Carey runs the show again but sings praises of Ó hAilpín

ON A day when DJ Carey confirmed yet again his greatness, perhaps the most outstanding single fact to emerge from yesterday's game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was that Cork's Setanta Ó hAilpín has confirmed his own growing stature in the game.

While he finished with just one point himself, Setanta was centrally involved in all three Cork goals. He showed some truly magical touches with the stick and incredibly intricate foot-work for a guy nearing six foot six inches in height.

Even DJ was impressed: "I've been looking forward to seeing Setanta making the step up to senior level for a few years now and he did it today. He's a fine prospect. A big lad, I'd hate to have to be marking him."

Carey was of course the main man, a point painfully impressed on Cork manager Donal O'Grady.

"In the first half we gifted them two goals, elementary errors really. DJ popped up and we were chasing the game after that. You can't do that against Kilkenny. The game hinged on a lack of cuteness on our part; they were slick while we were naive. But it would be wrong to forget they are the All-Ireland champions. They have the players who can turn it on on the big day.

"That team has been together more or less since the late 90s. We're not at that level yet, not even in Munster. We still have a way to go but today was good for the team."

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody was not entirely satisfied. "It was a good competitive game. Cork out-hurled us in stages but I'm reasonably happy. We hadn't beaten Cork in Cork for a long time, so it's good to come down here and go home with a win. We're back in the frame at least, if we'd lost again today we were gone, I'm sure of that, but this gives us a fighting chance of making the final.

"It was a big test for us, far more at stake here than just two league points as far as I was concerned, I wanted to see if we had the stomach for it."