Mixture of brilliance and brittleness buys Cork a first league win
PACE PERSONIFIED: Jack O'Connor of Cork celebrates. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach, Sportsfile
Do we start with Cork’s brilliance or the brittleness that succeeded it?
Do we first eulogise about their thundering third-quarter or try to explain a near-final-quarter collapse?
Pat Ryan, for his part, will lavish praise on his players for stretching a one-point interval lead out to 10 by the 52nd minute and then direct them to the learning and lessons from a closing period where that double-digit lead shrunk to two.
From a position of coasting, the final whistle couldn’t come quick enough for them.
“Delighted with the third quarter, I thought we played some fantastic hurling at that stage,” Ryan said post-match.
“The thing we're preaching to the lads is when we move the ball fast and work off the shoulder, we're a very good team.
“In the last 10 or 12 minutes, that's a good learning curve for us again. In one way, it was probably a good way to finish up that you didn't end up by 10 or 12 points pulling up.
“Every game in the league is about finding areas that you're doing well and areas that you're doing poorly. That was the disappointing part of it towards the end alright.”
Irrespective of whether we start with their brilliance or brittleness, the bottom line is that Cork finally have a league win in the locker.
This timely victory, with Offaly and Wexford yet to come, puts Cork in a strong position to secure a top-three spot and their place in next spring’s new seven-team elite.
The victory had a tidy bow wrapped around it when sub Eoin Downey split the Blackrock End posts from his own 65 to take Cork’s lead into double digits on 52 minutes.
Three minutes earlier, corner-forward Jack O’Connor had taken a pass on that same 65-metre line. And off he went.
The speed that was not available to Cork last summer because of recurring shin splints carried him to the opposition 20-metre line where he buried low beyond Shaun O’Brien.
O’Connor's goal complimented the scattering of points that came before it. Patrick Horgan, Séamus Harnedy, and O’Connor had set them on their way with three white flags within two and a half minutes of the restart.
The hosts took ownership of the middle third. They never stopped running from the middle third.
Crucially, the supporting players ran every bit as hard as the man in possession. Popped pass after popped pass. Point after point.
From 0-11 to 1-7 at half-time to 1-18 to 1-8 on 52 minutes.
“We'll look at that 20 minutes after half-time, and we'll know if we can put that together for 70 minutes, look we'll be a very good team going forward this year. It's trying to impress on the lads that we need to move the ball faster,” Ryan added.
The concern for Ryan and Cork is what came thereafter. Their play became disjointed and without purpose or punch. They traded directness for more ponderous and lateral thinking ways.
Credit too to Waterford. Mikey Kiely, Jamie Barron, Conor Sheahan, and Peter Hogan offered impact and improvement off the bench. Hogan was the only one of the quartet not to score.
After a third quarter of seven successive misses and only a Jack Prendergast free to show for in the 23 minutes after half-time, Waterford stumbled upon a spell of accuracy turning for home that nearly turned the contest on its head.
Tom Barron’s 56th minute point was their first from play of the second period. Between the 58th and 65th minute, they reeled off seven without reply. A 10-point gap eaten to three.
Cork’s half-back pair of Ciarán Joyce and Ger Millerick were central in halting the Déise comeback and making sure two valuable points were not tossed into the Lee.
Joyce was fouled for a free thrown over by Alan Connolly. The latter was making his first appearance since the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final. Millerick added another a minute later.
Billy Nolan, the highly effective Paddy Leavey, and Conor Sheahan strung together three-in-a-row in injury-time to leave Waterford chasing a winning goal they did not find.
The seesawing second period provided entertainment that a flat first half did not.
Sean Walsh’s third goal of the league brought Waterford level on 26 minutes, having trailed by four at the end of the opening quarter of an hour.
A Jack Prendergast free put them in front for the first and only time on 34 minutes. It was a lead they held for two minutes and 35 seconds.
From there, Cork finally got up and galloped in this league.
P Horgan (0-7, 0-6 frees); J O’Connor (1-3); B Hayes (0-3); S Harnedy (0-2); C Joyce, G Millerick, T O’Connell, R Downey, A Connolly (0-1 free), E Downey (0-1 each).
J Prendergast (0-5, 0-4 frees); C Lyons (0-4, 0-2 frees); P Leavey (0-3); S Walsh (1-0); C Sheehan (0-2); T Barron, B Nolan, P Curran, M Kiely, J Barron (0-1 each).
B Saunderson; C McCarthy, D Cahalane, S O’Donoghue; G Millerick, C Joyce, M Coleman; E Twomey, T O’Connell; S Barrett, C Lehane, S Harnedy; J O’Connor, P Horgan, B Hayes.
B Roche for Twomey (8 mins, inj); R Downey for Joyce (temporary, 10-18 mins); E Downey for O’Donoghue (29, inj); S Kingston for Lehane (49); A Connolly for Horgan (58); L Meade for Harnedy (69).
S O’Brien; PJ Fanning, M Fitzgerald, C Ryan; C Lyons, T Barron, D Lyons; P Leavey, P Curran; Padraig Fitzgerald, J Prendergast, N Montgomery; K Mahony, S Walsh, B Nolan.
P Hogan for Walsh (temporary, 34-36); J Barron for Curran, P Hogan for P Fitzgerald (both 46); M Kiely for Mahony (57); C Sheahan for Montgomery, M Power for D Lyons (both 60).
J Owens (Wexford).
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