Allen passes testing first exam with flying colours

JOHN ALLEN knew Donal O’Grady was going to be a very hard act to follow when he took over from his club colleague as coach to the Cork senior hurlers.

Yesterday in Thurles he finally put O’Grady’s ghost to rest when his side dethroned Munster champions Waterford in a thrilling provincial semi-final.

“There will always be a bit of measuring me against Donal and for that reason I’m delighted to have got my inter-county debut off to a winning start.

“If I’m only half as successful a coach as Donal, I’ll be happy,” said Allen as Cork await the winners of the other semi-final between Clare and Tipperary in the final.

“Today’s game was much more than a Munster championship match. It was the meeting of the All-Ireland and Munster champions for the very first time, and it was important for us to win the game for that reason alone.

“There was also a lot of pride and honour at stake. The victory puts us back in the Munster final again and I’m thrilled that we had the resolve to turn the game around when it looked to be slipping away from us.

“People may not have noticed, but there was a nine point turnaround, and that’s massive in a game of such intensity. We couldn’t have asked for a better start and looked to be coasting with a two goal lead.

“However we failed to maintain our early dominance and while Waterford were always going to have their own period of superiority, we’ll have to have a look at where and how we faded out of the game. We wouldn’t get away with that in the final.

“There was no need of any conversation between myself and the other selectors for about 20 minutes in the game, and I thought this is going to be a great day out with very little happening. But when Waterford began to come back at us, I certainly began to worry. The communication became a bit frantic and I was relieved to hear the half-time whistle to be honest.

“It didn’t get any easier in the second half. I wouldn’t say we were exactly chasing the game but we certainly had to be on our toes because Waterford were full of running and had us on the back foot for a spell. It was at that stage that our more experienced players stood up. Brian Corcoran became our inspiration and his goal was a magnificent individual effort which lifted everyone.

“I must give him all the credit in the world for what he did during that dodgy period for us. He’s an amazing man to get scores at crucial times in the game, similar to what he did for us last year.

“Niall McCarthy’s overall contribution was crucial also. He was in and out of the game in the first half, but he fired over three superb points in the second half which helped to get us back on track.

“In that first half we probably threw the ball around far too often but we were much more direct in the second half.”

Referring to the failure of Timmy McCarthy to line out, Allen said everything was going well for him up to last Friday week when he tweaked his hamstring.

“We gave him every chance to be ready, but there was every chance he would have torn the hamstring again and be out of action for the same length of time. We couldn’t risk that.

“There are five weeks to the final and I don’t have any preference who will be playing.

“My primary objective today was to win the match and get to the final.”