KIERAN KINGSTON will happily take a two-week break as Cork pick over the bones of another Limerick mauling.
A rejigging of Cork's Munster schedule saw their game with Clare moved to Sunday week, with the game taking place in Thurles due to the Ed Sheeran concerts at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
And after shipping two convincing defeats in as many outings with this reverse coming on the back of the Waterford League final loss earlier this month, Rebel boss Kingston felt they could do with some breathing space.
He said: “In hindsight, it’s better to have it off when you lose. If you win, momentum going into the next week – we saw that last year through the All-Ireland series, game after game, if you can avoid injuries.
“In this scenario, having lost the League final and then losing today, I think that two weeks’ break is better for us, yes.”
While acknowledging that it wasn’t a fatal setback, Kingston admitted that they now face an uphill battle to finish in the top three and qualify for the All-Ireland series.
“Coming into the game, I said during the week in a couple of interviews, today wouldn’t define our season – win, lose or draw. And it doesn’t.
“But at the same time, it makes it a lot harder. The round-robin campaign, we’ve four games – one at home. Which was today.
“You want to try and win your home games so today was a big game for us. But while it doesn’t define it, it makes our season a lot harder. We've got to go away now for the next three and that’s going to be a huge challenge. But that’s what we do.
“There’s only one winner each day. We’ve got to dust ourselves down.”
Kingston insisted that Limerick’s switch of Kyle Hayes to full-forward didn’t throw Cork out of kilter.
“No, there were about a 100 rumours going around during the week, ‘This fella was going to be here, that fella was going to be there, that fella was injured’.
“No, I don’t think that was the winning and losing of the game, I think it was that middle third really that we were hurt the most from. Obviously we know how good a player Kyle is, absolutely.
“I think he got a goal, but I think our full-back line managed the game really well, I think it was out further in the field we were under pressure - in the absence of looking back on it, but that’s my reading from the sideline.”
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