Cork minor football: Micheál O'Sullivan backs team to bounce back against Mayo

FOUR weeks on from the bitter disappointment of the heavy Electric Ireland Munster MFC final loss, Cork manager Micheál ‘Haulie’ O’Sullivan has no doubt in the ability and character of his side to bounce back.

The Rebels face Connacht champions Mayo in Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final at Cusack Park in Ennis (4.30pm). Everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong, for Cork in the provincial decider against the Kingdom at Páirc Uí Rinn as the home team lost 2-18 to 1-6.

Having that month’s break probably was a good thing and O’Sullivan has been pleased with the response on the training ground.

“It has been a process of getting back on the horse really in recent weeks,” he says.

The first week after the Kerry game was tough on the players, it was tough on us, it was tough on everyone. 

"The players would have been doubting themselves after the match. I don’t think it was a true reflection of the ability in the squad. Obviously you would be questioning yourself after a defeat like that but when you’re in the GAA circles, everyone has been there, and it’s a case of getting back to training and start preparing again.

“We have a second chance now. There would have been nothing worse to finish the season on the note we would have to finish on in Páirc Uí Rinn that evening. It would have sent the players away in a poor state of mind. We went back training on the Friday, and we trained hard again on the Sunday.”

It was a chastening experience against Kerry. After all, Cork did beat Clare the week previous in the semi-final in what was a strong showing in Quilty as they won 1-13 to 0-8.

“We expected a far, far, better performance from our players than what we got against Kerry,” the Carbery Rangers club man said.

“We did watch it back obviously and we did learn a lot of things, but we know this squad has more ability than what they showed that evening and we will hope that they will show that now against Mayo.”

TALENTED

Speaking of Mayo, that’s the next challenge now for the Leesiders in what will be a very difficult assignment against a team who have been in impressive form this season. Mayo beat Roscommon in their provincial final two weeks ago on a scoreline of 0-14 to 0-10.

“We have come across this particular Mayo team over the past few years,” O’Sullivan said.

“They are a very, very talented squad and have some star players. I watched the Connacht final, Roscommon really put it up to Mayo but probably ran out of a bit of gas and made a few errors that let Mayo run away from them. Roscommon showed that they are a high-quality team, but Mayo would be one of the top teams around.

“We won’t be looking at favouritism or anything like that. We will be looking to deliver a performance that we are capable of. The biggest let down in the last match against Kerry was that our basics left us down. 

We didn’t work hard enough, didn’t support our teammates, didn’t do well on breaking balls, and didn’t do enough on the tackle count. 

"You can have all the plans you want but if you’re not up to the mark in terms of work rate and all those things, the plans go out the window.

“We have to get our basics right now against Mayo if anything else is going to work. The players are a very good bunch of lads, they want to do their best for the Cork jersey, and they want to represent the Cork jersey with pride. 

"They were very hurt after the defeat to Kerry, and it was an eye opener for all of us. We are looking forward to this challenge and ready to give it our all.”