You win, you lose, you draw

WHOEVER SAID a little learning was a dangerous thing wasn’t thinking of the National Hurling League.

The league is both a means and an end; a laboratory where new products are tested, yet also an open marketplace where products jostle for shelf space.

Waterford and Cork hammered out a high-scoring draw before an excited crowd in sharp sunshine yesterday in Walsh Park, but it was a league game. Not championship. The process is as important as the end result.

Davy Fitzgerald, the Waterford coach, took specific lessons from the game: “We have issues we have to deal with – we keep conceding goals, but we’ll get there. We’ve used 28, 29 players in the league and given them experience. We’ve been bringing back the older guys and I’m happy with all of them as well.”

His opposite number, Denis Walsh, felt Cork had different issues to study.

“We came to win and we showed that several times in the second half when it would have been easy to pack up and go home.

“They had the wind and the momentum and we weren’t playing particularly well. We got a foothold and got scores, and that wasn’t easy. That’s something we’ll have to look at, that when the opposition take over that we can maybe kill the game a little bit.”

He should. Waterford did well to pick themselves off the canvas, because while Cork were disrupted before the throw-in by the withdrawal of Eoin Cadogan and Paudie O’Sullivan, they were still quicker to settle.

Aided by a deceptively strong breeze, they hit five wides in the first ten minutes but they also scored 1-2 in that period, their goal coming from Michael Cussen on eight minutes: Patrick Horgan dispossessed Noel Connors and when the ball broke to Kieran Murphy, he placed his tall clubmate for a cool finish.

Cussen’s marker, Mark O’Brien of Tallow, got to grips with his opponent after that, and he needed to. Cork’s half-back line dominated proceedings and kept the Waterford rearguard under pressure, and when Cussen got his second point on 20 minutes it meant the Deise six down, 1-6 to 0-3.

Stephen Molumphy and Eoin Kelly led Waterford’s fightback, the latter’s unerring eye from frees helping to reel in Cork’s lead. On 25 minutes Kelly dropped a high, hanging ball into the square, and Shane Walsh disputed its arrival with Cork ‘keeper Anthony Nash. Kelly was credited when it dropped over the line, and Waterford were back in business: 1-5 to 1-6.

From the puck-out, however, Cian McCarthy fed Cussen for another calmly-taken goal – interestingly, Davy Fitzgerald exonerated Mark O’Brien after the game: “I wouldn’t blame Mark for either of Michael Cussen’s goals because each time he had to go to a player and the ball was worked in over him.”

The sides swapped points en route to an interval scoreline of 2-9 to 1-9.

Waterford began the second half with intent, and substitutes Dan Shanahan and John Mullane, in particular, made a difference. Ben O’Connor and Eoin Kelly swapped frees but Cork looked to have taken a decisive leap forward when Horgan soloed through to goal on 50 minutes. Ben O’Connor added a point and it was 3-13 to 1-14 going into the final quarter.

Waterford didn’t fold, with Kelly keeping them in touch with frees, and when a crisp first-time pull from Tomas Ryan gave the hosts their second goal with ten minutes to go, a point separated the sides. Kelly – inevitably – tied up the scores with a free and the home crowd sniffed a comeback.

Ben O’Connor nudged Cork back in front with a free but the game finished with Eoin Kelly pointing a free with the last puck of the game to equalise: his last in a personal tally of 1-16.

If a greater spread of the scoring burden is something Davy Fitzgerald needs to work on, he gave Waterford followers a glimpse of the future yesterday. Teenager Tomas Ryan of Tallow showed the eternal optimism of the goal-poacher to stay focused until the 60th minute, when he buried a loose ball for a goal.

Ryan needs to fill out but he’s accurate, and his explosive first step in taking on a corner-back would make NBA scouts very happy. Those scouts would also be keen on Cork’s newest weapon. You can’t coach height, but Michael Cussen’s has other attributes.

“He has the head, he has the touch, he was under a bit of pressure today to do the business, but he did it,” said Walsh.

The Cork boss also learned how hard it will be for dual player Eoin Cadogan to serve two masters, saying the Douglas man was carrying a few too many knocks after last night’s win over Dublin to face a game of this intensity.

But that’s the point of the league. You win some, you lose some – and sometimes, like yesterday, you draw some. But the main thing, as Walsh and Fitzgerald both know, is to learn some.

Scorers for Waterford: E Kelly 1-17 (0-13 fs, 0-1 65); T Ryan 1-0; J Mullane 0-2; S Prendergast 0-1.

Scorers for Cork: B O’Connor 0-8 (0-7 fs); M Cussen 2-2; P Horgan 1-2; C Naughton 0-3; J Gardiner, T Kenny 0-1.

Subs for Waterford: M Shanahan for McGrath, (34); D Shanahan for Walsh (39); J Mullane for Prendergast, (43).

Subs for Cork: L O’Farrell for K Murphy, (ht); D Óg Cusack for Nash, (37); T Kenny for C McCarthy (41); M O’Sullivan for N McCarthy (52).

Referee: J Ryan (Tipperary).