JBM: This will test our mettle
Rebels boss hurting after defeat
FOR Cork, there was the rare and unwelcome distinction of losing both League finals. In many ways, this defeat at Thurles mirrored the flat, headless loss in Croke Park in the football decider. Never one to hide behind banalities, Cork manager Jimmy Barry Murphy made it clear that this wasn’t the prep he wanted for a Munster semi- final meeting against the same opposition in five weeks.
‘We played our full team available to us. We have to try and up our performance and get to the level they were at and if we don’t we will be beaten.
‘I am hoping we rebound. Our confidence is dented certainly but our job is to build the players back up and come back and give it a right go on June 5.
‘We flopped here in a League final a few years ago against Kilkenny and it was a setback and today, no question is a setback, and a question of our character and mettle to see can we bounce back.’
The fact that Barry-Murphy was prepared to reference the 2012 League final defeat showed how much this hurt. Cork knew the passion and pride that Waterford would bring to the table yet still couldn’t match it. Not only that but Waterford’s stick play and option-taking on the ball was also superior throughout.
‘Waterford I thought were absolutely fantastic and we never got to the level of performance or anywhere near like we wanted to be at. I suppose it is a rap on the knuckles for us all and a warning shot that we might not be as good as we thought we were,’ added the Cork manager.
‘People can talk about systems but their skill level and score taking was fantastic and all we can do is stand back and admire them and say well done.’
For his opposite number Derek McGrath, it is some turnaround after relegation last year from Division 1A.
He referenced one spring hammering by Kilkenny when his son had to leave the ground due to the sustained abuse from the stand.
‘I’d be lying if I said I envisaged being here,’ said McGrath. ‘I think what we tried to do was ride out the storm, ride out all the criticism that was there after the changes were made too the panel, keep our heads down and try to change as a management inn terms of sensitivity.’
He described goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe’s first-half save as ‘ vital’ but Waterford were the better team from start to finish.
‘ It sounds very oldschool or old-fashioned to say but we probably wanted it that bit more — that was reflected in the intensity. We made a promise at half-time, saying “We need this”.
‘Cork won a Munster Championship last year, were in an All-Ireland final [in 2013].
‘So we needed this. It helps us as a management as well, to sustain what we’re trying to do,’ added McGrath.
While much has been made of Waterford’s defensive set- up, McGrath explained how it will evolve in time.
‘The way we’ve dealt with system-talk… we just felt we needed to change things, tweak things, to be successful based on the group of players we have. If you were in the 2004 Munster final you had a forward line of Séamus Prendergast, John Mullane, Eoin Kelly, Paul Flynn, Dan Shanahan.
‘I think Waterford will be at a stage to play more open hurling in a year or two — it’s not as if it’s not a plan; we feel we have a plan in place. ‘We or someone else will tweak it in years to come. There will be a forward line capable of flamboyance in Waterford in a few years with the likes of Patrick Curran, Shane Bennett... they are the leaders of the team.’
2 League final defeats for Cork footballers and hurlers in the space of a week