Cork manager Cork Counihan backs Dublin to win league title

First call to Conor Counihan yesterday evening and turns out he's “gone to the shops”. Only natural, given it’s the first time in five years his Cork team aren’t involved in the play-off stages of the Allianz Football League. What else would he be doing?

Second call and turns out he’s not so idle at all, his mind already turned to the championship, and Cork’s Munster quarter-final showdown against Limerick, just six weeks away. “I just thought I would have slipped under the radar for a couple of weeks,” he says, followed by a big laugh.

Yet Counihan talks away about Sunday’s semi-finals – Tyrone against Kildare, followed by Dublin against Mayo – with an obvious mix of emotions: of course he’d love to be out there with them, but you can’t win all the time, and chances are Cork will meet one or more of these teams sooner rather than later.

Viewpoint
It's not like Cork haven't had a good run at it. Sunday's one-point defeat to Mayo ultimately squeezed them out of the hunt for what would have been a fourth successive Division One title (or indeed fifth in all, if the 2009 Division Two title is included). His thoughts on the outcome of Sunday's games is perhaps partly influenced by the fact Cork beat both Dublin (in 2011) and Mayo (in 2010 and last year) to claim those last three titles, yet mostly by what he's seen so far this season.

“Well if you were looking at all four teams left in there I think you would have to say Dublin have been the most consistent, so far, this season. I think they have good strength and depth, good competition for places, and that’s exactly what you want going into games like this.

“But they’ll be no different to any of the other three teams in that it depends on how well they’re up for it, how much they apply themselves, because Mayo certainly won’t make it easy, that’s for sure.”

Dublin beat Cork in round one, on February 2nd, with six points to spare, although the one-point loss to Mayo is perhaps fresher in his mind. But while he’s not entirely surprised Mayo have got this far again, he feels too that was a game Cork may have left behind. “I wouldn’t say I’m surprised at all, no. They’re up there now with the strongest teams in the country, the top five or six really, so they’re where they’d expected to be.

“We’d be a little disappointed with our performance last Sunday, especially having gone the few points up, then to lose out by one, in the end. But then Mayo do have some good players coming through.”

Counihan is less certain about the outcome of the other semi-final, and understandably so: Cork lost out to Kildare in round two, but beat Tyrone in round four, by six points, although neither result will have any great bearing on Sunday.

Game of two halves
"It's the opposite really, in that it's very hard to call, a 50-50 game for sure. Now I didn't see Tyrone against Kerry last Sunday, but what from I've heard and been told it was the classic team of two halves, Tyrone very lacking in the first half, very good in the second. So I suppose it depends really which Tyrone team performs this time, but I still think it's a game that could go either way.

“We did beat Tyrone and I think we did play well against Tyrone, one of our better games. But I felt Tyrone were a little flat against us that day. They had beaten Donegal the week before, and I know would have been well up for that, so maybe they weren’t quite as well up for us the next week.”

What is certain is Counihan isn’t sitting around wondering how much of a loss, or even gain, missing out on the semi-finals might prove: “Well we’ve no choice now. Once we realised where we were last Sunday all the focus shifted on to the championship. But the reality for us now is everything turns to May 25th and our Munster championship quarter-final with Limerick.”

But if he was a betting man, who would Counihan be putting his money on? “I think that, on balance, Dublin will do it. I mean they’re going very well, and to be honest I can see them winning this league outright.”