O’Grady wants All-Ireland win to keep hurling going in city

FORGET about Cork wanting to stop Kilkenny in their tracks in the bid to complete the first hurling treble in 26 years.

Donal O’Grady wants the Rebels to win the All-Ireland to keep hurling going in places like the city where “it’s under pressure”.

To use his own words, “an oul win now and again wouldn’t be any harm”. All that he is interested in at this stage is “one in a row!”

“I suppose it won’t be any harm either, but it’s a huge task,” he said after yesterday’s runaway win over Wexford. “We saw Kilkenny this year under ferocious pressure and they always came out on top. It’s going to be very difficult to try and dethrone them.”

O’Grady and his management have had their critics this year, but his team has proved its worth by getting back to another final. While the winning margin at the end was 18 points, he expected it to be very close.

On reflection, he was prepared to concede that the six weeks lay-off had caught Wexford.

In terms of its execution, yesterday’s display was close to being flawless. But, in the immediate aftermath, O’Grady made it clear that he didn’t see it that way - that he would need to see the video to pass judgment.

“But, you’d have to be pleased with the first-half display particularly,” he said. “The first six minutes went without a score and it was up and down the field. I don’t know if there was even a free, there were very few stoppages. It was very tough in that first five or six minutes.”

Who could disagree with his verdict that the game was really only tough for that short period of the game. And, who would challenge the view that but for Damien Fitzhenry’s splendid display of goalkeeping (it won them the Leinster final), the margin could have been so much greater at the end.

On the first point he felt that after putting up some good points on the board, Tom Kenny’s superb goal gave the team a lift and put them in a comfortable position going in at half-time.

Reacting to the fact that they managed just that one goal, he initially questioned if his players had been clinical enough. But, he agreed that the Wexford keeper stopped two shots from Joe Deane, which on another day, would have gone into the net.

“Joe took two great shots and he (Fitzhenry) stopped them at the corner Gordon Banks style. He’s a class keeper.” Despite their comfortable position at the break, the Cork manager still felt a little concerned.

“The second-half lagged a bit and they came back into it. We knew they had nothing to lose and that they would come out and drive on. Having said that, with 10 minutes to go the game was finished.”

In terms of how Cork won the game so convincingly, O’Grady credited his defence with playing superbly in the opening 15 minutes.

During that period, they snuffed out anything that Wexford threw at them. After that, they contested the Wexford puck-outs and didn’t allow them clean possession.

That was how they won the game.

“When things you do work out well for you there is a bit of satisfaction, when they don’t there’s frustration,” he said.

“I would have to say that the opposition were going to get some scores, but that we worked very hard to limit them to what they got. I wasn’t entirely happy with the second-half. There was what I would call a bit of self-indulgence here and there.

“Having said that it’s very difficult to keep up the intensity for 70 minutes. I was worried that if they got a goal or two like they did last year that they would come back at us.”

O’Grady’s immediate concern is for his players to be given a time to recover, to avoid club activity where possible between now and the final. “We would like a clear run, but we won’t get that,” he said. “You play with the hand you are dealt with. If we don’t get three weeks, there’s no point in turning up for the final.”