CORK BOSS RONAN McCarthy says he is keen to move on from the 12-week ban he was handed following his side’s training session in January that breached GAA Covid training guidelines.
The 2021 season began for the Rebels today with a league defeat at the hands of Kildare with McCarthy involved on the sideline as his suspension has been served.
“I am not going to talk about that now. I’ll have something to say about that at a later stage. My focus is on the game today. I think, to be fair, there is a very quick turnaround to the next game and I think people have to realise this was back in January, we have moved on from this months ago.
“And to some extent, it had no effect on the team at all. It was a personal suspension and is certainly not something I am going talking about today.
“Maybe at a later stage when we have some time on our hands we can have a more in-depth discussion on the mechanisms of the GAA disciplinary system.”
McCarthy saw his team lose out to the Lilywhites by four points, paying the price for the volume of chances they squandered early on and the two goals they shipped midway through the second half.
Jimmy Hyland slotted home Kildare’s second goal.
Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO
“Disappointed with the defeat. In a seven-round National League, the first game is always important; in a three-round League, it is even more important. We really wanted to get off to a good start, it is disappointing to lose the game.
“I thought we played great stuff for 20, 25 minutes, but didn’t translate it on the scoreboard which was probably the most disappointing part of it.
“The two quickfire goals put us under pressure. We tried to get back but we left ourselves with a lot to do. The big regret is the first-half.
of the team
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“Kildare are a good side. They have a shrewd manager and they are probably a bit further down the line than us, but I thought we looked a really good side in that opening period, mixed our play well between hitting on the counter-attack and being patient.
“Kevin O’Driscoll got a great score at one point where we kept the ball for two minutes, but we kinda started snatching at other chances. We went in behind at half-time and I felt we should have been three or four ahead.”
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