Match practice was crucial, says Counihan

CORK manager Conor Counihan believes his side’s recent match practice was the key factor in their emphatic victory in yesterday’s Munster SFC semi-final against Waterford in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The Rebels were far too strong for their opponents as they built on their league final triumph over Dublin and their opening provincial success against Clare a fortnight ago. In contrast, Waterford had been without a competitive game since their concluding league tie on April 10 and Counihan feels they suffered as a result.

“It’s a good number of weeks since they’d even played a league match whereas we’d the national league final up in Dublin, the championship game against Clare and that’s a real big difference,” he said.

“It was difficult for them. You’ve one team whose league campaign ended early and then you’re meeting a team who are playing with a certain degree of confidence at the moment.

“We blew open a gap in the first 20 minutes and that made the difference. It was very difficult for them to fight their way back from that and it was convincing in the end. We started well and made it difficult for them.

“They probably came with a lot of hope but I think the early goals that we got rattled them. They came back well after the first 20 minutes to be fair to them but we got going again well in the second half.

“Look, Waterford will be very disappointed with that, it’s not a true reflection of where they are. They’ve put a lot of work in with John Owens and hopefully they’ll come back through the qualifiers to do themselves justice.”

Counihan admitted he was pleased with his team’s conversion rate in front of goal as they raised five green flags in contrast to the Clare match where they spurned several chances. But the Cork manager was adamant there is scope for improvement and declared himself unhappy with the standard of football produced in the period before half-time.

“We did better in front of goal which was good to see. But we’d a very sloppy 15 minutes there before half-time which was pure schoolboy stuff,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be doing that at this stage and we just took our foot off the pedal. The positive is that at least we did a lot of very good things. We’re also trying to look at as many people as possible and it was good to look at a few more of them today.”

Counihan is now looking forward to pitting his side against Kerry in the provincial decider on July 3.

“We’re under no illusions though, we’re getting into serious stuff now and heading to Killarney. That’ll be a big game and a big challenge but again we’re looking forward to that.

“I didn’t see them on Saturday night but scoring 1-26 above in the Gaelic Grounds is serious shooting. Kerry certainly have that ability. They’re one of the top teams in the country, there’s no doubt about that. There’s never much between us and it’s something to look forward to.

“This week will be a write off with club games and then we’re getting into serious stuff.

“We’ll have three weeks to prepare, there’ll be two weeks for serious training and then a week to wind down. That’s where we’re at.”