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Goudling tangles with Shane Enright during last Sunday's final. James Crombie/INPHO
Post-mortem

'We've never not gone to the well': Goulding confident that Cork can turn their summer around

Cork have come in for some serious criticism – but there is nobody more disappointed than the Rebels themselves.

CORK’S MUNSTER FINAL hiding “definitely ranks up there” as one of Daniel Goulding’s most disappointing days but he is confident that the Rebels can make amends.

Brian Cuthbert’s side were blown out of the water by a clinical Kerry who racked up a 12-point win in the last football match before Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s redevelopment.

Some of the online criticism levelled at Cork’s performance was so vicious that the GPA felt the need to issue a response this week, describing the abuse as “beneath contempt.”

Goulding didn’t personally receive any messages, but that doesn’t mean the emotions were any less raw as defeat sunk in.

“For us as players we can’t really get involved in that,” he said.

There’s no-one more disappointed than us. We don’t need to be told that we didn’t perform and let ourselves down. We don’t need to be told that.

“All we can listen to now is ourselves and our management and make a plan going forward.

“Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion and they’re entitled to vent their frustration but what we can do is not focus on that because it can bring you down.

“What we can do is focus on ourselves and make a plan to rectify this.”

dg Under Armour ambassador Daniel Goulding was at Dublin’'s National Athlete Development Academy to learn about the benefits of Under Armour’s HeatGear technology. For further information log on to www.underarmour.com. Sportsfile / Stephen McCarthy Sportsfile / Stephen McCarthy / Stephen McCarthy

That plan began with individual video analysis on Monday and Tuesday, and then training on Wednesday night. The focus now is on their round four qualifier.

If Cork are to salvage their summer, it is their unity and experience that will see them through.

“If you look at our league, I think we played some excellent passages of football, maybe 40 or 50 minutes against Dublin that was as good as anything seen this year.

“I think we’ve a lot of lads with All-Irelands in that dressing room, who have won Munsters before, and gone through the qualifiers.

There is a lot of experience there, and it’s a case of going to the well again. One good thing is we’ve never not gone to the well.

“We’ve All-Ireland under-21 winners in there too, a lot of good quality players, with a lot of players hurting. We just have to use that hurt in the right way.”

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