Derek McGrath taking Cork game in his stride

Waterford manager Derek McGrath doesn’t believe it’s significant that Cork and Waterford will meet in the Munster championship a few weeks after the NHL final.

”I don’t really, to be honest. Not from our point of view and that’s being absolutely honest with you.

“Cork were in the All-Ireland final against Clare in 2013. They won the Munster Championship last year, they were in the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway the year previous [2012]. I think our journey is a small bit different than Cork’s.

“I think they have to be taken as two separate entities. Take Clare and Cork in the relegation match in Limerick two years ago and then Clare and Cork in Limerick ten weeks later. That’d be my early reading of it. Davy (Fitzgerald) was fairly animated the day of the relegation match down in Limerick when Clare stayed up.”

McGrath pointed out that silverware would be welcome in both counties.

“Cork have made it clear, in terms of their comeback today, that they’ve targeted it but it’s a great place to be in for both teams.

“I wouldn’t entertain the thought of it being, ‘I wish we were playing Dublin’. It’s great. I presume it’ll be in Thurles and it’ll be a great dress rehearsal.

So was yesterday in Nowlan Park, he added.

“At the 67th, 68th minute I was saying to the lads I was happy. I’m not saying I didn’t want to win, but we were in the zone. It was a nice place to be, to be as competitive as we were, it was lovely.

“It didn’t really matter about getting the win, it was about going toe-to-toe with a team like Tipperary.

“We’re a tight unit - no more than any other intercounty team - but we try to create that spirit that Brian Cody has been talking about all these years, all those core elements. We don’t have ego but we have absolute confidence - you don’t want a fella who’ll crawl into his shell.”

McGrath said Waterford have issues they need to deal with. “Even on the line we struggled a bit dealing with the crowd and so on. There was a championship feel to it and we were saying we’d learn a lot from today.

“There were elements of our build-up to the day that could be better. We were trying to simulate as best we could what’ll happen on June 7. We came up here for a run last Saturday week, we went to the Newpark Hotel, but I thought we were a bit giddy.

“Then again, you probably don’t want to quell giddiness in a young team.”

McGrath has been criticised in his home county but he wasn’t dwelling on negatives.

“I get satisfaction (from the win) but I’d hope I’m not a bitter person. There were big decisions made but I’d qualify that - if we hadn’t reached the league final those would still have been the right decisions. I’d feel they were the right things to do.

“We left lads off the panel who are very honourable fellas, and you’d have to think of them and their families now we’re in the league final. There’s a human side to it too.

“It’s been hard because we have lads between 18 and 24 and a couple of lads 31, 32, and that age profile gets you a bit of leeway with yourselves, but it only gets you so far to be a ‘team in transition’.

“We don’t have a revolutionary idea about hurling, we’re just trying to do our best.”