Cork football manager John Cleary says the quick turnaround of games in the Sam Maguire Cup race is a great complaint for his team to have ahead of this weekend’s preliminary quarter-final showdown against Dublin.

The Rebels kept their season alive by defeated Roscommon on a 0-19 to 0-17 scoreline in Portlaoise last Saturday and now get set to take on the Dubs this Saturday at Croke Park (6.15pm) for a place in the last eight.

After his side pulled the capital men out of the hat on Monday morning, Cleary told EchoLive.ie that he more or less has a full-strength squad for this weekend despite the games coming thick and fast.  

“It’s tough going playing week-on-week at this stage of the season,” he said. “At least for this coming weekend, we are no different than anyone else. Dublin had a hard game as well last weekend against Derry and got over the line.

“The winners will probably be at a disadvantage in that the quarter-finals are on the following weekend. The four quarter-finalists are sitting at home this weekend relaxing and preparing.

“The eight teams who are in action, four will have to go again for the third week on the bounce a week later, which is tough.

“If you gave me that choice now, I would bite your hand off for it.”

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