Ring and Cork sweat over fitness of free taker Dalton
CORK manager Denis Ring is sweating over the fitness of free-taker Declan Dalton ahead of the All-Ireland decider, with Dalton stretchered off in the later stages of the game.
“Everything will possibly be done. There will be a lot of rosary’s and trips to Knock and Lourdes. Whatever it takes to get him back because he’s a superb guy, he’s been fantastic for us all year, probably one of the best free-takers in the country and his performances all year have been fantastic. He deserves to play in an All-Ireland final and I hope he gets that opportunity.
“Initially it looked maybe worse than what it was. Just talking to him at the final whistle there he seems to be a little bit happier about it. The medical team are happier about it but look until you get a scan really you don’t know.”
Ring believes that some of the absent names really took their toll on Wexford, who Cork treated with great respect during the game.
“We had played Wexford earlier in the year. They without seniors and us without seniors and it was a cracking game and their plans were disrupted by maybe the O’Connor’s missing as well from that perspective you have to acknowledge that. We were missing David Griffin. He’s a leader for us really. There was no way we expected it to go the way it was going to go. They were excellent against Dublin and that Dublin team was highly fancied and they were excellent against Galway and probably were unlucky not to have won that game but from our perspective, we’re not complacent against anybody. We treat everybody with huge respect because we’re not exactly dripping with All-Irelands in the last number of years so from our perspective we really had huge respect for Wexford and delighted the way it turned out for us.”
Ring believes that Tipperary have every chance of overcoming Galway on Wednesday night and stated how Tipperary overcame red hot favourites Limerick in the earlier stages of the competition.
“I wouldn’t rule out Tipperary either. Tipp were absolutely brilliant against Limerick. Limerick had a load of seniors. You look at that Limerick team that’s playing in the All-Ireland final, a lot of them played in the U-21 against Tipp and Tipp beat them. Tipp didn’t become a bad team overnight. They’re going to be back. They’re going to give Galway enough of it on Wednesday night but Galway are a super team as well, Limerick were favourites against Tipperary and they had star studded seniors playing. You look at that team that’s playing senior a lot of them are playing u21 and didn’t happen for them against Tipp so it doesn’t necessarily always mean an awful lot. It’s good experience but look it’s all about on the day and on the day today we got it right thanks be to God. All you hope is that you do it another day.”
Ring is delighted to be able to attend the other semi-final as initially both games were meant to clash.
“It’s going to be interesting for us to be able to sit back and look at it. Initially we weren’t going to be able to be at the match, but the fact that it’s moved back a few days gives us that opportunity as they had today and you know we look forward to that. We’ve a lot of work to do no matter who you’re going to be playing in the All-Ireland final and particularly when you’re Cork and you’re hungry at this stage, you’re going to treat everyone with huge respect.”
Cork will be raging hot favourites against either Galway or Tipperary in the decider, with the rebels looking like a truly exceptional team at this grade.