John Cleary: Playing the All-Ireland favourites, you need to be at peak physical condition 

Cork manager John Cleary hinted at fatigue as his team fell to defeat against Kerry in the All-Ireland SFC Group 2 Round 2 encounter at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

The Rebels did lose on a scoreline of 1-28 to 0-20, but a combination of not taking their chances and the opposition being deadly accurate meant it’s now back-to-back losses in the group after being beaten by Meath the weekend before.

Despite that, if Cork win the last group match against Roscommon in two weeks at a neutral venue, a knockout spot will be achieved.

While the mark rule did dominate a lot of the chat after the game, it was Cleary's thoughts on the quick turnaround between the games that was interesting. 

"Disappointed, we got off to a bad start,” he said post-match.

"We had a bit of a breeze and giving away a goal like that unsettled us for a bit. But we settled then and up to half-time I thought we did play well. Now, we missed two gilt-edged goal chances, maybe they missed one as well. And we had to fight very hard in the first half to get us up three points at half-time.

“With that wind, we needed more of a cushion probably at half-time. After half-time, we added one from a free and then they caught maybe three or four kickouts. 

"You won't make excuses but I thought our lads made a genuine attempt to go for the ball, came down, stopped and the next thing they were deemed to be in front of the player or whatever. There were some awfully strange decisions on that. What's a fella supposed to do? You go for the ball and the next thing three of them are over the bar, six points and we were two points down.

“Kerry kicked some great scores, they kicked seven two-pointers. The game was going away from us then.

“We were eight points down, missed a penalty then and whatever chance we had of taking it into the last ten minutes then... look, beaten by 11 was maybe a little bit harsh on us but Kerry scored wonderful two-pointers particularly and that's why they won the game."

Kerry had two weeks to prepare for this game while Cork just had a week after the four-point loss to Meath. Cleary did hint at a bit of fatigue playing a factor in the defeat.

“We had a hard game last week,” the Rebels manager says.

“It took fellas until Wednesday or Thursday for them to really get over last week. We had bumps and bruises, a tough wet day above in Navan. Then facing into playing the favourites for the All-Ireland, you really need to be at peak physical condition.

“Kerry punished us when they got the space and were deserving winners in the end."

Cork have lost three of their four championship games this season, as it all comes down to the last game in the group against Roscommon. A win and the Rebels will secure a ticket into the business end at the expense of their Connacht opposition.

“Tomorrow’s another day. We’ll just have to brush ourselves down and at least we have two weeks now. Travelling up to Meath and coming down and just the week's break, it was pretty tough.

“It’s not an excuse but I did think we tired out there today in the second half maybe as a slight result of last week. This is it now for us. It’s knockout football now in two weeks.” Cleary concluded.