Eamonn Fitzmaurice believes Tomas O Se hasn't done Kerry any favours by criticising Cork.

The Kerry manager last night distanced himself from O Se's suggestion that the Rebels are mentally weak and won't trouble the All-Ireland champions in Sunday week's Munster SFC final.

O Se said last week: "Cork don't seem to perform when there are questions and this team needs a big performance when they are under pressure. Put it like this, if Eamonn Fitzmaurice was in charge of Cork, I think you'd have a different Cork team."

Unsurprisingly, Fitzmaurice doesn't agree with his former team-mate's assessment of Brian Cuthbert's charges.

"Look, with Tomas, that his opinion," he is quoted in the Irish Daily Star.

"I think that's the attraction of him as a pundit. Outside of the dressing room, because he would have a very low profile in general, many people wouldn't have known that he's sharp on the game and very insightful.

"That's Tomas' opinion and he's entitled to his opinion, but it definitely wouldn't be my opinion, and it wouldn't be anyone's opinion in the camp. I imagine Brian Cuthbert was rubbing his hands together in glee when Tomas said it, because Cork are very motivated anyway.

"They're more motivated considering the amount of bad press they got after the league final, even though they had a very good league up to that point. So I imagine the Cork management and players, the management in particular, would have been delighted with it and probably used it (as motivation)."

Tweet

Most Read Stories