Barry-Murphy delighted with better attitude

Jimmy Barry-Murphy was sharp and to the point at the final whistle yesterday.

Cork had been disappointing in the drawn game with Waterford and his diagnosis was exact.

“As we said during the week, we were very poor the last day, a lot of our players were unhappy with their performances,” he said.

“We got a draw and probably might not have deserved it, but our comeback was positive, we built on that and showed better attitude all over the field.

“Our display the last day was very poor and the lads showed their true form today. They knew they had questions to answer and they did so.”

They also showed an improvement in workrate, something they’ll need for their next outing, against Clare.

“That (workrate) was the key to it, we didn’t do that the last day. A lot more of our players showed their true form and I’m delighted with that.

“(Clare will be) a huge challenge. We know the calibre of the team we’re meeting, you don’t need me to tell you how good Clare are.

“We’ve a week’s rest, which isn’t too bad, but at least we’re there now. The cards have been dealt, we’ll recover now, and the win should stand to us. We’re hopeful we’ll give a good account of ourselves.

The Cork boss sympathised with Alan Cadogan and Austin Gleeson, who found their second outing at senior level more testing than their debut displays.

“I thought Alan got one very good score and was fouled on a number of occasions, I thought he looked very threatening. We took him off to give him a rest, he’s played a lot of games recently.

“The same for the lad from Waterford (Gleeson), the Munster championship is a tough environment, you saw that with Limerick and Tipp.”

Barry-Murphy was happy with Bill Cooper’s performance at centre-forward and Paudie O’Sullivan’s return from injury.

“He (Cooper) did very well. He had a great campaign with Youghal, he’s worked his way into the team and was excellent today. The whole team showed huge improvement, you couldn’t single anyone out. We are delighted to see Paudie back, he’s had a horrendous time, a number of operations, I’m thrilled for him. Our physio Declan O’Sullivan has done a huge amount of work with him and it was a great boost for everybody to see him back on the pitch.”

The Cork manager had no issue with Waterford ‘keeper Stephen O’Keeffe’s dash from the line for Anthony Nash’s penalty — “I have no problem with that, the keeper is entitled to do what he can within the rules,” — and remains relaxed about the team’s lack of goals: “Never worries me. You win matches and everyone likes to get goals.”