Semple’s Star Wars sequel
Until then, enjoy this as the great rivalry it is, with yesterday’s Guinness Munster SHC semi-final the latest exchange between these two great latter-day rivals, and shame if you didn’t travel. Even the sun nudged the clouds aside - clearly nobody wants to miss these two.
You could dust down most of last year’s eulogy and apply it to this game, though there was a significant difference as the credits rolled. As is now obligatory in these clashes, the game stayed live until the final whistle. Paul Flynn’s late, lofted free gave Cork’s three-point lead a shake, but a point wasn’t enough. If it didn’t hit the operatic heights of last year - there was a second-half lull - then there was still enough to flesh out the bones of legend for years to come.
It’s hard to remember a game when the entrance of one side focused so many pairs of eyes, but that was the case with Waterford yesterday. Before the game you could have had your choice of white and blue combinations, according to rumour in Liberty Square: with McGrath and Flynn, without McGrath and Flynn, with one and not the other. The guessing eventually proved contagious, with Cork brows furrowed about Timmy McCarthy’s fitness, and in the end it was McCarthy who didn’t line out, replaced by Neil Ronan. Flynn moved gingerly through the Waterford warm-up, trying a couple of frees from the sniper’s nest near the 45 he used to grab a goal in last year’s Munster final.
When the ball was thrown in the two sides didn’t offer a sequel to last summer’s classic, but a remake. It was déjà vu all over again as an early Waterford lapse gave Joe Deane a sight of goal - you might as well dangle kippers in front of a piranha.
Cork also replicated last year’s early dominance, with new captain Sean Óg Ó hAilpin clearing ball after ball. The 2004 blueprint seemed to be working well for Cork, with intricate hand-passing patterns and support play a feature of their red-hot start.
Waterford were hanging on. They bemoaned their slow start after the game, but they did well to regain their shape after a scalding opening quarter. Ken McGrath managed to marshall his line and Tony Browne involved himself, but Joe Deane and Kieran Murphy were creating a killing zone behind them, and Cork looked well on top.
Then Eoin Kelly decided not to go through the man-traps being set by the Cork half-back line; he opted for air support, rocketing over points from distance to keep Waterford in touch. His point in the 25th minute was a fine one given the distance; his effort in the 27th minute was magnificent, given the traffic he was in. Some players are stifled by captaincy, while others are liberated. Kelly looked every inch the leader in yesterday’s first half, driving his side on with magnificent striking.
Waterford did even better when a ball squirmed past the Cork full-back line to Paul Flynn, 18 metres from goal. Flynn was clearly hampered by his heavily strapped leg, but the hurling hard-drive was calculating options as quickly as ever. Not many hurlers would have backed themselves to beat Donal Óg Cusack from up to 20 yards off the ground, but it’s highly unlikely that the prospect of bending for the ball ever crossed Flynn’s mind. You would have forgiven the umpire for picking up the green flag even before Flynn warmed the hearts of ground hurling enthusiasts with an immaculate strike that was worth the entrance fee alone.
Dan Shanahan also caught remake fever, finishing a loose ball from the same distance into the net he billowed last year. However, John Mullane couldn’t get into the game; he ranged from pillar to post but couldn’t buy an opening from a defence in which Brian Murphy and Pat Mulcahy seemed to have all the angles worked out.
Cork were probably equally worried at the break about a talisman of their own. Brian Corcoran had his hands full with another man who came back, Fergal Hartley, in the opening period, but the Erin’s Own man decided to endorse the old cliché about form being temporary and class permanent on the resumption.
Though Waterford fizzed with two points, the Cork full-forward stole along the end-line before beating Stephen Brenner in yet another remake - this time of Eoin Kelly’s goal for Waterford in last year’s game. When Corcoran added a point from the touchline, Cork began to strut.
An even more elemental force than Corcoran had also taken a hand by the interval. Though the day was dull and showery, conditions had cleared up by the time the intermediate game was played. Waterford had played with the breeze in the first half but it stiffened as the day wore on, with the strength clearly evident in Eoin Kelly’s second half striking. The points that sailed over for Waterford in the first half now fell short, and with Ronan Curran getting support from Jerry O’Connor and Tom Kenny, Cork were poised to take control.
Significantly, with the game up for grabs with 15 minutes to go, Cork had the experienced players to close it out. Ben O’Connor edged Cork in front and the nails in the Waterford coffin were driven home by Brian Corcoran and Niall McCarthy. The Carrigtwohill man has often been criticised for his shooting, but his two late points - particularly his second, after catching a long Cusack delivery - showed Cork the way home.
Only for Waterford to put a bollard or two in the way. Waterford county suffers a notorious lack of radiotherapy facilities, but you hope their cardiology facilities are up to scratch. The white and blue lived on their nerves as their side whittled the Cork lead to three, right until Flynn’s last free landed six inches too far forward and over the bar.
The big red machine rolls on, with another Munster final in the offing, but it’s not all over for Waterford yet, and few teams will relish facing them in the qualifiers.
However, irrespective of how the rest of the championship pans out, yesterday will put meat on the bones of the growing legend of the New Firm, and hold us until they meet again.
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