CORK COACH RONAN McCarthy was heartened with the character his side showed in seeing off Tipperary in Thurles on Saturday evening.
Having led by seven points at half-time, the Rebels moved ten clear early in the second half only for Tipp to halve that deficit with five straight points, however the visitors settled again though and pushed on.
“What pleased the most was that Tipp had got five points in a row and there were still 20 minutes to go and here was the question,” McCarthy said,
“We responded well. We keep saying to the players to keep pushing out, not to invite teams on to us and to keep going forward. We have so much attacking potential up front, why would we be sitting back.
You look at the players we were able to bring on, we had options off the bench and the hope is that by the time we get to the Munster final, the range of options will be even stronger.”
While the league campaign was indifferent, Cork were working towards the championship.
McCarthy praised his charges for how they brought that training form in, but already it’s on to the next challenge, against Kerry or Clare in the Munster final on 23 June.
“It’s nice for the players to have worked hard and to get the reward of a very good performance like that,” he said.
“The disappointing thing is that, the nature of sport, it’s forgotten by Monday but you enjoy it tonight and you move on.
“We have to keep our feet on the ground and not forget the things that brought out that performance. We must continue to do them and bring it on even more.”
For his part, Tipp manager Liam Kearns wouldn’t be drawn on what effect his side’s game against Waterford the previous week had on them, but he admitted to huge disappointment.
“Other people can make judgements on why we were so bad,” he said. We, personally, are gutted.
“The players are gutted, I’m gutted, the management are gutted, we just under-performed so badly on what was a big occasion for us.
“You create the chances, you have to take them. We did have their rearguard in trouble at the start of the first half. If you don’t take the chances at this level, you’ll be punished and, in fairness, Cork punished us.”
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