Cork manager John Meyler: 'Sending off took the wind out of our sails'
Lehane was forced off at half-time, with an ankle problem, after Harnedy was dismissed for dropping his knee on Barry Coughlan. Harnedy, the captain, may face a two-match suspension.
Meyler didn’t see the first-half incident, but sought confirmation from the linesman, who advised Seán Cleere of the altercation with Coughlan. “I asked Johnny Ryan, at half-time, and he said it was a red-card offence, so I have to accept his opinion,” Meyler says.
Meyler knows his team’s display was disappointing, but felt they were snookered by the pair’s absence. “I thought we were going quite well, until the sending-off. The sending-off took the wind out of our sails. We lost a key forward, and to lose Lehane at half-time, and they are in no way excuses, because we didn’t play well enough.”
Derek McGrath suggested the neighbours could be facing off again, in a relegation play-off in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the weekend after next.
“We spoke about that at half-time,” he nodded. “We knew the other results and we spoke to the players about the likelihood of being possibly back here.
“I have to say, and I’ve been asked this before, in terms of being cut-throat, I don’t think we’re the worst team in Ireland.
“We might go down, but we’re building towards the summer, like all of the other teams, and that’s not just language to defuse a possible relegation battle and how you feel,” Meyler says.
The day the earth literally fell apart in Páirc Uí Chaoimh may also be the day Cork will rue most if they end up returning to Division 1B.
Relegation is not as disillusioning as it would have been in 2013 but after a year like 2016 a third consecutive loss that makes the drop more of a reality won’t sit easy with anyone attached to the team.
The consequences of this result, witnessed by a 10,445 crowd, could be far reaching too. Seamus Harnedy, particularly as captain, won’t want to be reminded of what he did to Barry Coughlan and how it cost his team. His suspension could extend beyond Tipperary while Conor Lehane’s ankle issue, which forced his exit at the interval, is just as troubling especially as a possible relegation play-off takes place early next month.
At least it wasn’t Patrick Horgan who suffered a similar fate. This time last year, the Glen Rovers man was coming off the bench having been demoted only to follow up a forgettable league with an outstanding championship. And now he is next to irreplaceable, having account for 1-22 of their 1-34 aggregate total in their last two outings.
John Meyler doesn’t need to be told just how dependent Cork are on him.
“We need to spread the weight on the forwards. We saw that in Clare and we saw that in Wexford as well. We’ve a mountain of work to do.”
It was Horgan who also breached Waterford’s last line of defence in the 20th minute as he cleverly batted down a ball in his direction away from three defenders to run onto and finish to the net.
But Waterford, looking more alert than they had been in recent outings, cancelled it out three minutes later as Mikey Kearney took receipt of a clever lobbed pass by Tom Devine, pushed the ball past a Cork defender to leave himself with a one-on-one with Anthony Nash. It was a goal that clearly bothered Meyler given that he repeated the score “came through the middle” a couple of times.
He wasn’t in the mood to sugarcoat the game, even asking for time to come up with positives from the match before eventually mentioning the return of an admittedly “rusty” Mark Coleman.
For sure, he wasn’t going to use the poor standard of the playing surface as a crutch.
“The pitch was the same for Waterford as it was for ourselves and it’s just the sending off gave them the impetus. They had two spare men at the back (after Harnedy’s sending off). We had been going quite well, we were playing good hurling and got a great goal but unfortunately they came back through the middle to go (level) and then Seamus was sent off and Conor going off at half-time lost us two key forwards and we just can’t take that. That was it, really.”
Even if the win broke Waterford’s Division 1A duck, Derek McGrath didn’t seem relieved although he acknowledged it as “a confidence boost in terms of the points”. With a wind benefit in the first half on top of the numerical advantage for the last 12 minutes, they went in 1-12 to 1-9 ahead at half-time. Cork had been sloppy with puck-outs, had just two scorers by that stage and, even if Waterford had a couple of passengers, a lot of their link play was exciting.
But for some pretty dismal shooting, they would have had this match signed, sealed and delivered long before the final whistle. Instead, Shane Kingston had a late goal chance that might have had Cork breathing down Waterford’s necks in additional time but Waterford saw it out with substitutes Stephen Bennett and Stephen Roche helping them to get there.
All the same, four forward replacements indicated the visitors’ difficulties to make their dominance count where it mattered most. It was a different story at the other end of the field where Noel Connors, Tadhg de Búrca and Austin Gleeson were so prominent.
McGrath noted the pitch wasn’t conducive to good hurling.
“I felt we could have taken it into the space a little bit more than shooting… there was an opportunity to take it on a little bit more before we shot. A cold ball in sand-like conditions, you kind of absorb so much energy getting away that when you went to shoot we took a lot of wrong options, we could have taken it on a bit more.”
Cork did succeed in getting back on level terms early in the second half as Tim O’Mahony and Mark Ellis sent over points from distance while Horgan’s marksmanship from free-taking never wavered. Pauric Mahony was almost as accurate and three frees in a row from him gave Waterford an advantage they never relinquished even if it seems they might have to do it all again the weekend after next.
P. Horgan (1-10, 0-9 frees); C. Lehane (0-2); T. O’Mahony, M. Ellis, C. Spillane (0-1 each).
Pauric Mahony (0-10, 8 frees); M. Kearney (1-1); A. Gleeson (0-3, 1 free); S. Bennett (0-2); C. Dunford, J. Barron, T. de Burca, S. Roche (0-1 each).
A. Nash; C. O’Sullivan, E. Cadogan, C. Spillane; C. Joyce, T. O’Mahony, D. Browne; M. Ellis, M. Coleman; B. Cooper, C. Lehane, D. Brosnan; A. Cadogan, S. Harnedy (c), P. Horgan.
R. O’Flynn for C. Lehane (h-t); L. McLoughlin for C. Joyce (54); L. Meade for D. Brosnan (58); M. Cahalane for C. O’Sullivan (65); S. Kingston for B. Cooper (66).
S. Harnedy (straight, 25).
S. O’Keeffe; S. Fives, B. Coughlan, N. Connors; T. de Burca; A. Gleeson, Philip Mahony, C. Gleeson; J. Barron, K. Moran; Pauric Mahony, M. Kearney, M. Shanahan; T. Devine, C. Dunford.
S. Roche for M. Shanahan, B. O’Halloran for C. Dunford (both 48); S. Bennett for T. Devine, J. Dillon for M. Kearney (both 57); K. Bennett for K. Moran (68).
S. Cleere (Kilkenny).
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