Cleary aiming for Cork to top the group and play with more freedom against Donegal

John Cleary has admitted that he knows exactly what to expect this weekend when Donegal make the journey to Páirc Uí Rinn this Saturday to face his Cork side, having already played Jim McGuinness’s side in round one of the National League in January. 

The Cork boss has referred to Donegal as the in-form team in the country at the minute and it’ll be interesting to see how far the Rebel County has come since last playing Donegal in MacCumhaill Park four months ago. 

The opening round of the Division 2 campaign was a day to forget for the Munster team as Donegal sent Cork packing back to Leeside on a 1-20 to 2-6 scoreline. 

It was the first glimpse into Donegal’s style under McGuinness, with their hunger serving them well so far, having clinched the Division 2 and Ulster title in that space of time.  

That day in Ballybofey saw Donegal hit 78 percent of their shots compared to Cork’s 47 percent ratio as Donegal cruised to victory in a rain-soaked MacCumhaill Park. 

So, what has Cleary and his team learned from that day in Donegal? 

“We got the first pasting from them really,” said Cleary. “They had 12 shots in the first half and got 11 scores. In some scenarios, we were letting them shoot because maybe we didn’t believe they would put them over from 50 yards. 

“That’s the big thing that we will take into the next day, we will have to push out on them.” 

Cleary points to Donegal’s all-round performance levels which have steered them towards glory in the championship, with them having come over Tyrone on two occasions, Derry, and Armagh, and in doing so, he refers to them as the ‘in-form team in the country’ currently but Cleary hopes their most recent game against Brian Dooher’s team has taken a lot out of them. 

“They’ve been doing that all year,” the Cork boss said. “They’ve very few wides, their conversion rate is outstanding, and their fitness levels are outstanding. 

“We’d be hoping maybe that game did take a bit out of them. They’ve to travel down the length of the country probably five days later but having said that, on the performance they put on the last day, they’ll be very hard beaten on any day not to mind on Saturday. 

“It was probably the best performance of any team this year. We’re well warned but hopefully we’re ready for it.” 

The real pressure for Cork in this All-Ireland series came two weeks ago against Clare where the Rebel came out two-point winners with Cork's experienced bench coming to their rescue to ignite their All-Ireland Senior Football Championship challenge in front of 3,262 in Cusack Park. 

With those two points now in the back pocket, Cleary reckons his side can now play with greater freedom. 

“In our last seven games, we've only been beaten in one and that was by Kerry. But we do realise that Donegal are back in Division 1 now and Tyrone are a Division 1 team as well,” he said. 

“We were delighted to get the two points against Clare because if we were facing into the next two weeks trying to scramble for points, it brings on its own bit of pressure. 

“The very fact that we have the two points in the bag gives us a small bit of freedom to play without that pressure. We have two cuts at it now over the next couple of weeks. 

“Where we're standing at the moment, we want to top the group. Secondly, the other prize on offer is to have a home preliminary quarter-final. That would be much, much harder if we were here now with no points. We have to be pleased about that going into the weekend.”