‘We could have won it and we could have lost it’
STANDING on the edge of a field he graced so many times as a player Charleville hurling coach Ben O’Connor looked perfectly at ease at Páirc Uí Chaoimh after watching his charges play out a draw in the Premier final last Sunday.
The Cork legend’s side led late on only to be reeled in during added time however despite the late drama O’Connor was far from aggrieved by the result.
“We could have won it and we could have lost it so I suppose a draw is a fair result. Every fellow wants to finish off in a county final with a win but in the balance it was fair enough. We will need to look into what happened and see what we can learn and see if we can improve for next weekend.
“Finals are there to win. You can come into a final playing a certain kind of hurling and get to the final and then the nerves kick in. Fellows become worried about losing so it just goes to show they are human and because of this finals are just there to win.
“If we won that today by a point it would be the greatest game of hurling ever – we would have been happy and so would Courceys if it went there way, but look next Monday hopefully things will open up a bit more and hopefully we will get the result we are looking for.”
The sun shone throughout this final however other weather elements made for difficult playing conditions, something that was quick to point out when discussing his sides hefty wides count.
“Even by half-time the wind was swirling and we had 10 wides at that stage. Fellows were shooting from places they shouldn’t have been shooting from but then again the wind was swirling.
“We thought coming out in the second half that we had the wind behind us, but at one stage it was blowing against us again and that was difficult for fellows but look it was the same for both teams.
“That is the first time this year that we have had that many wides. That is what that extra bit of pressure brings – fellows might have wanted to get their names in the papers for tomorrow morning with scores, but hopefully all that will have settled down the next day and from there hopefully our accuracy will improve but again I’ll say if you were a neutral here you would say that a draw was a fair result.”
While O’Connor was obviously focusing on his own side leading up to the final one he wasn’t surprised by what the opposition brought to the table.
“I wasn’t surprised at all by Courceys today. We played them a few months ago and they gave us a right clipping in that one. They were strong and physical that day and the same today so our boys knew when we were coming up here today what to expect and we will need to expect the same again the next day so the question for us will be can we deal with that the next day.
“After 10-minutes we were up a point but we could have been more up as at that stage we had registered some poor wides, but it easy to be outside the line criticising fellows afterwards but every time our lads took a shot there was two or three Courcey players hooking and blocking and that will be the same the next day.”
While the hype will rise again over the weekend O’Connor is adamant that his side will go back to basics and no one will be getting ahead of themselves.
“We will treat the next day as just another game. That is what we have done all year and we will do the same again for Monday and hopefully we can drive on from there.”