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 13 September 2004 Irish Independent | |||
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MANAGER Donal O'Grady believes the days when Cork hurlers can be taken as a soft touch are well and truly over.
O'Grady hailed Cork's 29th All-Ireland hurling title as a triumph for toughness as much as anything else. "It was a tough match but we stood up to it well. People talk about Cork not being able to deal with the tough stuff but I think that is gone for the last 10 or 20 years," he said. "They did justice to themselves in the second half. They knuckled down and fought hard. That's the satisfaction I'll take from it most."
O'Grady didn't feel any release of tension until Tom Kenny's point put them seven points clear. "We knew then we weren't going to let it slip like last year," he declared. "Our aim in the second half was to get the ball in to our full-forward line quicker. I thought we were on top there when we moved it in quickly."
O'Grady paid special tribute to a defence that restricted Kilkenny to just two second half points and, in particular, to Seán Óg Ó hAilpín. "I thought Seán Óg was colossal all year. He was outstanding in all the games. Some media will be putting others over him but he gives everything and I think there were a couple of battles when he came away with the ball and ran at Kilkenny."
And Brian Corcoran's physical presence was also hailed. "When you see a player of Noel Hickey's calibre being shunted out to corner-back because he can't handle the full-forward, it was great for us. It gave us a great fillip. You could see that they were in trouble."
Historical motivation was never a factor, according to the Cork boss. "There was no motivation to stop Kilkenny's three-in-a-row, no motivation to stop Kilkenny going one ahead on the roll of honour. I didn't speak about it, none of the players spoke about it. The whole thing we said was being back in an All-Ireland final, let's go and win it because they don't come around too often."
Cork captain Ben O'Connor declared one of Niall McCarthy's two second half points points as Cork's liberating score. "We were able to lift it after that and the work on blocking and hooking in the tight training ground games we play paid off. We didn't want to be going home with our heads down again."
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