Jimmy Barry-Murphy hails ‘superhuman’ effort from Cork

Jimmy Barry-Murphy praised the character of his players on Saturday night, but he also cited his team’s structure in their win over Clare.

“I thought our lads showed unbelievable character tonight, I thought coming up here it was going to be a phenomenal battle.

“They’re (Clare) a great team with some outstanding young players, and I knew if we were going to win it was going to take a superhuman effort, and some of our players played just like that.

“Everybody’s trying to work out the system that suits their own players best, and going back to the league final and the Munster championship game, we knew we were conceding too many goals and we knew we had to get our defensive set-up right.

“And we’re still trying to get it right, it’s a work in progress and we feel we’re going the right way at least. Early on, we tried different things, we weren’t sure how we would play. You have to try different things as the game goes on.”

The Cork manager was impressed with the performance of Brian Lawton, who was handed the role of tracking Clare dangerman Tony Kelly.

“Brian had an outstanding game, he’s pretty new to this level. Equally, I thought Bill Cooper was incredible. His work-rate, his effort all over the field, it was a superhuman effort.”

It was that consistency of effort and application that most pleased the manager.

“Every team, no matter what level they’re playing at — Barcelona, Kilkenny, Tipperary — it comes from work-rate, if you don’t have that, you have nothing, and I thought our lads brought that to the table tonight. Equally, I thought Clare were outstanding, it’s just we got those points at crucial stages.”

Barry-Murphy was concerned by Cork’s wide count: “A lot of wides, they had a lot of wides too, and some of ours weren’t very good. That’s something we definitely have to work on.

“We have to build again. We went to Wexford last week and we felt the win would bring us on a bit, but you’re not sure how much. We have to play Galway now, another super task for us but we’re there now, and if we keep improving we have a chance. I’m not just saying that. We know where we’re at, we lost to Waterford in the league final and the championship and that was a big setback for us. We wanted to rebound from that and build up confidence again.”

The Cork substitutions freshened up their attack in those crucial final stages.

“Sometimes substitutions work, we needed to get legs in,” said Barry-Murphy.

“The lads put in a huge effort but Clare are a very athletic team, all tremendously young athletes. The likes of Pa Cronin and Daniel Kearney had given everything to it. We needed to get fresh legs in and give it a bit of impetus. I think that worked tonight.

“They did threaten but our defence was very, very good. I said it already, it’s not rocket science, if you’re conceding goals like we were, in the Munster championship and league final, you’re not going to win matches. We’ve got to try adjust that as best we can.

“Sometimes you can do it but you might not have the players to do it. I thought our players are buying into it, trying to learn from it going forward and at least it will give us a chance of winning games.”

The Cork boss picked out his defenders for special praise. “Mark Ellis is very good in that (sweeper) role, a very good hurler, very strong and athletic. I think equally Brian Murphy coming back into the team has been a great help for us.

“Aidan Walsh, I thought he was superb as well. So many players I thought played their hearts out tonight. At times, we looked to be hanging on, with seven or eight minutes to go. I was so proud of the effort, I wasn’t sure we’d pull through but to come out with the win is a major bonus.”