Cork manager John Meyler pictured ahead of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship Final.
By Denis Hurley
Cork topped the round-robin section of the Munster SHC with two wins and two draws, but coach John Meyler doesn’t believe that it was an easy journey for the reigning provincial champions.
The Rebels face Clare in Sunday’s final in Semple Stadium (2pm), with their opponents on the verge of elimination before a late fightback earned them victory over Tipperary, followed by a final-day win against Limerick. However, Meyler doesn’t subscribe to the view that that has left Clare more primed than his side ahead of the repeat of last year’s final.
“I don’t think there’s any coasting in the Munster championship with the four games,” he says.
“There was no coasting, the games were nearly all 50-50, bar Clare and Limerick, with Clare winning by 11 points. I wouldn’t say we’ve coasted into a Munster final. We’ve earned it, we’re unbeaten and we want to keep that.”
In avoiding defeat across the four games, Meyler feels that Cork displayed deep reservoirs of resolve. “I think the character showed,” he says, “and the resilience came through. At different stages we played some incredible hurling and at other stages we were poor.
“The character showed against Tipperary – they went up, we came back again, the same against Limerick. “The last 10 minutes against Waterford, I was delighted with the attitude shown by the lads, you couldn’t ask for more.
“That’s built up over the last two years and it’s come out in different stages. The character has built up in and the resilience, those are critical to a team which wants to win Munster and All-Ireland championships.”
Cork manager John Meyler is enjoying the new Championship format.
The new format has been a big hit with Meyler, so much so that he sought out games to attend on the weekend Cork were off. “You couldn’t ask for better than the Munster Championship this year,” he says, “the games have all been superb, superb entertainment, incredible scores, really exciting.
“The Cork-Limerick and Cork-Tipperary games were very exciting. People have voted – there have been around 200,000 people at the Munster championship games so far, and that’s up on previous years.
“You couldn’t ask for more value. A lot of issues arise over the four or five weeks, but I loved it, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. The weekend we were off, I went to watch Kilkenny play Wexford and then Limerick versus Waterford, and I missed it. It’s like soccer in England, all the games, and you just get used to it.
“You get used to the buzz, to turning up on the bus, to the sound of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people being there to watch the match. And for that weekend there was a sense of, ‘God, I miss that.’”
The new Championship ends as it began, with a Cork and Clare tie. Meyler certainly expects to meet a different animal to the side Cork beat in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in May. “We started off against them a few weeks ago down the Páirc and beat them by five points,” he says.
“They admitted themselves they did a good amount of soul-searching after that match and probably reorganised themselves and the team. They did very well in their matches, they had a good, positive win over Limerick last time out, a Limerick team fancied to win the Munster Championship.
“I think Clare have learned as much as we have over the last four or five games.”
