Saturday’s match, which has a 2.30pm throw-in time, will be only the fifth championship clash between Cork and Donegal. The first was back in 2006 in the All-Ireland quarter-final which the Leesiders won by a point. They would collide at the same stage of the Sam Maguire three years later, this time it was a rout as the Rebels prevailed on a scoreline of 1-27 to 2-10.

Donegal have got the upper hand in the last two championship encounters, in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, 0-16 to 1-11 on the way to winning the All-Ireland title and in 2016, in the All-Ireland qualifiers as the green and gold had three points to spare, 0-21 to 1-15.

The most recent league meeting was only four months ago at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey as Donegal ran out easy winners in the opening Allianz Division 2 football league match of the season, 1-20 to 2-6.

Saturday won’t be the first time that Donegal will have played at Páirc Uí Rinn. The counties locked horns back in 2019 with the away side coming out on top on a scoreline of 1-19 to 1-12. The teams went in opposite directions that year, Donegal got promoted to Division 1 while Cork got relegated to the third-tier of the league pyramid.

Páirc Uí Rinn does have a good name when it comes to generating an atmosphere with the stands very close to the pitch. In John Cleary’s first championship game initially as interim Cork boss before later taking it full-time, was against Kerry in the 2022 Munster championship semi-final at Páirc Uí Rinn.

There was a near full house that day including Roy Keane, and the general feeling was that it was one of the best atmospheres at the stadium. 

The Rebels were well in the game for about 50 minutes before Kerry pulled away to win by 12 points. But it can be an intimidating venue and Cork have come a long way under Cleary’s tenure since that loss two years ago.

There’s no doubt about it, the Leesiders have a better advantage against Donegal at the Boreenmanna Road venue than they would have in the big house around the corner. They will be looking to make it count.