Davy Fitzgerald apologizes to fans for Waterford performance after ...
DAVY FITZGERALD issued an apology to Waterford fans after his team’s ‘absolutely terrible’ performance at a sun-kissed Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The Déise were a pale imitation of the team that had pushed All-Ireland champions Limerick all the way in Thurles just seven days previously.
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And Cork clinically sliced them apart to coast to a comfortable nine-point victory in front of a crowd of 29,014 by Leeside.
Waterford’s Championship aspirations are now hanging by a thread after two straight defeats and Fitzgerald said: “We have no one to look at, only ourselves.
“We weren’t energetic and we let them dictate everything. It wasn’t good enough.”
The gaffer admitted that his side were ‘bullied’ by Cork and added: “I’m disappointed for the fans who came down. All we can do is apologise to them.
“The least they deserve is that we’ll absolutely go to the well and die every single time. The lads kept trying but we’d expect more from ourselves.”
Waterford’s performance was underpinned by ferocious intensity when they rattled Limerick in a two-point defeat seven days earlier.
But they failed to reproduce that against the Rebels, whose work-rate was notable as they tore into their Munster SHC campaign after lying idle for over a month since the National League semi-final defeat to Kilkenny.
Having aced his first Championship challenge as Rebels chief, Pat Ryan said: “We’ve been accused at times in Cork of not working hard enough. I don’t think we could be accused of that today.
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“There were parts of our game that we’ll be disappointed with — some wides, not creating enough goal opportunities and taking shots we shouldn’t have taken. But I’m delighted with the attitude of the lads.”
Waterford allowed the game to get away from them during a woeful opening half in which they registered just a single point from play. And that score took 27 minutes to arrive courtesy of Dessie Hutchinson.
Attacking the Blackrock End with the aid of the breeze, eight Cork players fired over points to give the Rebels a 0-15 to 0-6 lead at the break. All but three of the home side’s scores came from play.
Darragh Fitzgibbon hit the ground running for Cork in his first appearance of the year. The 2018 All-Star midfielder, just back from a shoulder injury, brilliantly set the tone with three classy points inside the opening eight minutes.
Rob Downey led from the back while also chipping in with two points. And there was a man-of-the-match display at midfield from Brian Roche, who — along with Tommy O’Connell — was one of two Corkmen making a first Championship start.
And Ryan said: “I was very confident we’d put in a display and leave everything out there. That’s what we’ve asked the lads to do every time they put on the Cork jersey — that they leave everything out there.
“There was a bit of negativity after the Kilkenny game and obviously we’d have liked to have played a bit better that time.
“But I think it was a blessing in disguise in the end, in that it gave us five weeks to prepare. We had a lot of fellas coming back from injuries.”
FALSE DAWNWaterford, who introduced Austin Gleeson as one of three half-time changes, briefly threatened a revival after the restart when Jamie Barron added to a brace of Stephen Bennett points to reduce the deficit to six.
But Cork quickly snuffed out that momentum by hitting five without reply.
Waterford came close on several occasions to fashioning the goal that they so desperately needed. Patrick Collins saved attempts from Bennett, Hutchinson and Peter Hogan.
The Cork goalkeeper was also thankful to Damien Cahalane, who thwarted goalbound efforts from Bennett and Patrick Fitzgerald.
Asked if his side were hindered by the swift turnaround from the Limerick loss, Fitzgerald said: “I don’t want to use excuses. Cork were better than us today.
“Cork had way more energy than we had and there was no doubt that they deserved to win by as much as they did.
“We just didn’t seem to have that energy today and we just weren’t the same as we were last week.
“I know Cork were coming in fresh but there is no excuses, as Limerick and Clare had the same thing
“We didn’t have the intensity, that energy, we didn’t attack the balls, and you could tell early on that that was the story.
“I don’t know whether last week took more out of them than I thought. I didn’t think it did.”
BIG BOOSTCork were boosted by the return of Robbie O’Flynn, who was introduced from the bench after recovering from the injury he suffered in the opening-round league win over Limerick.
The Erin’s Own forward announced his arrival with two points to help the hosts surge into a 0-25 to 0-13 lead with 10 minutes to go as the contest limped towards an inevitable conclusion.
Ryan, whose Rebel outfit will host Tipperary on Saturday night, said: “The Munster Championship is dog-eat-dog.
“So to get two points on the board early is just a great start. I’ve said all along, our aim is to gather five points and get out of Munster.”
Waterford have now won just one of their 14 games in Munster’s round-robin format since its introduction in 2018. And they must improve that record against Clare on May 13 if they are to stand any hope of advancing to the All-Ireland series.
But a defiant Fitzgerald said: “Are we out of the Championship yet? No. I’d love to get another run, see how we get on and see what the story is.
“I’ve worked with these lads for the last four and a half, five months and they’re good lads. They’re really good. That just wasn’t them today. But we can’t crib or cry about the result. We know that Cork were way better than us today.
“We’ll take a bit of stick back at home — we deserve it, rightly so. But we’ll go back, reassess and we’ll get ready again.
“We’re four or five months into this. There are some managers out there in their third and fourth year.
“These guys will come back better, I’m telling you. You could see last week what they have in them. Don’t write them off.”
CORK: P Collins; N O’Leary, D Cahalane, G Millerick; T O’Connell, C Joyce, R Downey 0-2; B Roche 0-1, L Meade 0-1; D Dalton 0-3, 2f D Fitzgibbon 0-4, S Barrett 0-1; S Harnedy 0-3, P Horgan 0-8, 6f, C Lehane 0-2. Subs: R O’Flynn 0-2 for Dalton 49 mins, P Power for Harnedy 55, S Kingston for Lehane 59, C Cahalane for Meade 64, C O’Brien for Millerick 69.
WATERFORD: B Nolan; C Gleeson, C Prunty, M Fitzgerald; D Lyons, C Lyons 0-2, T Barron; J Barron 0-1, N Montgomery 0-1; C Dunford, J Fagan, J Prendergast; S Bennett 0-9, 7f, 1 ’65, M Kiely, D Hutchinson 0-1. Subs: A Gleeson 0-1 for Kiely h-t, Patrick Fitzgerald 0-1 for T Barron h-t, P Hogan for Dunford h-t, C Ryan for C Gleeson 43 mins, Pádraig Fitzgerald 0-2 for Montgomery 65.
REFEREE: J Owens (Wexford).
