Counihan: we expected it to be tough
His team’s desperate struggle to defeat Limerick in yesterday’s Munster final had not featured in any pre-match opinions.
Their crushing dismissal of Kerry at the semi-final stage had left Cork emphatic favourites yet Counihan’s men stumbled rather than sailed over the finishing line here.
The Cork contingent exhaled a gale of relief at the final whistle but their boss had predicted this potential banana skin.
“I mentioned last week this would be a tough game and that Limerick would put it up to us. The fact that the media were putting us up on a pedestal after beating Kerry too. I equally said that we weren’t that good and I said that Kerry weren’t that great. Today had a lot to do with Limerick’s performance. We expected that. We dealt with it as best we could on the day but we were extremely lucky.”
From the off, Cork’s challenge was debilitated. Noel O’Leary watched from the sideline with a suspension tag. Anthony Lynch was ruled out with an injured groin. John Miskella was absent with a trouble hamstring. Half of Cork’s defence wiped out of the equation instantly.
“Oh yeah it did test us,” admitted Counihan. “But in fairness we’ve a lot of confidence in the guys coming in and I think if we looked at the game and looked at the scores that we conceded generally we weren’t that bad, just a bit of cohesion around the first three-quarters of that game that probably cost us.”
The Limerick challenge didn’t surprise the Cork bainisteoir.
“We had studied them against Tipp and against Clare. This was their day in the sun and they were going to move everything. I’m very aware of that, I work on the Limerick border and I’ve gotten a fair grilling all week and I’ll be getting a bit of a grilling tomorrow as well.”
At the interval, Cork needed to draw on all their reserves. Where Limerick sprinted through the first-half exchanges, Cork limped along. Donncha O’Connor’s first-half penalty ensured Cork’s pulse kept beating but they still trailed 0-9 to 1-2 midway through.
“We said at half-time that we needed to take responsibility, we need to take ownership, but we don’t panic. We came out then and I felt we dominated the first 15 minutes but we didn’t get scores on the board. To be fair to fellas they kept their heads, kept plugging away and you know if you do that generally you get the break. I don’t know how many opportunities we failed to convert after half-time. You just have to keep with it and hopefully it will turn for you and fortunately enough it did.”
When their challenge was starting to sink, Cork possessed a few players capable of baling them out. In that regard Counihan was eager to shower bouquets towards the attacking talents of Daniel Goulding and Colm O’Neill.
“That’s Daniel for you. If Daniel gets a sniff of the goals generally speaking he’ll put it away. He took responsibility and I thought Colm (O’Neill), when he was introduced, showed plenty of composure. They all lifted their game.”
They may have wobbled alarmingly but Cork are still standing. For the second summer in a row, Counihan has departed from Páirc Uí Chaoimh with a Munster trophy in the boot and he’s looking forward to bringing his charges to the bright lights in Dublin.
“Regardless of if you win by 10 points you’re looking for more in terms of performance and the reality is we now have the opportunity to address the performance. It’s when you’re beaten by a point and you don’t have the opportunity, that’s when you’re down. From a Cork football perspective, it’s 14 years since we did consecutive Munster titles and that’s important that we started to show a bit of consistency on that. We’ll have a lot of fellas there who will be disappointed with their performance. That’s probably a positive thing because a lot of these lads have character. I know they’ll fight back and deliver again.”
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