Cork minors ready for renewed Kerry challenge as Keith Ricken stresses focus

Cork will look to back up their strong group-stage showing when they face Kerry once more in the Electric Ireland Munster MFC final at Páirc Uí Rinn on Monday (7.35pm). 

The sides met only a couple of weeks ago in Tralee, where the Rebels produced an impressive 10-point win, but manager Keith Ricken has been quick to play down any suggestion that the result gives his team an edge heading into the decider.

For Ricken, the past counts for nothing.

"When it’s done, it’s done,” he said on their win over Kerry at Austin Stack Park. 

“You’re moving on to the next thing. 

You’re only as good as your next game is going to be. There’ll be talk because we won down there that there’s going to be pressure on us. 

"I think we’ve earned that right to have pressure on us. Maybe we’re slight favourites in someone’s eyes — I’m not so sure. 

"I don’t think with young lads you can have favourites. Every day is different and every opportunity is different.” 

Kerry, he insists, will be a far tougher proposition in a final. He has huge respect for their set-up and the football people behind it with Marc Ó Sé the manager. 

“They have a good management, good experienced football men down there. They’ll be good, they’ll be up for it, and they’ll be organised. They will want to improve on the last day against us. And if the shoe was on the other foot, we would too.

FOCUSED

“It’ll be very important for us to do our bits and pieces right, to make sure we get our own house in order. There’s no mention of Kerry or anybody we’re playing — we just concentrate on what we’re doing.

"These games do take on a life of their own. It’s a lovely opportunity for a young lad to say he played in a Cork and Kerry match. And it’s probably a greater thing if he can say he played in a victorious team.” 

But even with the rivalry and the occasion, Ricken keeps returning to the bigger picture. Cork are already assured of an All-Ireland quarter-final place, and he wants his team arriving there with momentum.

“We’ll be going into an All-Ireland quarter-final and we don’t want to be going in there with problems. We’d like to be going in with solutions. We want to be ready for it.

"We must try to make the environment about the players. 

It’s their experience. They’re only young boys, not men. 

"I’d say we probably had 28 or 29 players who have played championship in Munster this year for Cork, which is a good achievement. Some young lads too — they’ll be here next year as well. We're in a good spot."