Unheralded Cork ‘heroic’, says Walsh

CORK boss Denis Walsh insisted it was “embarrassing” that people had completely written off his team’s chances before yesterday’s game.

The Rebels suffered their heaviest championship defeat against Tipperary since 1988 but Walsh said the performance of his players was “heroic” at stages during the game.

Walsh fumed: “In fairness, we were nothing coming into today’s game in a lot of people’s eyes. We found that embarrassing, that we were considered nothing at all, maybe down in seventh place. We needed to perform – we didn’t need to go blaming anyone or anything like that.

“We needed to show what we could — I’d like to think that we did but we still lost by eight points. The same as last year, us beating Tipp by ten points wasn’t a true reflection of their effort and I suppose eight points was hardly a true reflection of our efforts.”

Walsh couldn’t recall on occasion when a side he was involved with finished up as losers after hitting 0-23.

He smiled: “No – I don’t think so. We knew we’d be fairly strong. It just depended on everyone performing. I suppose for the most part we got that. The lads were heroic at times but in fairness to Tipp, you’d have to say they were excellent as well.

“When the thing was in the melting pot, they really drove on. I have to congratulate them and say that if we were playing a lesser team today, I have no doubt that we would have pulled away.”

Walsh added: “We dictated maybe early on and then Tipp went away and got 2-3. It looked like the game was up and then we responded in the second-half.

“Let’s be honest, maybe with five minutes to go if we had got the goal … the goal we conceded was soft. The game itself was tremendous but we came up short.”

Walsh also admitted the concession of Tipperary’s third goal — which sealed the match, with four minutes of normal time remaining, was “soft.”

“I didn’t actually see it but the ball was obviously taken off Eoin (Cadogan). The lads said it was soft.”

And Walsh acknowledged that early missed chances for Cork could have made a difference to the result.

Paudie O’Sullivan was denied by Brendan Cummins within a minute before Pat Horgan whistled a shot wide in the fifth minute.

Walsh concluded: “Tipp got three chances of goals, took them. We got two chances; certainly one of them was just about hitting the target. It would have made a difference, definitely.”