Cork happy to do some talking off the pitch

They are getting used to a new culture in Cork. They aren't against talking, just willing to embrace the faddish theory that talking might not be so good for a team. Yet they enjoy it so. The best use a man can get out of a match that is just over is talking about it.

Donal O'Grady has his doubts about all the gabbling but there's a personable streak in him which keeps him chatting, his head tilted listening for the question which might interest him. His words are measured but flowing and flavoured with humour. Was he worried at half-time?

"I was worried at the start. And at half-time. And with 10 seconds to go. Managers worry."

And that's that. Next. What about last year, the winter of discontent? Has that been a motivating factor?

"Not really. Because I didn't, well I wasn't involved. The players settled the dispute professionally and once we started in January it was 2003, and 2002 was history. Thankfully things have gone well."

They have gone well. A Munster title and two performances of value. Yet early on yesterday Cork looked anaemic compared to the way they appeared against Clare. "I don't think we played good hurling in the first half. Waterford dominated around the middle. They got good scores.

"(John) Mullane rocked us back a bit. Five points wasn't a great lead if we started well after the break. With the wind, any clearance was dropping to their 21. The odds were we would go ahead and win it. They are a good side. No doubt about it. They had some dreadful wides. Three or four points in the end but they will look back on those wides."

Seven weeks until the All-Ireland semi-final. It's quite a chasm to be looking across but with no injury worries and a young, improving team O'Grady seems confident he can let his team down and bring them up again.

"All we'll do now is enjoy the occasion. Little break in the meantime. Waterford and Limerick, titanic struggle. Bit by bit things are getting more difficult.

"There's nothing won yet. We have to prepare for that. I said during the week that we had club matches the weekend after Clare and had only six or seven nights to come down and get back up. I was worried in the first half that we didn't match them in intensity. More of a pep to our step early on. With seven weeks we should have time."

Joe Deane comes out into the narrow corridor. On a day when he was largely bottled up he's still emerged with decent figures (1-4) after his name. That always hurts losing teams.

"At half-time things didn't look too good. We didn't do ourselves justice before the break. It was calm in there though," Deane says, nodding to the dressing-room. "We were a bit subdued, fellas disappointed in their own performances. We built it up in the dressing-room, though. Donal Óg (Cusack) spoke and Wayne (Sherlock) spoke and when we came out we were level after six or seven minutes of the second half. When we went two or three points up we felt we could do it. Our goal from the start of the year was to win Munster. To come from where we were. Everything from here is a bonus."

It was a tough, physical game. Deane found the ground hard and the ball bouncing high and could sense that out in the middle third the physical exchanges were frank. Inside he was just looking after business.

"A lot was expected of us going into the game, could we build ourselves up. Waterford were going to hit us early and hard. We wanted to stay with them. Seven points down it didn't look too good. Five points down it was better and a bit of a gale there we knew would account for three or four points. We didn't take any notice of their changes."

And his goal, one of the crossroads of the game. There were complaints from Waterford that Brian Greene's hurl had been held. Deane did what he had to do. Score.

"Well I was after missing a bad free beforehand. Mark Prendergast won a ball and let it in high. I was running parallel with the defender. I slipped inside Brian Greene. I think he was saying there was a nudge or something. I didn't think so. I caught it. It went in.

"Any time you score a goal in the Munster championship it's a good feeling."

Sherlock's day had been rougher than most but with every minute the game grew so did his stature. By the end he was hurling like a king.

"Their full-forward line is tough to mark. They're fast players, you have to be on your toes. A few goals went in but we came victorious at the end. The dressing-room was very relaxed. To be honest, five points in hurling isn't much, it's only a couple of pucks of the ball really and we knew if we got off to a good start in the second half we'd come good in the end. We're fit men. We just needed to hurl them in the first 10 minutes/quarter of an hour and we'd be there. Hopefully we can improve again. They only got a point in the last 15 minutes of the first half and the thought of that rallied us."

And that was it. Outside the great Cork public was waiting to slap their backs. The divisions of last winter have been healed as only Cork can heal them with a 47th Munster title.