O’Grady stays on high alert

HE’S principal of Scoil Mhuire, North Mon secondary school in Cork, he also happens to be manager of the Cork senior hurling team, but Donal O’Grady could be a Jesuit.

Certainly he has the philosophy: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

A few days to go to this Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final against Wexford, not once since the Munster final win over Waterford six weeks earlier has O’Grady had his full squad together for training. In the unlikely event that it would happen in any other county (it wouldn’t), almost any other manager would be up in arms, crying his frustration from the rooftops. Not O’Grady.

“It’s not the ideal situation but you just have to make the best of it, no point in complaining, do what you have to do, simple as that.”

So there was no full squad session, not even a challenge match to maintain some sort of cohesion, of team form. “There was a lot of club activity, then there was the U21 championship, football club matches and so on. It was very difficult to find any suitable opposition for a challenge match, most inter-county teams were still involved at quarter-final level.

“Limerick did look for a game, but we wouldn’t have had a team because of the timing; about two weeks after the Munster final, there was too much club activity.”

The result: “We’re going into this match really not knowing what our form is like.” Not the ideal situation? Bit of an understatement surely and pressed, O’Grady did concede some ground: “There are enough people you can ask that of around the county, but I don’t know. I’m all in favour of progressing the club championship in tandem with the inter-county competitions, but there has to be a balance. When you have all sorts of club competitions coming in, it’s very difficult to do it, but that’s the hand you’re dealt, that’s what you have to play with.” What about the fixing of the U21 replay for last Sunday night, a week before this game, two key players, midfielder John Gardiner and corner-forward Setanta Ó hAilpín, involved? “It wasn’t ideal, but the fixtures were given out, the semi-final and final was fixed, and the U21 football was also coming into play, five or six of the hurlers on that, all sorts of ramifications.

“I’m not too au fait with it all; there was no point in us getting involved because we had no power in that area. Get on with it, simple as that, you could be complaining all day and all night but the main thing is get on with it, do the best you can.”

That stoicism in the face of adversity, that dogged determination to keep on, marked O’Grady out as a player, a hard-working gutsy full-back of bottomless resolve. The same mark is now on this team, his team, and if Cork are beaten this Sunday, it will not be for lack of effort.

Cork beaten? Hardly, goes the conventional wisdom, Munster champions Cork will have too much for Wexford. Rubbish, reckons the Cork manager.

“A lot of people are writing off Wexford; people who haven’t even looked at the videos of their games have dismissed them. The Wexford management were very cute after the Leinster final, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth, they said the performance was very poor.

“I don’t think they were that disappointed; it was a lucky Eddie Brennan goal that turned that game, the ball ricocheted back to him when he was inside everyone else and he stuck it. Okay, Kilkenny ran out easy winners, but for a long time they were put to the pin of their collars.

“Also Larry Murphy wasn’t on the team at that stage, and he’s added huge impetus to the Wexford team. They went on after that and played Waterford; beat them far more impressively than we did. That game was over with 20 minutes to go, we were put to the pin of our collars in the Munster final, putting balls over the bar two, three minutes into added-time.

“They then played Antrim. Whenever you play Antrim, I think you’re in a very difficult situation. The supporters, even the players themselves, think that no matter how bad things are going, you’ll get there in the end.

“I think that’s what happened with Wexford; they got there in the end when they needed to win it. Wexford are a very good side, in my view, very different to the traditional Wexford teams of before, when they had big, strong men who would pick the ball, carry it fifty or sixty yards and strike it over the bar.

“They have strength down the middle now, very nippy wing-forwards, the two Jacobs and Chris McGrath, very quick players, Darren Stamp, Liam Dunne wing-backs, very fast, good hurlers.

“From what I’ve seen of them this year, they’re a very dangerous team, they could do anything on the day, could be absolutely brilliant, they’re known fighters to the end.

“It’s a very difficult assignment, we’ll have a huge job of work to do. They’ve been in Croke Park already this year, played in the Leinster final, played Antrim, we’ve never played there, not this team, not in the finished stadium on the new surface. They’ve had two hard competitive matches over the last few weeks, we haven’t played for six weeks. All these things are advantages to them, while we have so many unknown factors. I think this is a 50/50 game.”