Seán McDonnell revels in promotion as Cork finally return to Division 1

Cork forward Seán McDonnell put promotion down to the strength of the squad as the Rebels finally return to Division 1 after a ten-year absence.

The Leesiders defeated Tyrone in Round 7 of the Allianz Division 2 Football League at O’Neills Healy Park on Sunday afternoon, which in the process sealed their return to the top-tier.

“Division 1 is where Cork football should be, ten years is just too long,” McDonnell said after the great 0-22 to 0-19 win over Tyrone.

“There’s a great squad there and I know last year things didn’t go our way in the league and we were probably fighting relegation on the last day. So to come up here today, to be going for promotion in the first place, it was just about coming here and enjoying it.

“There could be all the pressure in the world on you but I think we were only one of three teams in the whole country on ten points coming into Round 7. We had to relish that and come up here and play the football we know we can play and look, we’re over the moon.” 

Cork, despite leading by a point at half-time having played against the wind, were two points down at one point in the second half. It looked like it was going to be another day where the Rebels would be on the wrong side of fine margins.

But this group are made of stern stuff.

“We actually went through different scenarios coming into this game,” McDonnell says.

“If we were two points up with two minutes to go, what are we going to do? And to be fair, David Buckley came on there, his first play of the game, won a kick-out. That’s just huge. It’s a squad game, when a fella is coming on and you know that he’s going to be able to do that, that was the winning of the game.

“It’s just unbelievable, we ended up going up the other side and getting a point, finishing off the game really. It’s a great achievement, we know how tough Division 2 is. It’s no joke and I know we want to be in Division 1 but Division 2 has definitely stood to us.

“But we’re happy to be out of there at the same time. To come up here, especially after the Derry game, coming up north to get a win and put in a performance from minute one to minute 70 was brilliant.” 

It’s always tough to win in the north as Cork know well. Considering they lost by 20 points against Derry at Find Insurance Celtic Park at the start of the month, it has been some turnaround as that could have been a very damaging loss.

The Rebels brushed Kildare aside at home and then dug deep to defeat Tyrone on their own patch.

“It wasn’t a case of just a bad performance, it was just a day where we didn’t show up and there was no real fire in the belly,” McDonnell said on the defeat to Derry.

"I think in every single game this year we’ve come with that real aggression. It just wasn’t us against Derry. If you look at our season as a whole from pre-season to now, that’s the one blip. We said that’s the outlier.

“Six wins out of seven games should always be good enough to get you promoted and we have achieved it.

“There’s no one out there for themselves. We’re all in it for each other.” 

The Rebels now face Meath in the league final on Sunday in Croke Park (1.45pm). A chance for the Leesiders to lift major silverware.

“My only game in Croke Park was against Dublin last year and unfortunately we lost. When I was young, what you dream of was playing in Croke Park.

“Going into the league final, you want to go up there and win it. We’re going to prepare this week the same way we would for every game this year. Just go and enjoy it again.

“We’ve earned that. We’ve earned the chance to go and enjoy it and show what we can do up on the biggest stage.”