Douglas ace Cadogan says Rebels will regroup

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy made a point of singling out Alan Cadogan for his contribution over 70 minutes yesterday, but the youngster from Douglas was deflecting the attention away after the game.

“I suppose it’s the dream to play senior for Cork in one sense, but it’s not about me at the end of the day. It’s about the team overall.

“Thankfully we got the draw but we know well that we have plenty to work on in the next couple of weeks.

“There was a lot of talk going around during the week about Waterford having a lot of injuries and so on, but we blocked that out. We know that Waterford have a great team and that championship hurling is different to the league.

“When Cork and Waterford meet, it’s always phenomenal.”

Cadogan had his older brother Eoin — out injured at present — with him in the dressing room.

“He made his debut in 2009, and I remember being up in the stands looking down at him that day and thinking, ‘it’d be nice to be out there today’.

“In fairness to the management, though, they gave me the opportunity and I was delighted.”

Cadogan pointed to the stiff breeze in Thurles yesterday, which made the game the proverbial story of each side having the advantage when backed by the wind.

“There was a very strong wind there, certainly in the first half, even though people mightn’t have noticed it. I think Waterford found that then in the second half, while we had a purple patch in the second half and hit four or five points in a row.

“Thankfully we got the draw but we’ll regroup over the next two weeks and work on the areas where we need to improve.”

Cadogan himself came close to a second-half goal.

“Bill [Cooper] was coming straight through the middle at one stage and let it off to me, I caught it and just pulled on it.

“I think a Waterford corner-back got in and got a touch on it. Hopefully a chance like that will go in the next day.”

Though he’s not playing senior football for Cork, the calendar is filling up fast for him, but Cadogan’s not worried about that: “It’s busy, but any young fella of 21 in Cork would give their right arm to be involved. I’m enjoying my hurling at the moment and we’ll take it one game at a time, see what happens.”