McCarthy: we kept working and played a bit more direct

NO promises from Justin McCarthy, no guarantees how Waterford will fare in Sunday week’s Allianz NHL final against Kilkenny.

Just a promise of honest effort of the type which ended Cork’s hopes of getting back to the final after a nine-year lapse.

“We’ll give it a lash,’’ he said outside the team dressing room, just after addressing the players — when you can be sure he told them to keep their feet on the ground.

“We knew it would be close. Cork weren’t going to give in. Basically, it was always going to go right down to the end, that it would be a question of who was going to keep working. We played a bit more direct, I thought, especially in the second half. We got the scores. We kept working and didn’t give in.’’

This was a game where you were never going to get high scoring, he said. “There was a lot of tactics, a lot of watching each other. It was just a matter of ‘a break’, of being able to conjure up that score and get the extra point or two — and we did that in the latter end of the game.’’

All-star corner-back Eoin Murphy wasn’t getting carried away, stressing that while it was “great” to get through a game of this nature, they had won nothing yet.

“There wasn’t much in it, but we’ll take it. This will be a yardstick to see where we are at, but one game at a time. We’ll keep our feet on the ground.’’

For Ken McGrath it was comparable to a championship game and Waterford showed the character demanded of them.

“We didn’t panic and we got a few points. We stuck with our game plan and luckily enough we hurled for the second half without playing brilliant. It was very important to beat Cork.

“We haven’t won a league in over 40 years, so any trophy is important to us. And to play Kilkenny in the final will be a great experience for the young lads. It will tell a lot about this team for the championship.

“The last final was an anticlimax. We were playing the following week, if we had beaten Galway, I don’t know if we would have beaten Clare.’’

Cork manager Gerald McCarthy agreed that the circumstances of Waterford’s goal had been a subject of debate among the players afterwards, as to whether it was over the line or not.

“I couldn’t say from where we were,’’ he commented.

For his part goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack didn’t pass judgment either: “The two lads (umpires) are very experienced. To be honest, I couldn’t say if it was over the line or not. We’ll see tonight [on television].”

McCarthy described the game as ‘ding-dong’ for most of the 70 minutes — up to Waterford’s the late “magnificent points” which won the game.

“We were quite pleased with the way our lads fought. The odds were possibly stacked against us, with the injuries we had prior to the game (losing Cian O’Connor and Joe Deane) and Neil Ronan’s injury, the first ball he got.

“We’re disappointed about that but you’d have to say that Waterford put in a superb effort. They hurled very well. I think the period of the game where they got a goal and a few points, we were something like five points up and suddenly we were two points down at half time. Our lads fought very well in the second half. It looked for a long time it might end in a draw.’’

Overall, he felt the campaign had been quite satisfying, commenting: “we introduced quite a few newcomers. Some are shaping up well. Others have a good bit to do obviously from today’s performances.’’

Looking to the final, he gives his former team a good chance: “They know they will be up against it, but they have three or four big guns in the forward line. And if they are on song, anything could happen!"