Justin: We don’t lack discipline
The former champions had five of their players yellow-carded, with Paul Flynn being sent off after he was carded a second time near the end of the game, reportedly for having words with the referee.
McCarthy said: “It was a high-pressure game. There were times when they fouled a bit here and there, but, it was in the heat of the battle, in flying tackles.
“One thing about this Waterford team, they were not afraid of Cork. Before, they might fall away. The sight of the red jersey would frighten them. But we got a lot of pride back, and a bit of respect. And, we should have got more.’’
Pointing out that preparations had gone well and they had planned their tactics well, McCarthy said he always believed they could win if things went right for them. But, they had been hit by the effects of Tony Browne’s semi-final injury.
“With all due respect it was an awful blow that Tony Browne wasn’t 100% fit,” McCarthy said. “He was a great man to do what he did because he didn’t run for three weeks. In fairness, he gave us 35 minutes of great stuff, but his legs seized up in the second half. A fit Tony Browne would have made a big difference. He would have been the leader that we needed. We needed leaders and he was an awful loss to the second half.’’
It emerged yesterday that Dave Bennett had been limited by a leg injury he received late in the first half. Switching him from midfield to wing-forward for the second half was designed to give him a rest. There was also the promise of a few scores from him. Linked to this was the decision to bring Ken McGrath out to partner Browne to help him express himself.
“It’s grand to say that we could have left Ken there. But, we knew that Tony was going to struggle, so we needed a good presence out there in fairness, and Ken was the man we had to bring out.’’
In the event, while McGrath did win some good possession, the bad luck he had experienced earlier in his finishing was to persist.
“It was a setback for Ken to miss chances, but no fellow goes out to miss scores. When he went out he caught a lot of ball. People might say we made a bad move, but we felt we had to bring him out.’’
Joe Deane’s late goal, he agreed, proved a vital score and McCarthy paid tribute to the Cork full-forward for his perseverance.
“It was a typical Cork goal,’’ he added. “Cork would be watching for chances like that. And, it’s only a fellow like Joe Deane who would have the patience and the presence of mind to grab a shot out of the air like he did, go a few steps and bang! An experienced player can do that. He wasn’t getting too many balls before that and he missed a few frees, but, he has great patience.’’
Waterford won’t come together until Thursday night when they will review the game. McCarthy concedes it will be hard to renew their challenge in the qualifier series in a fortnight.
“We’ll have to look at it in every shape and form. We were ready for Sunday and it’s a setback when you lose in a game that you felt you had a chance of winning, with only two points in it with two or three minutes to go. This will test the character of the players and everybody. The next game will be huge for Waterford hurling.’’
Meanwhile, Cork manager Donal O’Grady accepts his team faces a different type of challenge in being match fit for the All-Ireland semi-final on August 10 and in surroundings unfamiliar to all of the playing panel.
Whatever about the possibility of getting acquainted with the new Croke Park, the Cork manager agrees that six weeks is a long break before their next game.
“It was well documented that Waterford had problems with that last year, that they felt they were not as tuned in as they had been for the Munster final,’’ O’Grady said.
“It will be my first experience of this and the first experience for the players. We won’t know how we will cope until the time comes.
“We have never been on the new surface or experienced the type of wind that’s there. From talking to people who have played there it’s different, with one side semi-enclosed and the other side open.’’
Reflecting on what has been achieved so far, O’Grady added: “We have played two championship matches and won both of them, but, they were far from perfect displays.
“I thought we were lucky in the first half on Sunday to be just five points down at half-time.
“Waterford missed four or five gilt-edged chances to go maybe nine or 10 points up which might have put us under severe pressure for the second half. And, while the first 10 minutes were very good, it was then nip and tuck from there on in.
“I’m inclined to look at it in a colder light than other people - where there were shortcomings. You look at the positives and negatives and hope that you can improve on all aspects of the play. Obviously we didn’t quite know how the team would fare against Waterford until the team took the field. When they were under severe pressure they kept fighting away.
“It was testimony to their fighting qualities that we were only five points down because we came back very strongly just before half time. We missed a few scoring chances but kept the deficit down to five points. And that was crucial.’’
From the management perspective, there was never any question of chopping or changing, or to use O’Grady’s own description, of getting into ‘a chessboard type of situation and robbing Peter to pay Paul’.
“That doesn’t have any effect but it unsettles players. I felt it was just a case that Waterford were playing very well and we were slightly off the pace. It wasn’t that particular players were in huge trouble. We made the substitution I felt we had to make. We needed a general improvement in play and we got that from half-time on.’’
He agreed Deane’s goal won the game for Cork, but, he felt the early goal scored by Setanta Ó hAilpín had been the most important.
“If he hadn’t scored that we would have had severe problems. We had 1-1 on the board after 20 minutes. The goal gave us a cushion in that it kept us in the game and then we tacked on a few scores approaching half time.’’
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