THERE’S BEEN NO shortage of criticism heaped upon them – not least after the dreadful first-half display in Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday when they only scored a single point – but Cork manager Peadar Healy was keen to pay tribute to his players at still coming out on the winning side.
They turned the tables on Tipperary 12 months after their reversal in Thurles and Healy felt the leadership the players showed in response in the second half needed to be acknowledged.
“The players have taken an awful battering. This is their win. They’re battering us that we don’t have leaders and I thought they did show good leadership there. They need those types of games if they’re going to improve.
“It will give them confidence but we can’t play like that if we are playing a Munster final How many scores did we miss in the first half? Nine wides and one score, not a good return. Two goal chances missed put us under savage pressure.
“The players took control of the dressing-room. They knew the performance wasn’t good enough.
“They are very critical of themselves and very hard on themselves. I thought the response when Tipp scored the goal was fantastic and then to ride it out.
“After the Waterford game, they took a lot of slack. In the first half they were snatching at it too early. The pressure they were putting on themselves.
“If Colm O’Neill scored that goal, first chance he got, it could have settled us into that game a lot faster.”
Cork’s attention now switches to a Munster final on 2 July and Healy has called for a postponement of club games next weekend with 18 members of his squad involved across four games.
“We have flagged this to the county board, I have emailed them ten days ago to have those games put back.
“If they proceed we would probably have only about three training sessions together before the Munster final. It’s not good enough.
“Hopefully I will be talking to (Board chair) Ger Lane over the next few days and we will be able to put those games back. We need to do that.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
