Bitterly disappointed Waterford won’t hide behind excuses

NO ifs or buts. No excuses of any kind emanating from a sombre and subdued Deise dressing room.

Instead an honest and open acknowledgement that on the day the spoils of victory had been garnered by the better side.

“We had our chances, mind you,” said team manager Justin McCarthy. “But in the end you can hardly argue about the result.”

Six times Waterford have sought to win back to back Munster senior hurling championship titles. Six times the bid has ended in failure.

For stages in an opening half, which Tony Browne’s men indisputably dominated, there seemed to be a very real chance of ending that particular hoodoo. Cork were struggling throughout the field, often looking a pale shadow of the side that so decisively demolished the Clare challenge in the semi-final.

A five point interval lead for the champions could, perhaps should, have been greater. But it seemed to have set up a cliffhanger finish with Cork to play with the deceptively stiffish breeze on the turnover.

“In many ways we lost this final in that opening half when we failed to capitalise more solidly on the territorial dominance we enjoyed,” Waterford chairman Paddy Joe Ryan said.

“I still thought when we retired at the break that we would win, but Cork crucified us in the first ten minutes of the second half and really the writing was on the wall thereafter.”

Justin McCarthy , despite the obvious disappointment the defeat had inflicted on him and his charges, was insistent that at different stages of the game the team had played very good hurling and while they fully expected a Cork fight-back in the second-half there was always the chance, virtually right to the end, that they might hold onto their title.

McCarthy said it was vital for Cork to register on the scoreboard early in the second half and that they did that ‘in some style’.

“It was not a great first-half and despite our interval lead I thought we could have played better,” he said.

With the All-Ireland qualifiers now beckoning McCarthy said they are just going to have to knuckle down and make the best of it.

“Yes, I welcome the second chance we have been given and its entirely up to ourselves to grab it with both hands,” he said.

In a mood of defiance he said there is a lot of hurling still to be played before the All-Ireland champions are crowned and while their reign as Munster champions is over the bigger goal of All-Ireland glory remains a reality.

“A lot of teams still standing can win that All-Ireland, and that includes ourselves,” he added.

Understandably very few of the players were falling over themselves to proffer their views, but the disappointment of defeat was clearly etched on every countenance. They had gone into this final with the very real possibility of creating history by retaining their provincial title. In the end it was the case of another shattered hurling dream.

Peter Queally, a surprise omission for many from the starting line up who came on as a second-half substitute, said the defeat was ‘hugely disappointing’, all the more so because they had given themselves a platform to win the game in an opening half when they were clearly the better team.

“Cork had what they wanted most, however, a flying start to the second half and, fair play to them, they improved out of all recognition and eventually squeezed us out,” he said.

“The backdoor is still open to us, and our followers can rest assured that we will give it a right lash,” the Youghal based garda added.

“It becomes a very long and arduous championship road for us now,” was the immediate post match comment of county secretary Seamus Grant. “Today’s defeat is a very big setback; there is no point in saying otherwise.”

He said he, and everyone else in the dressing room, felt ‘optimistic’ about their chances at half time but Cork then came out with all guns blazing and in minutes had turned the game dramatically on its head.

“We showed plenty of fighting spirit and pushed Cork all the way. That’s one reason why I believe we can and will impact big time in the qualifier series,” Grant said.

“But it will still take some effort to come out of that lot.”

The final brief words came from skipper Tony Browne, who drove himself through the pain barrier to lead out the team on the day but who was eventually forced to retire when his inability to train as properly over the past few weeks took its almost inevitable toll.

“Of course we’re all gutted at losing our provincial title, but there’s that All-Ireland title still to be played for,” said Browne.

“We will give it our best shot, and it would be unwise in the extreme to discount our chances on the basis of today’s defeat. We’ll bounce back, of that I’m absolutely certain.”