Cork ladies footballers head to Kerry with slim chance of making Munster final
Cork Maire O'Callaghan is tackled by Waterford's Laura Mulcahy during their TG4 Munster LGFA Senior Championship clash at Páirc Ui Rinn. O'Callaghan scored an early goal for Cork, but it wasn't enough to see them win as they look for their first victory in their Munster campaign on Sunday. Picture: Jim Coughlan
Cork head to Killarney on Sunday for their final group game in the TG4 Munster Senior A ladies football championship.
They take on the Kingdom at 11.45am at Fitzgerald Stadium, in a game that, in theory, both sides can reach the decider. A win for Kerry and it would be enough for them to progress to defend their title, provided Waterford beat Tipperary.
However, a different series of results could see Cork have a slight chance of making the final.
If Waterford win and, to make 100% sure of reaching the final for the second year in a row, they must then it opens the door slightly for the Rebels. That would put Waterford on six points and top of the pile.
Tipp would be on two points, and if Cork beat Kerry, then both would also be on two points.
Because there would be three teams involved, it would then go to scoring difference, rather than the head-to-head, if it was only two sides.
So the rule that applies states: Where more than two teams are level on points the following shall apply: The placing will be decided by score difference i.e. score remaining when all scores for team throughout the championship are added together (points will have a value of one whilst goals will have a value of three points) and all scores conceded are subtracted from that number.
Going into Sunday’s games, both Tipp and Kerry are on zero, as they have scored and conceded the same amount. But Cork are on -13, which means they have a big deficit to make up.
So, to have any chance of making the final, Cork must hope Waterford win, and secondly, they must beat Kerry by at least 14 points on Sunday. The former is certainly possible, but to beat Kerry by that margin at Killarney would take a performance of the season for Cork.
But in their two Munster championship matches to date, they have fallen below the high standards they set for themselves.
These players won’t need anyone outside the squad to be telling them that, and they will have been hurt by their performance against Tipp and Waterford.
The first priority for Cork is to get back to, and improve on, some of the outstanding displays they put in during the league, and not worry about the result.
Have no doubt, performance and putting in a far better one than the last two games will be the main focus of manager Joe Carroll and all involved come Sunday.
He will know that beating Kerry by that margin is an extremely difficult task, so he won’t even think about that.
He will be much more interested in ensuring his side put in a performance to see them on the right road for the weeks ahead for the All-Ireland championship.
C Richmond; M Duggan, D Kiniry, S Kelly; A Corcoran, S McGoldrick, R Corkery; M O’Callaghan, A O’Mahony; R Leahy, G Murphy, E Cleary; R O’Regan, K Quirke, Á O’Sullivan.
C Forde; N Kennedy, E Cooney (capt.), E Tarrant; A O'Sullivan, M Beausang, K O'Donovan; A McDonagh, R Murphy; M Leahy, N Sheehan, A McTaggart; S Pattwell, H Quirke, C Dooley.
A Toye; O Drummey, K Goulding, A Cooper; M McRae, L Carey, A McKeogh; S Cunningham, M Collins; A Buckley, B Smith, C Ní Thúama; C Horgan, C Fitzgerald, H Sheehy.
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