Gardiner: everything from now on is a bonus

NEITHER captain was making outrageous claims about the quality of the hurling in yesterday’s NHL quarter-final between Cork and Limerick.

The verdicts ranged from not great to tame enough, but there was no mistaking which skipper was the happier in the bowels of the Gaelic Grounds yesterday.

“We’re happy enough with the result, even if we didn’t play that well,” said Cork’s John Gardiner.

“But a win is always welcome when you come up to Limerick, no matter what the competition is.

“We’re happy enough to progress, and to get more competitive games.

“It probably wasn’t a great game to watch, but the result was what we were after here today.”

Gardiner nodded when informed that Galway would be Cork’s opponents in the semi-final; though the Leesiders don’t traditionally place a huge emphasis on the league, the strike earlier this year means the Rebels are in the market for competitive games.

“Galway was what we were expecting from the draw. Though to be honest, we didn’t expect to get to the semi-finals of the league at the start of the year the way things were going. Everything from now on is going to be a bonus. Obviously you want to win every game you play, so now that we’re in a league semi-final, we’ll be going out to win it and to reach the league final itself.”

Part of that interest in competitive games stems from the introduction of some new faces, and yesterday some of Cork’s newer players shone.

Brian Corry continued to impress at centre-forward, Cathal Naughton’s pace was a problem Limerick never really dealt with, and Shane O’Neill and Eoin Cadogan were calmness personified in defence. Their captain was quick to praise the new gang.

“All those younger players are bringing a lot to the team,” said Gardiner. “They’re all hugely enthusiastic at training sessions and that’s driving the whole thing on, while you can see what they bring to games. Today they all did well and everyone is delighted with their progress, they’ve really brought something different to the whole set-up.

“This particular league campaign has probably been good for them as well because a lot of the older, more experienced players have been injured, so there are places there for them and they’ve been able to come in to play in tough games, games to bring them up to speed at senior intercounty level.”

Gardiner’s counterpart, Mark Foley of Limerick, was philosophical as he stood outside the home side’s dressing-room. The Shannonsiders had identified the knock-out stages of the league as an opportunity to sharpen their team, but they found it hard to get their blood up in yesterday’s half-paced game at the Gaelic Grounds. Would they have done better if the game had been played at a higher tempo? “I suppose so, but that’s the difference between league and championship, you go out with the best of intentions to have a bit of bite in the game, but unfortunately it was more your typical league game than championship match.

“Cork will probably be happy enough going home, but we’re disappointed – we were looking to get another game out of the league, so now we’ll have to focus on training.”

The Adare veteran was also frank about the quality of the encounter, and while he wasn’t overemphasising the significance of the defeat, he had no complaints about the final result.

“I suppose it was a tame enough game. The pace of it certainly seemed very dead, so in terms of what you could take out of it – win, lose or draw – I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t think there was a lot that could be taken out of it, for either team.

“Obviously we’re disappointed. I didn’t think we played that great, though in the first half we created a few chances but we just weren’t able to take them, and in the end that was the difference between the two teams.

“Cork were able to take those chances when they got them, and they were deserving winners.”