Now that the emotional outpourings surrounding Waterford's supposedly cruel loss in last Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final have begun to clear away, it is time for cold reason to raise its ugly head.
To suggest that the Déise deserved to draw - never mind win - this game is to blind oneself to what actually transpired on the Croke Park pitch. Cork out-thought and out-fought Waterford from start to finish. That Waterford were so close to the Leesiders at the end was more a reflection of poor shooting on Cork's part than of anything the Déise did themselves.
The count of individual plays clearly shows how much Cork dominated this game territorially. In the first half, Cork outplayed Waterford 77-62. After the change of ends they extended their dominance, playing the ball a phenomenal 89 times to Waterford's 66, for an overall balance of 166-128 in their favour. Of course, Cork's passing game is conducive to high play counts, but it is also conducive to getting out of trouble at the back and creating scoring chances at the other end.
And when it came to creating scoring chances, Cork were in a different league, with 27 shots at goal from open play to just twelve for Waterford. Waterford did balance it up a bit when it came to shots at goal from free pucks, the Déise having twelve to just five for Cork. This does indicate that Waterford did put the Cork defence under some pressure, particularly by running at them. The fact that the Déise defence conceded so few frees themselves may be as much a reflection of Cork's ability to elude fouls by releasing players into open space as it is a tribute to tight discipline on the part of the Waterford backs.
One key indicator of Cork's dominance of this game is the fact that they had several contenders for man of the match whereas Waterford had none. The RTE gurus in their wisdom gave the accolade to Donal Óg Cusack, but it should really have done to Ronan Curran, who was a colossus right through but especially in the second half, ending up with a phenomenal total of 20 plays. Just behind him was that great favourite of this column, Jerry O' Connor, with 18, followed closely by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín with 16. This was the triangle upon which the good ship Waterford perished.
O'Connor's performance contrasts sharply with that of his markers. During the 55 minutes he was on the field, Brian Phelan played the ball just five times; his replacement, Shane O'Sullivan, didn't play it even once. That Waterford gained any foothold at all in the midfield area was down to the belated switch to the area of Brick Walsh after 25 minutes. Following this switch, Walsh played the ball no less than 15 times against just five for his marker, Tom Kenny. Has anyone ever elicited from Justin McCarthy the reason why he has persisted with starting the country's best midfielder at full forward in every game Waterford have played this year?
The Cork fullback line was also excellent, with Pat Mulcahy in particular putting in a powerful second half which completely obliterated Paul Flynn. Only John Gardiner of the Rebel defensive sextet failed to play up to his normal form - not that it mattered given the poverty on the left flank of the Déise forward line. Gardiner's original marker, Jack Kennedy, played the ball just three times during his 45 minutes on the field. Two of these were flicks on. The only time he got clean possession, he sent the ball straight to the unmarked Ó hAilpín whose clearance led directly to a Cork score. Kennedy's replacement, Paul Flynn, played the ball just once during his 25 minutes or so on the pitch, a poorly hit effort in the frantic schemozzle which brought the game to its conclusion. In the fifty minutes after his switch from midfield, Eoin Kelly also played the ball just once, when he poked the rebound from Eoin McGrath's shot over the line for Waterford's goal.
While not reaching the heights of previous games (quite literally), Dan Shanahan was still the most hard-working Waterford forward with ten plays. For a player so renowned for his prowess in the air, it is perhaps ironic that his main contribution here was a delightful ground flick which sent Eoin McGrath in to set up (eventually) Waterford's goal. However, if he had shown greater vision he should have had a goal himself when put in possession by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín's mishit sideline late in the first half, as Donal Óg Cusack was way out of his unguarded goal when Shanahan fired the ball over the bar.
A key factor in the Cork victory was the hard work put in by their forwards in closing down defenders. Four of the original starting forwards got into double figures in terms of their number of plays, the exceptions being Timmy McCarthy (9) and Joe Deane (6) who was very well policed by Eoin Murphy but still produced the killer pass for Cathal Naughton's goal. Apart from his three points, Neil Ronan put in a very diligent display and can consider himself unfortunate to have been replaced, although nobody down by the Lee is complaining about this now.
In the Waterford fullback line, both Tom Feeney (12) and Declan Prendergast (10) played a lot of ball - much of it in the form of neat flicks and blockdowns in Prendergast's case. James Murray, with ten plays, just shaded it over Ken McGrath (9) and Tony Browne (8) in the Déise halfback line. McGrath was virtually anonymous in the second half (just three plays) and might have been more judiciously used at midfield or in the forwards at a time when Waterford were finding it very difficult to get any scores. Indeed, given his baffling decision to start Brick Walsh at full forward and the fact that the two substitutes that he put on played the ball just once between them in a combined playing time of almost 50 minutes, Justin McCarthy did not have a good day on the sideline. His caution under pressure contrasts with John Allen's preparedness to make brave decisions - decisions which have seen his side shade two close semi-finals in a row by a single point.
Yet, for all Cork's territorial dominance, given their profligacy with their scoring chances, in the end of the day they were handed victory by a series of basic mistakes made by Waterford. An Moltóir counted eight points scored by Cork which came directly from silly mistakes and the concession of needless frees by the Déise men. Indeed, Joe Deane's final point which sealed Cork's victory came directly from a double dose of Déise silliness - Clinton Hennessy's poor pass which went to Joe Deane, followed by Ken McGrath's foolish lunge which upended the Cork corner forward. Almost immediately afterwards, McGrath repeated the error with an overhit pass to Tony Browne which went out over the sideline.
There has been some discussion of the quality of Brian Gavin's refereeing, and given the conditions in which the game was played, it was never going to be easy for any referee. There is no doubt that both sides got a couple of dodgy decisions in their favour, but in An Moltóir's view Waterford probably came off worse in this department. In the first half, during a solo run under the Hogan Stand, John Mullane was tackled around the neck by Ben O' Connor and brought to the ground without getting a free. In the second half, Diarmuid O'Sullivan pulled a slap across Mullane's thigh as he was going for the ball and shortly afterward pulled across his neck from behind and got off scot free both times. In the 44th minute Jerry O'Connor illegally threw the ball out in front of him to get away from his marker before shooting a point. And in the 66th minute Ronan Curran pulled Seamus Prendergast down on him to get a free which Joe Deane converted.
This is not to say that Cork did not fully deserve to win this game. But given their failure to turn their dominance into scores, a different decision in just one of the above cases by a more vigilant referee could have produced a different result. But the Rebels are used to riding their luck in such situations. Eventually their luck is bound to run out, but if they have three All-Irelands tucked away by then, I doubt if they will really care. One final word about the non-event which was the Christy Ring cup final.
It was outrageous that Antrim requested to play in this competition. It was even more outrageous that the GAA agreed to the request. But what is already obvious is that the Irish counties fall into four categories in terms of hurling standards, and that there is a need for another competition (the Mackey Cup?) to cater for this.
At the moment there are, at most, nine top-class hurling counties, and the Liam McCarthy Cup competition should be confined to these. Dublin, Laois and Westmeath were just cannon fodder for the top counties in this year's qualifiers and would probably be better off in a separate competition with Antrim, Down and possibly Carlow and Kerry (if the latter could get their act together). These should be separated from the likes of Kildare, Wicklow, Derry, Roscommon and Mayo who would in turn be separated from the tier of weakest counties.
Promotion and relegation would, of course, continue to operate between all tiers. This would provide more meaningful competition across the board for all concerned. The Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard cups are a good idea in themselves, but their public image will not have been served well by such a one-sided final as we saw last Sunday.
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