We must cope with growing Clare confidence
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s eagerly- awaited Munster SHC semi-final clash with the Banner, the Cork manager said: “It’s a long time ago now but, even when I was playing you always felt if you won the All-Ireland, the confidence grew from that — the same for Kilkenny and other teams. That’s what I’d be afraid of with Clare, they’re a young team and should be able to grow in confidence from that win. The test for us will come on Sunday, to see if we can cope with that.”
Cork have two games with Waterford under their belt, but the Corkman doesn’t see that as an obvious advantage.
“You’d wonder, because they had a game last year (in Munster) and we didn’t and we got the better of them. So I wouldn’t set much store by that – or in talking about motivation for avenging last year.
“I think that will only get you so far if you’re good enough to win it, if they’re a better team than you then you can’t do anything about it anyway. But certainly last Sunday was a huge improvement on our league displays. I’m sick of saying we weren’t happy with our displays in the league. Last Sunday was the best we’ve played this year and that’s a start back to where we want to get this year. We didn’t reach the levels we wanted in the league, the drawn game with Waterford was very disappointing and the lads were very disappointed with that. You’d have to be happier with the whole panel last Sunday.”
Describing Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald as “a brilliant operator, who’ll have them well primed for us,” Barry-Murphy said he hoped his team’s work ethic would be correct tomorrow.
“You’ve got to react to the other team’s tactics on all occasions, and you look at that. Derek McGrath made a very good point in our dressing-room on Sunday, he said tactics were only successful when you win – when you lose everyone says the other team’s tactics worked better. I thought our whole work ethic was better, on a scale of 10 our performances were better all over the field and that’s what told. And that’s what we want next Sunday.”
That said, he hoped the extra game would help relative newcomers to the team like Mark Ellis and Damien Cahalane.
“That should help them. Mark has come into a pivotal position where great players have played for Cork, Damien the same. It’s a big ordeal for them, but I’m very pleased with the way they’ve coped with the responsibility and I hope they’ll build on those displays.”
The Cork icon wouldn’t be drawn on whether his squad is stronger this year, however.
“Time will tell. We got to an All-Ireland final last year and gave a very good account of ourselves. We’d like to think we’re building a good panel, we’re working well and there’s good competition for places – you saw Paudie O’Sullivan coming on, all these lads are very good players and we have good competition for places. Whether we have a better panel than last year, I’m not so sure yet.
“Clare gave some incredible displays during the league and then it tapered off slightly. We’re up against a formidable team, great champions, we took it on the chin last year in the All-Ireland replay, so that’s the way it goes.
“They’re worthy champions and we’re just hoping we can turn it around on Sunday.”
The manager acknowledged the improvement in Cork’s start last Sunday but added there were still areas to work on.
“We were sick and tired of talking about our poor starts, at least we stayed in the game the first ten or fifteen minutes the last day and then kicked on. We have to keep working. We’d been giving ourselves too much ground to work on but last Sunday was a step in the right direction. I wouldn’t be going into any great public detail but there were a couple of things we wouldn’t be entirely happy with, things we think we can improve upon. And certainly meeting a team like Clare, the All-Ireland champions, you’d feel you have to improve.
“Clare obviously have brilliant players who can interchange, and their pace last year in Croke Park was fantastic. You’d have to be concerned about that and try to make plans to cope with.
“You’d be a fool if you didn’t learn from last year. Whether you can cope with it or not is another question, they’re such a good team. But I’d be hoping we can give a good account of ourselves in certain aspects of our play.”
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