MATCH REACTION CORK: KEITH DUGGANfinds the reigning champions in suitably relaxed mood following their latest Croke Park comeback
FORGIVE THE Cork men for not cracking open the bubbly. This is a decorated group and if they were pleased keeping the league for another year, then that was about it.
“Mmmh,” mused Noel O’Leary when asked to talk about the extent of his happiness. This was maybe 20 minutes after the final whistle: the cup had been lifted, speech made and the crowd had drifted away into Dublin’s sleepy Easter Sunday afternoon.
“Sure I suppose it is pleasing, experience-wise. There were a lot of aspects of the game that we won’t be happy with and Conor won’t be either. But a win is a win is a win and we were happy to have won it. The cool and calmness told a bit. A lot of guys stood up too. Michael Shields, our captain, led by example. Paddy Kelly too.
“That comes with experience over the years. It replicated last year slightly. We felt that if we kicked a few scores we could come back into it. And we kept plugging away, kicked a few scores and began winning breaking ball around the middle of it and kept gaining ground. Probably when we chipped away at it we felt we could turn them over and thankfully it worked out that way.”
One of the chief talking points of the day was the brief and unexpected bout of fisticuffs that took place between Cork’s Michael Shields and Dublin’s Philip McMahon.
Unfortunately for both players, the blows they traded were caught on live television, much as their managers wished it were otherwise.
“It was a damp squib as far as I am concerned,” said Conor Counihan. “I didn’t see anyone coming in that had to be lifted out of it anyhow.”
(Pat Gilroy shared the belief that the flare-up was not worth writing home about. “Ah, I think there was nothing there now, to be honest. I was coming in at the end of it but I think it was just a bit of pushing and shoving. Don’t think anything serious went on”).
Afterwards, the Cork men made an honourable stab at looking worried about the fact they had fallen into an eight -point hole. Privately, they must be delighted with their response to it.
“We were very happy with the win,” said Counihan. “We didn’t perform as well as we liked but it was a good result. There are a lot of issues to be addressed as well. These guys have put down a good few weeks since September and October and then in South Africa in January. They had a bit of work to do and a bit more to do, I suppose.”
The response of the 15 who finished the game made light of the loss of three key figures in the first half. Once again, it emphasised the enviable array of talent available to Cork.
“The three lads who went off are fairly established but we used the league and brought the likes of Denis (O’Sullivan) and David Goold in and they have had a lot of game time so it wasn’t as if they were coming in cold,” said Patrick Kelly.
“At least they have a couple of games under their belt and they are well able. That is what we want, guys like that pushing in training. But you have to ask why we were eight points down. Something obviously wasn’t going right and you need to look at why the Dubs were that much better than us for 50 minutes.”
Certainly, Counihan did not look like a man who faces sleepless nights worrying about the extent of his problems.
“John (Miskella) has a back problem, Fintan (Goold) has a calf and Paul (Kerrigan) has a hamstring,” he said. “There has a lot been happening between club championship so hopefully we can get everyone back over the next few weeks. Grinding out a result, being that type of score down, was important for morale,” he concluded cheerfully, as if that was his final thought on the league that was.
