Anthony Daly: Cork aren’t the finished product yet, but the pieces of the puzzle are coming together
Cork's Damien Cahalane in action against Billy Ryan of Kilkenny during Saturday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final at Páirc Ui Chaoimh Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
I’ve told the story here before, but I’ll tell it again because yesterday reminded me so much of it with the similarities, especially watching the downtrodden Wexford supporters streaming out of Nowlan Park with ten minutes remaining.
When we arrived back into Power’s pub after Cork had given us a hiding in the 1998 league semi-final, the Clarecastle lads – in the witty way only Clarecastle people can be – told us to quietly come clean with them in the future. ‘Hi lads, ye might let us know the next time ye decide beforehand not to show up so ye can save us a trip to Thurles and all the costs that goes with it.’ Of course, no team decides not to show up but it certainly doesn’t make it any easier for the supporters to take when you don’t, especially when you’ve got their hopes up about your prospects.
The frustration was probably all the greater again when they heard Darragh Egan say beforehand that they were going all out, and then state afterwards that Wexford had no energy, with Darragh repeating that line about four times.
Nobody goes out and tells Rory O’Connor to miss frees that he’d normally slot in his sleep, or for the Wexford defence to be sleepwalking when Waterford were hunting for goals. You’d have to be fierce impressed with Waterford, but this was no test. Because it was a complete no-show from Wexford.
Wexford had nothing to gain from coming to Kilkenny and playing like they did. I just don’t get that. The critics will say that it’s all a bit cheap coming from me when I presided over so many no-shows with Dublin and Clare on some of our big days in the Munster and Leinster championships. I can’t deny those accusations, but I never used a lack of energy as an excuse.
I’m not here to hammer Darragh because he has done a great job do date with Wexford, but the only way I could see why Wexford didn’t have the juice in their legs was if they had a few hard training days last week. The weather was un-seasonally warm yesterday for late March but lack of hydration or lads not being able to stick the heat doesn’t cut it anymore given how well conditioned players are in the modern game.
We have no idea of what any team’s internal goals are but Darragh will struggle himself to understand just how poor his side were. Waterford scored 5-20. It could have been 8-30. In a league semi-final that was supposed to be a 50-50 match?
Wexford could have had a couple of penalties. They had a goal called back after Mikey Dwyer finished the ball to the net when Rory O’Connor was adjudged to have gone over the line just beforehand. Yet those scores would only have put a smudge of make-up on the face of what can only be described as a horror-show.
Liam Cahill will be delighted with the performance, but he’ll also be thrilled with how deep his panel appears to be now. Looking at some of the big names Waterford were missing, or which didn’t start, only reaffirmed how good this display actually was.
We thought that Limerick were the only team with that kind of depth, but this league has questioned that theory, while it has added to the belief that Waterford now have the strongest panel in the country.
The guys from the margins are certainly moving closer to the centre stage – Mikey Kiely, Neil Montgomery, Darragh Lyons, Jack Fagan, Jack Prendergast. On the otherhand, how tested were they yesterday?
Waterford can only beat what’s in front of them, but they can be irresistible when they turn it on. The link-play and passing before Austin Gleeson’s second goal was Man Cityesque. On the otherhand, will that stuff be allowed to happen by a physical Tipperary defence in three-weeks time?
There’s no doubt though, that Waterford have worked hard on their goalscoring, which has been evident throughout this league. You’d qualify that yesterday with the paucity of the Wexford defending but some of the finishing – especially Shane Bennett’s batted strike – was top-drawer stuff.
The only down-side for Cahill was the needless sending-off of Aussie Gleeson. You wouldn’t need to be a lip-reader to appreciate Cahill’s frustration, especially when there was nearly 20 points between the teams.
Aussie should know by this stage that this kind of petulance has been too much of a negative streak throughout his career, and that it’s time to cut it out. The incident put a dampener on what was an already disappointing day considering the expectation surrounding the fixture beforehand.
Saturday night’s game was at the complete opposite end of the scale in terms of enjoyment and entertainment. Both teams turned up, both teams went at it, and the better team just won.
We always knew Kilkenny would show up. We weren’t so sure if Cork would so this display hinted at an increasing maturity of a side that finally looks to be learning the hard lessons of the past.
Cork are still learning, especially Daire O’Leary, who had a difficult evening. Daire was taken off at half-time with a groin strain, but part of being a young player is learning on the hoof when the pressure comes on. You almost need to those hard days every so often to remind you of the consistent standard that’s required to really survive and prosper in this bear-pit, especially in the full-back line.
A young defender will always be more exposed than a young forward. If a young forward doesn’t perform, he probably hasn’t got on the ball or scored, which will be put down to inexperience. But a rookie defender is open to far more scrutiny, and questions, if his man goes to town on him and bags two goals.
You just have to ride out the storm because coming through it is what makes you who you eventually become. O’Leary is Cork’s full-back in waiting. He just needs more time to bed in.
He won’t see it that way now, but Daire might look back in time and realise that Saturday was one of those days that made him. I’m also sure he’ll be sitting down with Gary Keegan this week and assessing his response, and the best way to go about it.
Cork aren’t the finished product yet, but the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. When they levelled the match in the 45th minute, I expected them to kick on and win with a bit to spare. Yet it was Kilkenny who hit their stride and Cork didn’t score for 12 minutes.
Cork never panicked and they just drove on in the last quarter in emphatic fashion. To be able to do so too without Patrick Horgan or Shane Kingston doing a whole pile from open play underlined that maturity, both on and off the field. When the game was in the fire in the last quarter in the past, would Hoggie have been taken off? Absolutely not.
Darragh Fitzgibbon had a massive game. So did Conor Lehane, while Alan Connolly and Shane Barrett played some great stuff too up front. It was Connolly’s best game at senior level to date for Cork.
Kilkenny were manful and brave and relentless, as only you’d expect, but they just couldn’t sustain the pace when Cork injected it in the fourth quarter.
That is the key question for every team now though – sustaining the pace considering what’s coming. ‘The monster of the round-robin championship,’ was how Cahill termed it after yesterday.
It was only when Darragh Egan mentioned it a few minutes later that Wexford only have 20 days until they play Galway in the first round in Leinster that makes you realise just how quickly this championship is coming around. If Wexford win that day, yesterday’s result won’t even register on the scale.
Cork and Waterford won’t be holding back on Saturday night but their meeting in mid-May will still be in the back of their minds. A cross-provincial league final would have ruled out those thoughts, but that’s just inevitable with the level of analysis and counter-analysis that goes on these days.
There were certainly no agendas in Navan on Saturday because Antrim and Offaly were so desperate to stay in Division One. Antrim punched their ticket for next year’s train, which they fully deserved on their performances in this spring.
Finally, I give the football crowd enough stick in this column but yesterday’s entertainment across the board was first class considering all the comings and goings of promotion and relegation. The Dublin-Monaghan game in particular was the kind of stuff that TV producers normally dream about.
I was the last man to take Dublin down when Galway plunged us through the relegation trapdoor in 2012. But we got promoted again in 2013 and went on to win Leinster.
So, there is a way back for Dessie Farrell!
