Cork roll up sleeves with fight more than flow

Cork's Mark Coleman takes a sideline cut. Pic: Inpho

Munster SHC: Cork 1-26 Waterford 0-25 

 The following repetition comes with no apology. The outstanding observation made after the Tipp and Limerick victories is about to be made again. And for as long as Cork stay winning in rolled sleeves fashion, we’ll continue to focus attention on their notably changed complexion.

At Walsh Park, Cork fought, not flowed. They were flinty, not flamboyant. Absent again was the bouncing brilliance of recent years. Once more in its place was a willingness to engage in unglamorous battle.

Cork, thus far in this championship, have not been in any way spectacular like we know and have previously seen them to be. And yet there they are atop the round-robin table with three wins and six points.

Progression out of Munster and beyond May has been secured with two rounds to spare. Only score difference can prevent their Munster final progression.

It doesn’t need to be exuberant and electrifyingly entertaining to be effective.

This new reality of Cork’s is sitting just fine with them. Their identity and on-field personality is broadening. A welcome many faces.

“We're working hard,” replied Ben O’Connor when asked by the Examiner what has most pleased him outside the three wins accumulated.

“It isn't going to be free-flowing hurling every day. You see a different side to these lads now, that we can battle as well, because that was a battle outside there, and I don't think it has to be free-flowing for us to win games. We're able to battle out games now.” 

Against all of that, if Cork were to fall at a later point this summer for a lack of flow, flamboyance, or green flags, there’ll no doubt be harking back to this period as retrospective evidence of their inability to replicate the deafening levels of recent summers.

But for now, what is being pragmatically produced is getting them to where they want to go.

Cork trailed by two - 0-14 to 0-12 - at the throw-in of the second half. The breeze was behind them. Brian Hayes and Alan Connolly both sent goal efforts narrowly wide of Billy Nolan’s right-hand post in the seven minutes after half-time. 

The pair of misses followed a separate pair of not-taken green flag opportunities on the run into the break.

Cork did not wobble in the face of those might-have-been and should-have-been green flags. They continued to hold sufficient composure for the opening 24 second-half minutes where they trailed their hosts, albeit never by more than three points.

The excellent William Buckley twice pointed after shooting into space to collect the Cork delivery following a Waterford pass sent straight to the sitting and spare red defender.

Buckley, his Barrs clubmate Brian Hayes, and Shane Barrett won converted frees. The latter, along with Darragh Fitzgibbon, roared into proceedings as play became looser and less tidy.

Level for the 12th time on 59 minutes, Waterford’s second black card on the hour-mark was the catalyst for Cork to return in front for the first time since the 21st minute.

Mark Fitzgerald’s fumble of possession created the chaos. And while Jack Fagan brought down Alan Connolly, the merit of the black card is seriously questionable given there was a covering Déise defender between Connolly and Billy Nolan’s goal.

When Fitzgerald temporarily walked for his 33rd minute pull down of Hayes, Nolan repelled Connolly’s penalty strike. Mark Coleman assumed responsibility second time around. The game’s opening goal created a 1-23 to 0-22 gap.

From there to the finish, the job was for a reworked and weakened Cork defence to prevent another rescue finish from Waterford. 

Patrick Collins, having somehow stopped a Dessie Hutchinson bullet in the opening half, delivered the crucial intervention on 66 minutes to deny Peter Hogan’s drive.

For Waterford, Saturday was misfortune and gallant misery. There was no switched-off section that cost them. There was no abysmal shooting as against Tipp. 

They’d three first-half wides with the wind and none thereafter. Calum Lyons, Jack Prendergast, and Jamie Barron were glorious in spells. But the sustained battling of the collective found no reward.

Added to a black card late in either half, hamstring injuries removed defenders Ian Kenny and Iarlaith Daly by the 22nd minute. The latter had been hunting Darragh Fitzgibbon to notable effect.

Stephen Bennett, and the 4-22 he carried into the game, was removed with a suspected cruciate injury in first-half injury-time.

Simply too many unforeseen punches to survive a full 12-round Munster bruiser.

They remain winless since February 8. They remain winless in Munster since April 27 of last year. Their route to a first-ever top-three finish is as complicated and unlikely as ever. 

If Clare best Tipp this Saturday, their championship is over before they ever get on the road to the Gaelic Grounds the following morning.

Scorers for Cork: A Connolly (0-9, 0-6 frees); B Hayes (0-7); D Fitzgibbon (0-1 free), W Buckley (0-3 each); M Coleman (1-0, 1-0 pen); H O’Connor (0-2); S Barrett, S Harnedy (0-1 each).

Scorers for Waterford: D Hutchinson (0-8, 0-7 frees); K Mahony, J Barron, C Lyons (0-3 each); J Prendergast, Stephen Bennett (0-2 frees), S Mackey, S Walsh (0-2 each).

CORK: P Collins; D Cahalane, S O’Donoghue, N O’Leary; E Downey, T O’Mahony, M Coleman; T O’Connell, H O’Connor; D Healy, S Barrett, D Fitzgibbon; A Connolly, B Hayes, W Buckley.

SUBS: G Millerick for O’Donoghue (30-HT, temporary); R O’Flynn for O’Connor (51); C O’Brien for Downey (55, inj); S Harnedy for Healy (60); P Power for Connolly (70).

WATERFORD: B Nolan; I Kenny, A O’Neill, M Fitzgerald; I Daly, P Leavey, J Fagan; S Mackey, J Barron; S Walsh, J Prendergast, C Lyons; D Hutchinson, K Mahony, Stephen Bennett.

SUBS: C Keane for Kenny (20, inj); Shane Bennett for Daly (22, inj); P Hogan for Stephen Bennett (36, inj); M Kiely for Mahony (65); D Lyons for Mackey (65).

REFEREE: S Stack (Dublin).