Cork boss Ronan McCarthy insisted there was no ambush after his side’s dramatic defeat of Kerry.
Despite a losing streak against Kerry that stretched back to 2012, including some humiliating losses, McCarthy was confident that they could go toe-to-toe with their decorated neighbours, who were chasing an eighth successive provincial crown this year.
McCarthy, who was part of the last Cork side to knock Kerry out of the Championship in 1999, said: “I thought there was a lot of talk about us ambushing and coming in under the radar, it’s not the way we saw it at all.
“If you look at our subs, you had Luke Connolly, Michael Hurley, Mark Keane, Damien Gore, we have huge quality now within the group which has been built up over the last two to three years.
“So I felt maybe that we didn’t feel we needed to ambush, we felt we could go in and go toe-to-toe, and on the back of say the ‘Super 8s’ matches last year and the game against Kerry here, and we also played a big game against Donegal here in the League last year, we felt we were very close and we were in better shape again, and there was no reason why we couldn’t get there.
“Obviously it has worked out on this occasion.”
AFL clubs are increasingly wary of allowing their Irish players to play club football when back home during the winter, so Collingwood giving Keane the green light to play for Cork in this Championship was somewhat surprising, though it came up trumps after he netted the late, late winner.
“I think it was Tommy Walsh actually inside under him as well, he’s a great target for long balls.
“He’s a good passer of the ball, he actually set up a very important score when we were two down in the 70th minute. He set up that score.
“He’s a great target man, great physical presence and, look, he has just added to the quality and depth to the group.”
Cork now go on to play Tipperary in the Munster final on November 22, their first meeting in the provincial decider since 2002.
McCarthy added: “We’ll let them enjoy it, obviously it’s a different type of enjoyment in the circumstances we’re in, but we’ll bring them back down to earth very quickly.
“The other point here that is very relevant, we have Cian Kiely back the next day, James Loughrey, Cathal O’Mahoney and others back.
“If a fella wants to get carried away with this, he’s going to lose his place very quickly.”
