Lehane leads Rebel charge

The bumper Cork crowd in Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday night might have come to see a local hero return to the big show, but they saw a new star announce himself in the home side’s Allianz Hurling League Divison 1A win over Waterford.

Conor Lehane of Midleton scored seven points from play in Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s first game back as Cork manager, and the youngster was the main topic of conversation for match goers afterwards strolling in the Boreenmanna Road.

“He was excellent,” said Barry-Murphy. “It wouldn’t take a genius to pick him for the team. He’s a major talent in Cork and people have seen that for the last couple of years. He was excellent.”

Cork were slow to start, conceding three points in the first six minutes, but then Lehane rattled over three points of his own to tie it up and the home side drove on from there.

They had three goals before the break – from Paudie O’Sullivan (two) and Cathal Naughton – and led by 12 at one stage.

Waterford rallied in the second-half and cut the deficit to six on the back of Martin O’Neill and Pádraic Mahony’s accuracy, but the superb Lehane had three of Cork’s last four points as the men in red finished with a flourish.

A little context: Waterford boss Michael Ryan could point to a hefty injury list, medium term absentees like John Mullane and Tony Browne, and four experienced men – Noel Connors, Aidan Kearney, Shane O’Sullivan and Maurice Shanahan — pulling out on the day of the game. Consequently the Déise boss had to start Pádraic Mahony for his fourth game in a week.

“There were ten fellas who would have been in contention for places that were missing and we lost another two during the game,” said Ryan.

“But that’s not an excuse. Cork played very well, they have very pacey forwards and they will take a lot of beating in the summer.

“But overall we scored 18 points and we had a lot of young fellas that never played before so there is plenty to work with.”

Ryan neatly sidestepped the possibility of recalls for John Mullane and Eoin Kelly — “We won’t panic and hopefully by the time the league is over we’ll know a lot more about the strength of our panel” — and said a goal was what his team had lacked. “We just needed a goal in the second-half but we didn’t create any goal chances.

“We needed a goal to bring us back into it but I knew we would fight to the very end.”

His opposite number was praising his defence for that lack of green flags.

“Donal Óg was brilliant in goal, in particular his control of one ball in the first half,” said Barry-Murphy.

“Our full back line was excellent, and Ross Cashman, in his first game at this level, was a revelation. To be ultra-critical it was an average enough second-half, we let Waterford back within five or six points at one stage. We were a bit slack in that department and have to work on that. We didn’t get any ball into our full-forward line either, which isn’t good enough.”

The Cork icon wasn’t entertaining any suggestion of hype, either: “It’ll be very easy to keep a lid on the hype because we know where we’re coming from, we’re not fools. Waterford were short a good number of players, four defections before a game would kill you, so we know we have a lot of work to do.”

Barry-Murphy will be realistic about the Waterford challenge but will still be pleased with a display yielding 3-16 from play. Darren Sweetnam, another teenager, held his own at midfield and chipped in a sweet point, while Seán Óg Ó hAilpín put in a solid shift alongside him. The big home crowd was also a fair barometer of the positivity within the county about the team.

In the other dressing-room, Michael Ryan and his men have a task on their hands preserving their Division One status.

Defeat in the opening game means a team is facing the wind, as it were, from then on, and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh could find his sojourn at centre-forward short-lived as he’s moved back to stiffen up the defence.

Still, as both men were saying in different ways, it’s still only February. There’s a long year there yet.

Scorers for Cork: C Lehane 0-7, P O’Sullivan 2-1, P Horgan 0-4 (0-1 f), C Naughton 1-1, B O’Connor, D Sweetnam, P Cronin, S Óg Ó hAilpín 0-1 each.

Scorers for Waterford: M. O’Neill 0-5 (0-3 fs), P Mahony 0-4 (0-3 fs), G O’Brien 0-2, P O’Brien, K Moran, J Nagle, K Casey, S Prendergast, E McGrath, T Ryan 0-01 each.

Subs for Cork: T Kenny for Sweetnam (49 mins), L McLoughlin for Gardiner (55), L O’Farrell for Naughton (64), B Corry for Lehane (68).

Subs for Waterford: E McGrath for S Walsh (half-time), P Prendergast for D Prendergast, G O’Brien for O’Neill (both 57 mins), T Ryan for Casey (63), D Twomey for S Prendergast (68).

Referee: Barry Kelly (Westmeath).