CORK AND CLARE do battle to claim the Liam MacCarthy at Croke Park on Sunday. We all know that the victor usually gets the spoils but they also get greater air-time.
With that in mind, here are the best quotes and post-match comments to come out of the Cork and Clare camps this championship year:
Cork
23 June: Cork 0-23 Clare 0-15 (Cork boss Jimmy Barry Murphy)
“Let’s be honest, in the first half, Clare had two very good goal chances that didn’t go in — they went our way today. That’s something we certainly have to look at. If they got those, it certainly would have been a different game. They’ll look at that feel they could have gone in leading by seven or eight points at half-time.”
17 July: Lorcan McLoughlin on Patrick Horgan’s red card against Limerick
“I thought it was an outrageous call and I just hope once Patrick Horgan’s red card is reviewed that common sense is used. He (Horgan) couldn’t believe it you know and I think that was the feeling right throughout the team. Even watching it back you can see there was no intent in the strike.”
28 July: Cork 0-19 Kilkenny 0-15 (Jimmy Barry Murphy)
It took one magnificent save by Anthony Nash, in particular to keep the scoreboard where it was. If they got a goal that time… they are proud champions and they die very, very hard so it was a crucial juncture in the match… The penalty and the save afterwards from general play, they were vital.”
8 August: Ahead of the All-Ireland semi final with Dublin (Jimmy Barry Murphy)
“We got relegated in the league, lost a Munster final so we cannot afford to get ahead of ourselves. We [beat Kilkenny but] cannot be going around patting ourselves on the back as a management either because, as I said, we have nothing won yet. Dublin have.”
11 August: Cork 1-24 Dublin 1-19 (Lorcan McLoughlin)
That game had everything and it just shows all the work that’s being put in up in Dublin. They were outstanding and that’s the perfect preparation for an All Ireland final.”
4 September: Goalkeeper Anthony Nash on selecting his team (of hurleys)
“I’d be very fussy when it comes to hurleys. Aidan [Walsh] would tell you that. Gripping hurleys and making sure the handles, the weight and the balance are right. It’s great to have a friend making hurleys because I can wreck his head a bit more than other people.”
Clare
3 June: Clare 2-20 Waterford 1-15 (Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald)
“It will happen for them. This is a good bunch. It might not be this year but it will come for them. They are the real deal — they will work very hard and they’re as honest as they come.”
23 June: Cork 0-23 Clare 0-15 (Davy Fitzgerald)
“I’m bitterly disappointed. We didn’t do ourselves justice today. We built a bit of a lead up at half-time in that gale. In fairness, Cork were tenacious today and they deserved their victory.”
17 July: John Conlon reflecting on his concussion in the Munster semi final loss to Cork
“It happened about five minutes in. I got a bang in the head and I don’t remember any of the game… Play went on and the free was taken straight away. I think they finally realised after about 18 or 20 minutes that I’d to go off when I asked which way I was playing.”
28 July: Clare 1-23 Galway 2-14 (Davy Fitzgerald)
“Gameplan right? Maybe things worked for us today, I don’t know if the gameplan is right. Trust me, against Cork I got slaughtered. Did that make me a bad manager? I’d like to think not. I don’t think it makes Anthony [Cunningham] a bad manager. So , things worked out for us today so they did. Let’s not read too much into that stuff, we got the breaks and things went right for us today.”
28 July: Davy Fitzgerald on playing Limerick
“May the best horse jump the ditch and we’ll see what happens.”
17 August: Before Clare’s semi final with Limerick (Clare midfielder Colin Ryan)
You can’t tie down those young lads. You can’t tell them to hurl in a specific way. I am sure he did not tell Podge Collins to handpass the ball behind his back [against Galway]. The lads go out and hurl with freedom.”
18 August: Clare 1-22 Limerick 0-18 (Davy Fitzgerald)
“I know what comes with an All-Ireland and I could see it in the last week in Clare. It probably took us a while to get going down in Clare as regards getting the flags and the bunting out but it definitely took off over the last week and it kind of reminded me of the mid-90s.”
20 August: Captain Pat Donnellan on Cork and that word ‘revenge’
It’s something that will make you play in a way you don’t want to play. It will make you play with a sense of aggression that might be over the top and cloud your mind in some ways…. We don’t want to do that at all, we want to play as cool as we can and as calm as we can.”
*All quotes are from interviews carried out with TheScore.ie and RTÉ Television.
What was your favourite Clare or Cork quote from this year’s championship?
