Sheedy tries to keeps the lid on a perfect day

LIAM SHEEDY, having masterminded a very Tipperary coup, tried hard to screw down the lid on his excitement. Beating Cork in the Park is one thing. Winning silverware is another. Still beating Cork in the Park is sweet even if not necessarily nourishing in the long term. "It was a good day for Tipperary," he said.

"It didn't look like it would be in the first 20 minutes. I thought we showed a little bit of nerves. Munster compared to the league is a different animal and I thought we were a bit jittery early on."

If Tipperary were good Cork were complicit in their own downfall, spraying the wides around like snuff at a wake. "Cork drove a lot of wides and hit the post when they could have pushed on. When we got the lead we hurled to the finish."

It had been a decent day for Sheedy on the line. His switches worked. "To be honest you don't set out to make bad changes. You make a change and it works, it is a good change. It doesn't work and you are a fool."

His own experience on the line mirrored that of his team. He grew into the game. Early on Tipp had declined to let Conor O'Brien follow Cathal Naughton when he wandered toward the middle of the field. Naughton's speed made him a huge threat and his yellow helmet became a magnet for Donal Óg Cusack's puck-outs.

"We spoke about what would happen. After we were six or seven down we went man to man. The last day that we played against Kilkenny it worked leaving a lad in to sweep at the back. Today it didn't work. Micheál Webster made a difference when he came on. He is a handful; scored and won a good free. Pat Kerwick was busy. He scored a fabulous score. And full credit to Séamus Callinan. First day out only a young guy. What a score in the second half. He oozes confidence."

On a day when his side had delivered fully, Sheedy the downbeat manager was the one trick which the Tipperary boss couldn't quite master. "I felt the intensity was good. If we go next day with the same application we have a chance. We take it every day as it goes. Winning is a habit. Nobody minds winning. We never really talked about the Páirc Uí Chaoimh thing and it being that long but we weren't coming down here every year and getting beaten or then I would have been worried."

Conor O'Mahony, who earned himself a man-of-the-match award with his performance from centre back for the winners, did a better job of it.

"We came down here with a job to do and we are very satisfied. We always knew we would have a spell on top and we had to work hard when they were on top.

"Defence all played well but the forwards defended very well. They didn't give the Cork backs space to drop ball on top of us. The atmosphere today was brilliant."

And as for Eoin Kelly who was down this road in his infancy as a hurler, can he feel some déjà vu about 2008? "In 2008 our goal is win every game. That's all. Go out and be competitive. Defence were tremendous all through the league campaign. We really stuck to our guns today. We are training since November and in the league we got into a few very competitive games. That gives you confidence, scores. Cork are far from gone. They have fresh legs. They will have a big say in this championship yet."

To look at the Cork faces about the place you wouldn't have thought so. Having raised the bar for themselves with the strike action earlier this year, Cork were in a place they are normally comfortable in, needing a big performance to silence a few people.

"Started well," said Donal Óg Cusack shaking his head. "Seven points up at one stage but Tipp turned it around before half-time. We had a couple of chances in the second half. Before half-time Eoin's goal made a big difference. It was a setback."

With Cork the issues aren't so much micro as macro. Where does this leave them as a team. "The boys put in a good effort at training, got into good shape but this thing is about winning and we didn't win so something isn't good enough."

John Gardiner was of the same demeanour. "It would have been very nice going in if we took our chances . . With a few minutes to go today it was up for grabs and whoever was going to take it on were going to be the winners. They got scores as easy as we got wides. That was the difference."

Cork manager Gerald McCarthy was downbeat but gracious. "We tried very hard to turn it around. It didn't happen for us. We did the best we could. Went for it but it didn't work out.

"We picked what we felt was the best 15 in form. In training they were showing that. Today the scores were level seven times. In the second half it was slipping away though. Tipp had the legs of us. It is easy when you have it on the scoreboard and the minutes are ticking town. You will feel fit."

And this great team? "As you can see there are a lot of young players on the panel. There may be changes down the way. This bunch have been around a very long time. Even today some of the older players, they showed it all; in how they played. Their dedication has to be seen to be believed. Seán Óg gave an absolute display of power hurling. These kind of players come around once in a lifetime. They did us proud really."