O’Grady unhappy with ref’s decisions
“Jonathan was blatantly pulled back right in front of me as he tried to get away but the referee ignored the obvious free,” said a dejected O’Grady.
“Shortly after that he penalised Kieran Murphy for absolutely nothing and awarded Waterford a free out. In a tight game, those kind of decisions can cost you the game; we were under pressure looking for scores at that point but both of those decisions are difficult to fathom.”
“We looked to be in a very good position at half time after playing against the wind.
“We had hurled well despite the strong wind. Waterford came at us in the second half and knocked over a couple of points but we responded well and went three points clear.
“It was looking good for us when they had John Mullane sent off, but from then on Waterford lifted their game to trojan heights.
“We dropped ours which was surprising considering we had the numerical advantage.”
O’Grady added: “We weren’t cute enough in utilising the extra man. We should have spread it out more.
“We didn’t play smart hurling in the last ten minutes and took the wrong option at times.
“There was a bit of selfishness by some of our players who should have popped the ball on to a better placed colleague and ultimately it cost us our title. All credit to Waterford they upped the ante considerably after being reduced to 14 players and we could never draw level with them.
“We missed a couple of glorious chances to at least snatch a draw. In those hectic closing minutes the Waterford backs made a great interception from Kieran Murphy’s intended pass to Jerry O’Connor.
“Had the ball reached Jerry it was a certain score, but that’s Munster Championship hurling. Sometimes things come off for you other times they don’t. Today was one of those days when nothing went right for us.”
Asked if he could pick up the players ahead of the All Ireland qualifiers O’Grady said that it was going to be very difficult after the loss.
“Our provincial title is gone and we move onto a new competition where there are some very good teams.
Brian Corcoran, who impressed in the opening half but who saw little of the ball after the interval, said it is never easy losing a Munster final, but added that to do so by a point is a bitter pill to swallow.
“All fairness to Waterford they took their chances while we didn’t and that was the main difference at the finish.”
“From where I was we didn’t appear to utilise the extra man to our advantage and I will have to look at the video to see where we went wrong.
“Both teams appeared to play better against the wind, particularly Waterford’s half back line which thundered into the game in the second half we couldn’t cope with that.”
“It back to the drawing board for us and hopefully we can learn from this defeat for the next round.”
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