Imokilly advance, but Denis Ring welcomes the battle Muskerry brought

Imokilly got there in the end. The Denis O’Riordan Cup headed to east Cork with a quarter-final place booked, but for 45 minutes Muskerry had them in an uncomfortable position.

Imokilly manager Denis Ring stood in Páirc Uí Rinn afterwards, pleased more by the examination than the scoreboard itself.

“Delighted with it,” he said. “Because look, Muskerry really put it up to us, and we really struggled with them I think for 45 minutes or that way, in a real physical game. They were very athletic and very strong.

“They posed problems for us with their physicality and I must say, I was very impressed with them. But equally, so I was delighted in the way our lads turned it around and responded very well, and they showed a lot composure at key moments.

RESPONSE

“I think Muskerry brought it back to a point or two on a number of occasions, and each time we responded very quickly and that's a good sign of a team and our lads kind of upped it a little bit from there.

“The gap went from about two to six or seven within a five or six minute spell there, which, reflects very well in the lads.” 

It was no great spectacle for the neutral. The drizzle and the grey skies pressed down on Páirc Uí Rinn and the game never truly lit. Imokilly looked likely winners, but the issue was that they never really shook Muskerry off until the final quarter.

Twice in the first half they were almost caught. The first, a rare mistake from goalkeeper Eoin Davis, the second, a golden opportunity from Seán O’Neill that would have left it level at the break.

Ring knew those moments were turning points.

“I suppose there was once or twice they had a couple of goal opportunities and I suppose when they didn't take them, it gave us that opportunity to go down and recover from it.

“But I suppose we were let off the hook a couple of times by a couple of misses they had. At the same time, I thought some of our point taking, while we’d a number of wides, some of our point taking was excellent.

“Working the ball into the guy in a better position was really good,” he explained. “In the first half, we rushed in a few times.

“Part of the wides tally is down to their good defending. It’s easy to be critical of your own team, but you have to praise the opposition too when wides happen.” 

It had been a disjointed build up for Muskerry, but Ring was in no way surprised at the challenge they posed.

“Not really, I’m a Muskerry man!” he said. “I won a Dick Barrett Sheild and a Liam Lyne Cup with Muskerry at underage level, I know the athletes that are in Muskerry.

“I also appreciate that Diarmuid Kirwan would have put in an awful work with them and would know them well and off the pitch have the homework done. I thought it was a real battle, a really good game from our point of view, it was everything we wanted if you were to advance to a quarter-final. It was testing.”