It's do or die for Cork ladies footballers in All-Ireland championship

It’s do or die for the Cork senior ladies footballers as they take on Waterford in the TG4 All-Ireland championship tomorrow night.

Throw in at Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field, Dungarvan, is at 7.30pm and will be live on TG4.

Last Saturday Cork lost to Armagh in their opening group game and another loss tomorrow night will see them exit the championship at the group stages.

That is a very likely scenario as they take on a Waterford team that beat them comprehensively in the Munster championship a few weeks ago.

The Deise were then very unlucky to lose to Kerry in the Munster final afterwards and are considered one of the favourites to win the All-Ireland this year.

They have been threatening to make the breakthrough for some time and with the squad they have put together over the last few years are a match for any team on their day.

They will also have the bonus of going into the game fresh as they were not in action last weekend and had the chance to look at Cork and Armagh.

They won’t have spent too much time looking at the Rebels as they will be well familiar with their side, but no doubt they will have been impressed by the Ulster side, who they travel to play a week later.

But for now, the concentration of both sides will be on tomorrow night as Cork find themselves with their backs to the walls.

But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Cork can get a win and give themselves a chance of making it out of the group stages.

Cork manager Joe Carroll admitted that it will be a tough as of his side but also pointed out that Cork beat them in the league before that Munster championship loss.

“Anybody neutral will be saying Waterford are hot favourites,” Carroll said. “We’ve played them twice, in the league game here (Páirc Ui Rinn) and in the Munster championship as well. They beat us comprehensively the second day. “Look, we must get our own house in order. The Waterford game will take care of itself if we can play a full 60-minute game. “We haven’t been doing that for even 50 minutes. In a lot of games, we’ve been playing well in the first half. The Kerry game, we were reasonable in the first half. Second half we weren’t.

“Against Armagh, we were very poor in the first half, but we were good in the second half despite not taking all our chances.

“If we’d taken our chances with the two goals, we could probably have been ahead with seven or eight minutes to go.
“Look, that didn’t happen and the only thing we can do about it now is go forward again.”

Speaking about Waterford Carroll added: “I suppose they know us quite well at this stage. So, I don’t think there’s too much of an advantage to anybody. Dungarvan isn’t that far down the road, so we won’t have that much travelling to do.”

What they will have to do is get their game plan right in what is going to be a tough night for Cork.

Since their league final win over Galway the Rebels have yet to win a game, losing in the Munster championship to Tipperary, Waterford and Kerry.

Add in the loss to Armagh and Cork as looking to end a four-game losing streak, which is not easy to do.

It’s a night they will need their experienced players to stand up and be counted as they have done many times before.

Players like Shauna Kelly, Melissa Duggan, Sadbh McGoldrick, Rachel Leahy, Emma Cleary and Katie Quirke know all about winning in situations like this and they will need to lead by example from the start.

Add in others like Abbie O’Mahony, Leah Hallahan, Grace Murphy and Rosie Corkery and there is plenty of talent in this Cork side that can go there and win.

Waterford are not short quality players either, with Rebecca Casey, Eve Power, Kellyann Hogan, Kate Murray and Brid McMaugh just some of those they can call on.

Emma Murray came back from Australia for the Munster final, where she is in pre-season Aussie rules training, but it is unlikely that will happen for this tie.

They will want to get the win to secure their spot in the knockout stages before they make that trip up north.

So the Rebels are up against it but write then off at your peril.

WATERFORD: K Gardner; C Murray, L Mulcahy, R Casey; L Cusack, K McGrath, R Browne; E Power, Á O'Neill; M Daly, K Hogan, K Murray (capt.); C Walsh, B McMaugh, L McGregor.

CORK: S Murphy; M Duggan, S Kelly, S Callanan; A Corcoran, S McGoldrick, R Corkery; M O Callaghan, A O Mahony; R Leahy, R O Regan, E Cleary (capt.); G Murphy, K Quirke, A O’Sullivan.