O’Grady saves smiles for later

DURING a game, Cork senior hurling manager Donal O’Grady does not look like a man enjoying himself, his face a twisted mass of pain and anguish with each passing minute.

"I wouldn't say I take pleasure in it," he freely admits. "Fellas talk about the enjoyment of the game, but any big game you're involved in, there's very little enjoyment or even satisfaction.

"That comes afterwards, if at all, depending on the result, whether you felt you did a good job. The satisfaction on the job itself is in the camaraderie. When you're in the thick of it you don't actually even get the time to think about enjoying yourself.

"I don't anyway. You try and do what needs to be done as best you can. But obviously it helps if you're getting satisfaction from it."

O'Grady is ultra-professional, utterly dedicated. Being in the hot-seat of the biggest hurling county in the land is, in practical terms, a full-time job, but as a principal at North Mon, he doesn't have enough time to tackle the role to his own satisfaction.

Neither, does he have his players for the kind of time it takes to perfect the tactics built around their puckout that Wexford used to shock Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final.

"I'd say if you checked up on Wexford, they were probably together without any interference since the start of the year. We played them in Ardmore about six weeks ago and they played exactly those tactics, so obviously it's something they've been working on all year.

"They've had three nights a week to practice tactics, tactics and more tactics. Tactics on the inter-county scene, especially the finer points, take an awful lot of time time we don't have. The biggest problem down here [in Cork] is trying to facilitate both the inter-county and the club scene.

"There are always difficulties in that area, I mean we had club matches up to a fortnight ago. You can contrast that with other counties where they stop all club activity once they get into any major final. Obviously, as someone involved with the Cork senior team, you're looking for as much time with the players as you can get.

"We did learn a few lessons from last year as regards the club scene; we gave the clubs dates, gave them the month of April basically. We tried to manage the club matches and the inter-county matches as best we could, but there's no solution that will satisfy everyone."

Yet, O'Grady still managed to take Cork to the All-Ireland final. And the principle lesson learned last season?

"When you shoot, make sure it goes over! I thought we did quite well last year. We had chances in the final, didn't convert them, a little more composure was needed, which is vital in top-class championship matches.

"The press will go on about switches that were made, that weren't made, but I felt we made the switches we needed to make last year, we just didn't get over the line in the end.

"But I don't think we did too many things that were awfully wrong, and I thought we did an awful lot of things that were right. We looked at a lot of different things, but small things win matches in the end."

Waterford have looked better than last year. Are they?

"I'll tell you at six o'clock on Sunday! I don't know. We can only focus on our own team. Waterford have been impressive enough in the two championship matches they've played but you don't know how strong they are 'til you play them yourself.

"If you were a neutral observer you'd say yes, Waterford have serious talent, but we're not without talent ourselves. If we go well, we can't do any more than that."

We could smile of course, but you get no extra points for that.