Counihan: players taken to hell and back

CONOR COUNIHAN admitted last night his Cork players “were taken to hell and back” in Sunday’s nail-biting All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park.

The coach saluted the Rebels for “grinding” out a one-point victory over Dublin, but used last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone as a reference point against any notion the “hard part is now done”.

“We played well against Tyrone, and felt very confident afterwards because we thought we had answered an awful lot of questions. But in hindsight we played too well, and mentally we may have taken our foot off the pedal for the final (against Kerry).”