“We had 15 players who played today”

CORK boss Denis Walsh insisted there were no thoughts of settling for a point with the penalty they were awarded in the 14th minute of yesterday’s Munster SHC quarter-final clash with Tipperary in Páirc Ui Chaoimh – despite the side’s recent poor goalscoring record from penalties.

Patrick Horgan slammed the 20-metre placed ball to the net for a significant strike that set Cork on the course to victory and Walsh revealed he had faith in Horgan to convert the chance.

“We would be positive about that,’’ Walsh said. “When the penalty came up I felt that Patrick Horgan was probably due one. We said a few times amongst ourselves that Cork have been criticised for not getting enough goals. The last day the point was made that we went for too many goals. But the point was made that we have to do what we feel is right. We made the right decisions – if there’s a goal on go for it because if you don’t you are shirking your responsibility to the team. If you go for a goal that should be a point it’s the wrong decision and you have to stand over that.”

Walsh was also adamant that he trusted his half-back line to come up with the goods in a championship battle despite recent below-par performances and that Aisake O’hAilpín retained that ability to wreak havoc at full-forward.

“I don’t think we had doubts. In the league final as regards Sean Óg, Damien Hayes would trouble any player. Sean Óg actually pucked a bit of ball in that game after the first 20 minutes. We knew those guys would do the business today.

“What was the criticism about with Aisake? He was out of hurling for a long time. It’s a situation that we’ve gone through several times, it’s a team game.

“If we didn’t think he had a contribution to make, we’d plenty good players on the bench to do the business. We as a management weren’t playing him to put two fingers up to anyone else. We felt he was going to bring something to the team today. We needed that. We know very genuinely that he is capable with his fitness and physique.”

Walsh was critical in the wake of the league final defeat to Galway of the number of sub-standard displays in his team.

Yesterday he had the luxury of possessing all of the game’s top performers in his ranks and now is urging his players to maintain that trend.

“We had 15 fellas who played today. Niall McCarthy was the first to come off and he was nearly man of the match. A few lads were disappointed that they didn’t get a run there, but it isn’t a charity we’re running. They’re good lads and they’ve got good character. The challenge for them is to repeat it when they go again against Limerick. It will be a completely different ball game then because they won’t be as familiar with the Limerick players. Can they rise it again? That’s always the challenge at this time of the year. Knowing those guys, they are very self motivated.”