In the end, Cork beat Waterford comfortably in front of a packed SuperValu Pairc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday. It will go down in the record books as a six-point victory, but it felt like there was a lot more between them, even if we were kept that little bit too close to the edge of our seats at times.
It’s often mentioned how a big vociferous and vocal crowd can drive a team on, but a big home support can sometimes have a detrimental effect, too. There was a different type of tension in the air on Sunday. The knockout nature of the day played its part, but there was something else too. Everybody thought that Cork should win, everybody thought that Cork would win, but everybody was wary that things don’t always necessarily go to plan.
Three years ago, for example, after getting out of jail by beating Waterford and Tipperary, Cork hammered Galway and yet lost by a point. Thus, every minor error becomes major, every wide becomes potentially fatal, every decision becomes pivotal.
However, Cork never got caught chasing the game. They didn’t concede an early goal like they did in Walsh Park last April. Austin Gleeson didn’t party like it was 2017 and Cork are very much back on track.
There were occasions in the second half where it looked like Cork would pull away and win handily. Brian Hayes’s goal after the interval was the first and when Shane Barrett found himself in splendid isolation soon afterwards, the stadium inhaled with the expectation of another cathartic explosion. We were left waiting, and Waterford kept chipping away. Then, just when we might have begun to think that all the misses might come back to haunt us Hayes put Patrick Horgan into an eerily similar position to the week before in Limerick, but this time the great man buried it.
Then Stephen Bennett did Stephen Bennett things, Mark Coleman, who played really well, played a game of hot potato and Jamie Barron flashed a chance wide. Much like the Auld Triangle, the nerves went jingle jangle, and it took a monstrous point from Cormac O’Brien to put things beyond doubt.
In reality, however, the game was won in the first half while playing into the teeth of a sí gaoithe. After Limerick, you’d have felt that Cork would have been at their most vulnerable then. Waterford played with the wind, led by 0-5 to 0-1 and Cork’s radar was off. Crucially, from there to the break it was 0-12 to 0-7, with Alan Connolly’s third of the half particularly sweet, sending Cork in ahead at the break. From there, enough was done.
It was far from a brilliant performance, but it didn’t have to be and what stood out more than anything was how different players made key contributions at different times. Tim O’Mahony’s form has dipped a bit in recent weeks, but it was his dedication to hard work that made the opening goal. The aforementioned Connolly showed what most of us already know; that there’s far more to his game than scoring goals.
Hayes struggled in the first half but blew the game open in the second. On a really tough day for free-taking, Horgan was almost perfect. Diarmuid Healy gave an exhibition of doing the right thing after he was introduced while Shane Kingston found some rhythm. Seamus Harnedy reminded us that forwards must always keep shooting. It felt impossible to pick a player of the match as in essence, everybody just did enough with the only bad news of the day befalling the luckless Ger Millerick.
The aftermath of the game is becoming intoxicating. The walk back to the city in the midst of a sea of smiling red. The multi-generational discussion of Éamonn Murphy’s player ratings in the Long Valley with a few drinks and a few bags of crisps. Then there’s further discussion of what’s past, passing, and to come as twilight descends. That feeling of being part of something that’s much bigger than we realise.
Sunday brought the curtain down on Cork’s home games for 2025. It’s been an incredible few weeks for Cork hurling, for the city. Over 190,000 barcodes have been scanned down the Páirc, a national title secured for the first time in twenty years, a Munster final to look forward to.
Pat Ryan told us from the off that were third place offered to him at the start of the season, he would have happily accepted. Of course, his ambitions would have been more than that, but few understand the nature of things more than Ryan. In year three, things have steadily progressed. Failure to come out of Munster in 2023 was balanced by notable improvement, and last year was last year. This year, Cork kept their fate in their own hands at all times.
Phase one is over and from here, things will get more serious, more difficult, more important. Starting with another trip to Limerick on Saturday week. What awaits us there?
Any time you fail, all you want for is a chance of atonement. Whatever happens, there’s a hell of a lot of ball to be hurled before the curtain falls. .
John Coleman
The Little All-Ireland 