Counihan has plenty to ponder as bigger examinations await
Cork may have rounded off their spring on a high note and grabbed silverware in a national final in Croke Park, but Counihan was still keen to downplay matters after his side had defeated Monaghan.
“To be honest, I don’t think Monaghan played as well as they can. That was a disappointment from our point of view. But, look, we know all about coming to Croke Park and not performing well. Monaghan probably didn’t do themselves justice by their own high standards.”
“We’re going into championship now and the tempo is going to be much, much higher, That’s the reality of it. And we have to get to pace with that. I thought we were workmanlike and we had good effort. I would obviously have liked to see a few more scores on the board. And maybe we could have cut down a few of their scores. We did look to be in control. Some of that was down to Monaghan’s poor performance because they weren’t the team we met in Scotstown a few weeks ago.”
For their opening championship bout against Waterford on May 24, Counihan will have plenty to ponder with some new faces having entered the radar over the course of the league.
“The basis on which we pick the team is on form. That’s what we’ll do again going on for the championship. I don’t know how close today was to our team. The reality of it is that some guys have a bit more work to do. Some guys performed well today, others didn’t.”
For attacker Daniel Goulding victory provided a measure of compensation for Cork’s reversal to Monaghan four weeks ago and their losses in Croke Park over the last few years.
“We didn’t want to be coming up here every time losing. We wanted to atone for it. We know in Scotstown we let ourselves down and we wanted to atone for that as well. Winning gives you confidence and maybe a league trophy will give us that bit of confidence for the next day we are at Croke Park. Conor said to us was that we had played enough days when it didn’t work out so it is nice for it to work out, especially when it is a final.”
If the Cork camp could reflect in satisfaction at the day’s events, Monaghan were left to consider a flat display. Manager Seamus McEnaney admitted it had been a frustrating spectacle for him to observe. “We didn’t perform the way we would like to perform. That’s something we’ll have to work on and we’ll be back in training on Tuesday night. We prepared quite well for today’s game. But we didn’t perform and too many players didn’t play up to scratch. Cork came out very hungry today. I suppose the first eight or ten minutes, we had a few chances.
“A couple went into the keeper’s hands and a couple went wide. It’s an eye opener.”
