THEY PLAYED THEIR part in a furious contest for the spoils but all that graft counted for little in the final analysis for the Cork hurlers tonight.
Kieran Kingston commended his players for their performance yet defeat was their lot against Tipperary as they contemplated the end of their 2020 involvement, the concession of second-half goals pinpointed as crucial by the Rebels boss.
“Things are very, very raw. I just spoke to the players there. It’s a very sad dressing room because we believed in ourselves. We believed we were good enough to win today, we came up here to win.
“We lost the toss, Tipperary decided to play with the elements, wind and rain. I thought we were in a good place at half-time, third quarter we didn’t push on as much as we could. I think we were maybe relying on the elements which were really eased off a lot in the second half.
“That’s not in any way taking from anything but we got caught with two sucker punches. First one to lose that goal and come back, to go a point up, I think showed huge character and then the second I just think was a bit late to get back from the second one. It wasn’t a game with a lot of chances. If you look back at where the Tipp goals originated, I would be disappointed that they were more given away than created.”
Kingston paid tribute to his players and believes they dispelled the sense Cork are not able to perform in winter conditions.
“I have to say hugely, hugely proud of the effort the lads put in the last two days. We’ve only been together a number of weeks and I think they showed today what they’re capable of.
“You must remember as well we’re playing the All-Ireland champions, they’re not going to hand over their crown easily. We knew that coming up here. A lot of people said Cork can’t play winter hurling, I think we showed we can play winter hurling. This is championship and we didn’t care if it was raining. I think we showed we have good character.
I think this myth around Cork don’t work and Cork are soft, I think we showed the last two days that’s not the way we play the game.”
Cork face into a spell on contemplation after the close of another fruitless season. Kingston feels they will take time before deciding on plans for 2021 but is adamant they must now review what is required to move up a level of performance.
“It’s not the time to be making those decisions. All I can say I think the team showed today and the panel showed what they were capable of. Lot of young players, missing a few players as well, we lost Deccie Dalton through injury during the game. All I can say is whatever we feel as a group that needs to be done to make us that little bit better, will be done.
“I’m not a fan of moral victories to be honest. They don’t rest well with me. It’s 15 years since we won an All-Ireland, heading for 16 now. I think we’ve moved beyond moral victories. Yeah there’s a lot of positives. We got to take those but we’ve got to say we’ve raised the bar this year to this level, what do we have to do now to take it another step.
“That’s the challenge now for us as management and players to take it to the next level because I think this group are certainly capable of going there.”
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