Expect Waterford at their very best, warns Browne

ALAN BROWNE has a very clear idea of what he expects from his team-mates in the lead-up to Sunday’s Guinness Munster hurling final.

Emphasising the importance of treating Waterford with the respect they have earned, the Cork captain says that they need to be mindful of their sparkling display in last year’s final against Tipperary. To rate them on their semi-final form in the replay with Limerick would only be inviting trouble.

Browne is the latest in the long line of Blackrock players who have led Cork and he’s very conscious of the club honour bestowed on him. In terms of longevity, he also happens to be the ‘senior’ member of the team, being one of five to make their debut in the 1995 championship game against Kerry. Three years later his brother John joined him in the squad, but is not involved this season. Like his older brother Richard (full-back on the successful 1986 team), he has had to sacrifice his inter-county career in order to pursue his professional career as a dentist in England. He says he misses the communication the pair would have before any big game, but jokes that most of all the family miss his tickets.

The much-publicised dispute last year involving the players, management and the County Board was festering from the time a number of players made a token protest in the parade before the National League final against Kilkenny in Thurles. Back at the same venue four few months in the qualifier game against Galway later it accounted for one of the poorest displays from a Cork side in modern times.

The initial protest, which involved a minority of players pulling their socks down and wearing their jerseys outside their shorts (contrary to regulations) caused a split in the camp. The seeds of discontent had been sown. After going out to Waterford in the championship, Cork bounced back in the first-round qualifier game with Limerick, but not very convincingly. “I don’t know if we deserved to win, or even if we went out to win it. It was just a game we happened to win,” he says.

“Certainly coming up to the Galway game, things weren’t right. It’s probably strange thing to say, but there was a feeling that the sooner we were out the better. It was only prolonging the agony. I don’t think anybody was enjoying going to training. But, the most disappointing thing was that we had trained so hard and trained so well prior to the League final.”

In time, the players would regret all the wasted effort, all the sacrifices of precious leisure time. They wondered what it would have been like if they had come together and made a commitment to win for themselves, ‘rather than winning for anybody else.’ That never happened, but in the final analysis there was the satisfaction that the stand they had taken had a positive outcome.

Quite apart from peripheral improvements in the area of player welfare, the real benefit was that it brought players closer together. In turn, the goodwill shown by the new management promoted a unity of purpose.

“More than anything else it bonded the players, with the result that the atmosphere there is unbelievable at the moment,” adds Browne. “Donal O’Grady got us back training in January and organised a lot of practice games. It’s always hard to get back training in the winter, but there was a brilliant attitude right from the start.

“It probably showed in our league campaign, bar one or two games where we let ourselves down. We had some very good wins and put some very good performances, without the same team ever starting in any match. The big thing has been the great attitude among the players and Donal O’Grady complemented that with his management style.

Against the background of what had gone on last year, a good start to the National League campaign was always going to be important. The fact of playing at home in the first round, against Limerick, meant there was additional pressure on the players and to come out with a win gave them a huge boost. Overall, the win over Tipperary was the most pleasing, he recalled. “It was because of the manner we won it. We had been a point or two up at half-time, they came out and got 2-2 in about five minutes but didn’t score for another 25 mins. In the past we might have folded when put under pressure. It was a big test for the team and hugely encouraging when we came out on top.”

There have been times since when the training was very tough, on occasions up to five and six nights together. Players were feeling the strain, Browne says that nobody was complaining, nobody was looking for excuses to avoid it.

“What struck me before the Clare game was that everybody was so calm. You could detect it in conversations. Everybody was ready for the challenge, everybody was really focused.”

Of course, they were well prepared to take on the Clare challenge after watching them in action against Tipperary. “All over the field, to a man they beat Tipperary and it was a huge advantage to us to see that. The element of surprise was now gone. If we hadn’t seen that game and they came out and met us with that type of intensity, I don’t know if we would have been able to match it.”

His personal contribution to the game was minor compared to some of the other players around him, but at this stage in his career he has no difficulty coping with that. The fact is that he saw little of the ball.

“Games go like that. The next day the ball could be in my corner a lot rather than Setanta’s (O hAilpin), but hopefully not because he played so well with the ball he got. To be honest I’m involved long enough to know that games go for you sometimes and other times they don’t. You’re not involved as much as you’d like to be, but it was so pleasing to see the follows around you playing so well. Joe (Deane) showed great leadership and got some vital scores, while Setanta adds a bit of freshness.”

Waterford, he feels, are ‘coming in very quiet’ to the final, agreeing that they have been forewarned, just as much as Cork had been. He knows they are supposed to have played very well in their drawn game with Limerick, but he can’t testify to that because he wasn’t at the game and it wasn’t televised. And, the second game was so mediocre as to make it difficult to form a valid judgement.

“I’d rather fellows would remember the performance they had against Tipperary last year,” he stressed. “If you’re expecting the performance they had against Limerick in their last game we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”