Nash: Nice to put recent Waterford woes behind us

Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash was delighted with the win over Waterford in yesterday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final despite the scare from Waterford’s late 65, which landed in the Cork goalmouth.

It was Cork’s first win over Waterford since 2006, though the keeper pointed out both teams have changed since then.

“The lads were there hooking and blocking, so for me it was a quiet enough game apart from the 72nd minute.

“You try to put (their recent record against Waterford) out of your head. It has been mentioned of course, but how many of us would have played against Waterford in the last five years. It’s a brand new Cork team – and a brand new Waterford team, in fairness – but it’s nice to put that one to rest.”

Nash played in 2007, when Waterford scored five goals against Cork.

“As they were saying inside, it’s from five goals to zero. But the likes of John Mullane, Seamus Prendergast, Brick Walsh – they’re an unbelievable outfit.

“The turning point? I don’t know, when you’re playing in a game . . . I thought the turning point of the second-half was that we started to get a grip around the middle of the field on the breaks. “From my own perspective, my puck-outs, we weren’t winning a lot of breaks from those in the first-half when they got a run on us. And when Waterford get a run on anyone they’re very hard to stop.”

Cork overhauled their opponents without scoring a goal, which Nash felt was significant. “The lads kept plugging away, we started to stop their puck-outs and got on the breaks, things like that. That was huge.

“The points – we kept tipping away, while another team would have kept dropping the ball into the square with eight, ten minutes left – and Sean Óg got a monstrous point there with a few minutes left, it was great to see him doing that.

“(Waterford boss) Michael Ryan came in and spoke about how strong our bench was, that he thought that was the turning point of the game. When you see the likes of John Gardiner coming on, Cathal Naughton, Lorcan (McLoughlin), Darren Sweetnam – in fairness to Dan Kearney, he had a fantastic first-half – Stephen Moylan – they’re a great option to have.”

Nash is realistic about the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, who beat Cork comprehensively last year.

“We’re under no illusions, we all saw what Galway did to Kilkenny and they’re going to be raging-hot favourites. For a lot of us it’ll be our first time playing in Croke Park – it’s a new experience, another step on the ladder, but we’re under no illusions. Galway are well up there with the top two.

“You could go around saying ‘we’d love to put that to rest’ (last year’s loss) but it’s easy to say it, not as easy to do it. Their management team has changed, they’ve made the players stern and fit and strong.

“It’s going to be a brutal hard game and their experience in Croke Park is going to stand to them, because they know they can beat the best.”