McCarthy hails his players’ courage as Cork just ‘got out of jail’
Referring to his players in the dressing room, McCarthy said: “there are a lot of broken hearts in there now, particularly after we came so close to winning it. The least we deserved was a second bite of the cherry.
“On a day when fancy hurling went out the window, it was always going to be a very tight game with so much at stake. There was very little open play, principally due to the weather and the man-to-man marking that went on.
“Looking back on the game now maybe we got the break a bit too early in the second-half. There was plenty of time for Cork to come back at us when we went four points in front. Had that happened say with 10 or 15 minutes to go things might have turned out differently.”
McCarthy paid tribute to his players for their efforts yesterday — and throughout the year.
“Someone said that we went 15 minutes without a score in the second half . That is something you cannot do at this level of competition, but I cannot apportion blame to any player. In fact I’m extremely proud of every one of them…
“They gave it everything they had. In the end we needed just that little break which might have given us the draw but it didn’t happen. Cork got one or two breaks and made maximum use of them, and we couldn’t respond.
“I did think there were one or two decisions which might have gone our way towards the end, but they didn’t and I’m not one for making issues of those. The referee had a job to do and did it to the best of his ability.
“Today was an outstanding chance for Waterford to bridge that 43-year gap. You might not get the chance again because there is a long way back to this point again. That goes for any team, not just Waterford.”
Asked if Cork were good enough to retain their title, McCarthy admitted that they will benefit from yesterday’s game.
“We knew their true form was not in the game against Limerick. Today they got out of jail.
“They responded well when the gauntlet was thrown down to them and that’s the sign of a good team. I’d say they have every chance against either Clare or Kilkenny. It certainly has the makings of a great final.”
Questioned if the loss of Paul Flynn and Dave Bennett were key factors in his side’s defeat, McCarthy didn’t want to make any excuses.
“It would have been great if we had them, but we had a very good team on duty capable of winning the match, but just came up short through no fault of our own.”
McCarthy was non-committal about his future involvement with the county, preferring to look forward to next season.
“There is a tremendous amount of work being done on the ground in Waterford. We are working at senior level without any under-age inter-county success which is always a drawback, but we’ll keep at it... who knows what the future holds for Waterford.
“Right now it’s hard to know if the experienced players will stay on. The commitment to senior inter-county hurling is huge. We put in over 90 odd sessions to get to this point and it’s hard for fellas to keep that up.”
Despite the fact that players on both sides were losing their feet through the game, McCarthy commented that there is no other pitch in Ireland like Croke Park.
“As a result it’s very hard to know what kind of boots to wear. You cannot take a divot out of the ground as there is no sod as such. Players would really need spikes to keep their feet but obviously that’s not possible given the damage they could do.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
