Cork 0-27 Waterford 0-18
It was a day when Cork answered their critics and Waterford gave theirs more ammo.
The Rebels charged into Championship and straight to the top of the Munster round-robin with a nine-point trimming of their visitors.
In a razor-tight group, their scoring difference places them at the head of a four-way tie on two points. Waterford are the only side yet to register a win.
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Pat Ryan was delighted with the Cork work rate as they outfought and outthought Waterford with a true team performance.
“We’ve been accused at times in Cork of not working hard enough. I don’t think we could be accused of that today,” he said.
“There were parts of our game that we’ll be disappointed with, some wides and not creating enough goal opportunities and taking shots we shouldn’t have taken, but delighted with the attitude of the lads.”
Waterford tried every tactic they could to disrupt Cork. Going man-to-man, then dropping Jack Fagan back for extra cover. Clogging the Cork goalmouth, then spreading wide to either sideline.
No matter what they did, Cork were the ones finding space all around Páirc Uí Chaoimh against their flat opposition.
Davy Fitzgerald apologised to fans who had made the journey down the coast.
“It was the exact same as last year. Okay, we might not have been beaten by as much but we were bullied last year and the same happened to us today.
“I don't think Cork are 10 points better than us. Today there was no doubting that [they were].
“We are a bit better than how we played today. I'm disappointed for the fans who came down. All we can do is apologise to them.”
Waterford lost more than half of their own puck-outs against the Cork press (20 out of 39) and converted barely half of their scoring chances (18 out of 35).
They had only one point from play in the entire first half. Cork had more from play in that period (0-12) than Waterford had in the entire 70 minutes (0-10).
“It’s easy to assess the performance,” said Fitzgerald, “it was absolutely terrible.
“Lack of energy, lack of drive… It was just very disappointing.
“I’d love to tell you why [it was different], I just don’t know. It wasn’t the same team that lined out last week.
“Maybe ‘twas I got something wrong during the week, I don’t know.
“Last week, we attacked the space but we didn’t today. We have no one to look at only ourselves. We weren’t energetic and we let them dictate everything. It wasn’t good enough.”
For Cork, it was hard to point out anyone who didn’t perform.
Their front eight all hit the scoreboard. Waterford had five second-half goal chances as they tried to push up but they were saved by Patrick Collins (three times, albeit once after dropping the ball onto his own line) and Damien Cahalane (twice).
The RTÉ man of the match went to Brian Roche, on his first start, while his midfield partner Darragh Fitzgibbon, in his first game of 2023, ran his markers ragged. He launched five shots at the posts inside eight minutes, scoring three.
Cahalane, Séamus Harnedy, Conor Lehane, and Patrick Horgan showed there’s plenty of life after 30, with the latter trio contributing 0-13.
“There was a bit of negativity after the Kilkenny game,” said Ryan, “but I think it was a blessing in disguise in the end in that it gave us five weeks to prepare. We’d a lot of fellas coming back from injuries.”
It was a help that all those players returning had plenty of experience and conditioning in the bank.
Fitzgibbon was “gassed” towards the end but Ryan was keen to get 70 minutes into his legs.
Robbie O’Flynn (0-2) and Shane Kingston added their names into starting contention for next Saturday against Tipperary, with O’Flynn, in particular, in explosive form off the bench.
Add Eoin Downey into the mix, too, as his suspension is served. Ryan said he would’ve started otherwise.
Captain Seán O’Donoghue has been training away the last three weeks as he recovers from a surprisingly long-term dead leg. He remains “touch and go” for Saturday.
On the other side, Davy Fitz was left to wonder how he will pick up the pieces from here. Everything was questioned. He considered his preparation this week (25 minutes on Tuesday, 45 minutes on Friday for the first team).
Michael Kiely suffered a “serious injury” last Friday but struggled through the first half after aggravating his leg before being whipped off as part of a triple change at the break.
Fitzgerald also mentioned how Cork didn’t do anything Waterford hadn’t anticipated.
“The way they set up was very similar to Limerick, leaving the gaps between the half-back lines. We knew that gap was there, the same as we did last week.
“We attacked it like our lives depended on it [last week]. We didn't attack it [today].
“We knew that space was there. A ball short to the goalie, we knew he was going to do that. We knew what the next ball was, it was a dink up in front of the half-forwards. Sure we do it ourselves.
“The difference was the Cork half-back line was attacking the ball. We just didn't attack it.”
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