Anthony Daly: Waterford wanted it more, which is an indictment on Cork
Jack Prendergast of Waterford is tackled by Tim O'Mahony of Cork. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
In a bewildering time, it’s already been a bewildering championship. Despite all the hope and expectation, a raft of teams have already found themselves in the horrors; Cork, Clare, Laois, Wexford and, to a lesser extent now, Tipperary.
Most of those sides shipped big beatings on the scoreboard but, the team which lost by the least amount — Cork — will still have attracted the most criticism, primarily because of the serial nature of another big day loss.
I wasn’t in Thurles on Saturday. I didn’t get to see the game live on TV because I was co-commentating on the Dublin-Kilkenny game for GAAGo. But when I watched the Cork-Waterford match back on Saturday night, you could picture how frustrated and angry the Cork supporters must have been.
I’m sure they were asking — with much more fervour than I was — the same perennial questions: ‘Has anything changed? Will anything ever change?’
You have to give massive credit to Waterford but this was a really poor Cork showing. They only lost by four points for a finish but it could have been much more.
And, most frustratingly of all, too many of the same Cork players failed to perform. Again.
When Kieran Kingston returned as manager, he clearly had to have a three-pronged focus and approach; returning the squad to their 2018 form, when they should have beaten Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final; trying to improve the squad even more and, just as importantly, making them harder to beat; and introducing more of the younger players from the minor, U-21 and U-20 teams of 2017-2019.
On Saturday’s evidence, you’d have to say they haven’t. Cork were hammered for their lack of work-rate in 2019 but, if anything, the work-rate didn’t improve at all from last year. The bottom line was that Waterford wanted it more, which is even more of an indictment on Cork when you consider the disappointment and heartbreak they’ve endured in recent years.
I know that Cork have worked really hard but it can be difficult to break the habits of a lifetime. And when the heat came on, Cork returned to type and the bad habits resurfaced.
Tadgh de Burca was deservedly man-of-the-match but Cork made it too easy for him to reach those levels by repeatedly ramming the ball down his throat.
In fairness to Cork, they were down big players — Eoin Cadogan, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Colm Spillane and Robbie O’Flynn — while Aidan Walsh must have been injured when he was listed to start but wasn’t even one of the subs introduced.
Cork did hand debuts to Sean O’Leary-Hayes and Daire Connery, while they brought on Jack O’Connor, Billy Hennessy, Brian Turnbull and Declan Dalton.
That attitude has certainly worked for Waterford. Some of their young guns have been around for a few years but Cahill has invested huge faith in them and fitted them into a system suited to their make-up.
Their running game is powered by pace, precision and athleticism and nobody underlined that approach more than Calum Lyons.
Cork struggled to track those runners but it’s also important not to underestimate how impressive Waterford were. They had their injury worries too, losing Pauric Mahony and Darragh Fives but they were hardly even missed.
They will need to try and back it up now in the Munster final but Liam Cahill has really launched his project now in Year 1. Waterford have a good age profile so if this group keeps improving, they could really develop into a force.
In such a condensed championship, the biggest danger for teams stuck in a rut is that you have so little time to get out of it. They will have to fight their way out first and I’m sure you’ll see plenty of gunsmoke when Wexford play again because Davy Fitzgerald has already demanded a serious return to arms.
He heavily criticised the players for downing their weapons and waving the white flag but that’s what Wexford effectively did.
Much of that is down to their power and physicality and ability to win aerial possession. Wexford have often believed that Matthew O’Hanlon is able for Joe Canning but Joe completely disarmed O’Hanlon in the air under puckouts.
It was a statement performance from Galway but it was easy to see where that motivation stemmed from because they feel aggrieved at being labelled hurling’s forgotten team. Much was made of their ‘new’ players but Shane Cooney, Sean Loftus, Brian Concannon and Fintan Burke have been around this squad for years. Burke would have been on the scene far sooner only for doing his cruciate last year. Conor Whelan was given man-of-the-match but I’d have given it to Burke first, and Concannon second.
Galway will face a much different test in the final, especially after the way in which Kilkenny fell asleep at the wheel on Saturday evening. I met former players Adrian Ronan and Michael Walsh afterwards and they rightly said that Kilkenny lost their grip on the match once Dublin brought Conor Burke back as a seventh defender.
Mattie Kenny will be devastated with the result, especially when Dublin were so poor in the first half, but he’ll have been delighted with the response.
Dublin will be well set up now for the qualifiers but they’ll need to be. Because once that bear-pit reopens at the weekend, it’s a fight to the death now to stay alive in this championship.
