Walsh: lads were brilliant in second-half
“There was a 10-minute spell in the first-half in which they got away from us,” said the Cork manager afterwards.
“We got two points before the break which were very important and we felt good enough at half-time. The breeze was going to carry the ball into the full-forward line in the second-half, but when the chances come you must take them.”
Walsh paid tribute to the victors. “In fairness to Tipperary, they weathered the storm very well and got a few scores at the end, the sign of a good team.
“But when we look at it later we’ll know we had the chances, chances of goals and from 65s. I’m not pointing the finger at anybody, but if we’d taken half of those we’d have won. I reckon there was probably 2-3, 2-4 in those.
“Realistically we had the chances. We conceded the goal but regrouped, and I thought our lads were tremendous in the second half, absolutely brilliant.”
Walsh acknowledged there had been question marks about whether his side could get up to championship intensity, but preferred to dwell on the positives his players could take from the game. “There was a question whether we could get to that (intensity). In the 10 minutes from the 20th to the 30th they probably got six points, and that’s where the intensity caught us. “Most of the players had their moments. We took off Niall and Timmy in the second-half, but we’d asked them go as hard and as long as they could.
“There was no dishonour in coming off because even if they weren’t on the ball that much they were doing great work off the ball for us. That’s what we’d asked them to do and we had that planned to some degree.”
Regarding Timmy McCarthy’s disallowed goal, Walsh acknowledged referee Barry Kelly had blown before the player scored. “The whistle went before he put the ball in the net, so what can you say,” said Walsh. “But, seeing there were a lot of other passages that went on quite a long time – players seemed to be pulled back and the advantage was played, but there’s no point in doing that if an advantage doesn’t accrue. We were blown up for overcarrying a few times when, if you look back, the players were maybe being pulled back a little. There were three or four instances of that which proved costly in the end.”
Despite his obvious disappointment, the Cork manager couldn’t hide his delight at the performance of some of his new players, particularly debutant full-back Eoin Cadogan.
“At this level people were saying ‘this guy mightn’t do’, but unless a guy gets a chance you won’t know. Eoin Cadogan is man of the match on a beaten team, which says it all. I’m delighted for him.”
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