Daniel Kearney pleased with patient Cork approach
Cork trailed Waterford for most of the game but finished strongly to win by three points, 1-26 to 1-23.
“I think the word to use against teams like Waterford is ‘patience’,” said Kearney.
“They’re very frustrating to play against because they work so hard and they have bodies behind the ball.
It’s important that you don’t let that get to you, that’s key, because you could just start launching it or doing whatever. I felt we held our nerve really well and the patience was in the performance right up to the end.
“We didn’t panic, we kept chipping over the points, the goal was a killer but Séamie [Harnedy] stepped up and got a great goal and we’re delighted with the win in the end.”
Kearney said he and his teammates weren’t aware of the permutations and results which could have excluded Cork from the provincial decider: “Not really, to be honest. We just knew that we had to perform and whatever came out of that. Luckily enough we got the win, delighted now to be in a Munster final.”
Though Waterford had nothing to play for, having been eliminated last week, Kearney said he and his teammates didn’t expect an easy outing.
“As players, you know that they’re coming down and, like Patrick Horgan said to me, they’re not going to give you an easy ball because they’re there to play for their own pride, pride in themselves and pride in Waterford.
“They gave a great performance and we knew it was going to be just as intense as it was.
The first half was frustrating, but that was down to how well Waterford set up. They don’t leave you play and they’re difficult to organise against.
“We stayed patient and stayed in the game and stuck to the game plan. We hit a few bad wides but we never panicked or started changing the process. We stayed in the zone and I thought it paid dividends in the end.
“We’ve had very close encounters with Waterford over the last few years and in a lot of games they’ve come out on top so we were under no illusions about what they were going to throw at us.
“We weren’t surprised by how tough it was in the first half. We always use the word ‘patience’ and not to get frustrated, it’s a tough game to play against Waterford but I thought we showed really good character there in the second half to just finish it off, fairly play to the lads.’”
The Sars clubman added that the wind played a part in how the game played out: “It definitely was an element, the game changed in the second half in that they played with an out-and-out sweeper.
“In the first half, it was more that they were withdrawing fellas, it might have been a bit harder for us to get our set-up. Then they had an out-and-out sweeper, so you had a clearer view of what we needed to do then.
“We weren’t happy at all with our shooting and some of the shooting not always the right options. We’ll hopefully get that right.”
