Cork ladies football: Rebels head to Laois in All-Ireland series opener

THE Cork ladies get their TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship campaign underway on Sunday.

They head to O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, throw-in 3pm, to take on Laois in a game they will be expected to win.

If they do they it should be enough to guarantee them a place in the quarter-finals of the championship, ahead of their clash with Galway a week later.

Laois finished fourth in the Leinster championship but they have put in a lot of work over the last few weeks and Cork manager Shane Ronayne is expecting a much-improved side to take to the pitch on Sunday.

Stephen Duff took over the team just before the championship and didn’t have a lot of time to work with the players, but Shane said that you could see the improvements he was making game by game.

Duff knows how to win and get the best out of players. He guided Dublin College University (DCU) to O’Connor Cup success earlier this year, defeating UCC in the final.

He will have been working hard with his squad and Katie Donoghue and Emily Lacey are just two of the players Cork will need to keep a close eye on.

Cork were dealt a number of injury blows ahead of this game with Sarah Leahy, Dara Kiniry, Caoimhe Richmond and Lydia McDonagh all ruled out, along with Libby Coppinger.

But on the plus side the likes of Shauna Cronin and Eimear Kiely are on the way back and Shane hopes they can play a part on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of the game Shane accepted that it’s a game most will expect Cork to win, but he is well aware of the threat Laois pose.

“It’s a good start for us and we’re expected to win the game. They are under new management with Stephen taking them over just before the championship started,” said Shane, “he didn’t really have a lot of time with the players before the championship so it can be hard to get your ideas across. 

But he’s had a bit of time now and when you get time with players, you get your ideas across, so I expect them to be better than what they were in the Leinster championship.

“They were very competitive against Kildare and also against Meath. I’m expecting them to be very hard to beat. Steven will have a have a plan in place because he’s a good coach and I think we have to go up there and treat them with the utmost respect.

“Hopefully we can get the job done. There really are no easy matches anymore. We played them in a challenge game just after Stephen took over and we had a fairly easy win, but you could see the start of what he was trying to do.

FOCUSED

“So you can sure there will be way better than that. Before maybe you could you could take your foot off the pedal for some of the games and be thinking about the next day, but all our focus for the last few weeks has been on since Laois. We’ve been totally focused on beating them because by winning that should qualify us for the quarter-finals.

The only mentioned Galway have got in our dressing room in the last few weeks was to confirm when and time we were playing them.

“We’re prepared for the Laois game and the girls are putting in a huge effort in the last few weeks. Training has gone up a level again and I think they’re coming to the boil at the right time.”