“Sport is sport, somebody always wins and somebody always loses.”
Brian Cody’s Kilkenny side ended up on the losing end of a thrilling semi-final, that saw Cork win in extra time, to ensure their place in the All-Ireland final.
The Cats have a very strong record in set-finals under Cody, with this defeat only being their fourth under his 23-year reign.
They looked beat in normal time, but they never gave up, and right at the death, with the last puck of the game and three-points down, Adrian Mullen managed to find the net and face it to extra time.
“It was a huge huge score for us to get, it was one of those games where we had chances at different times in the game, they had chances as well, it kind of ebbed and flowed a fair bit.
“It obviously looked coming to the end of normal time that they were going to win it in normal time, but we scored a very good goal.
“It kept us in the game and it brought us to extra-time, which we did experience already this year obviously. But that’s not enough, you still have to go out and win it on the pitch and that didn’t happen for us.
“Of course we could have won it. But the better team wins these matches, that’s the way it works.
“They played out extra-time very well, obviously. We started extra-time pretty well, as it went on then the goal was a huge score for them and they just had that breathing space and they just played it out very well after that.
“Everybody spoke about the Cork pace before the game, and of course they are full of pace, but they are also full of skill and application and everything else.
“A goal is a huge score and when they got that they had the confidence and the ability to move the ball around and pick some good scores.”
Despite being on the losing end, nobody could fault Kilkenny’s relentless determination and sheer refusal to give up, pushing right to the very end.
“I’d be very very disappointed if it was ever any other way – that’s what real sportspeople do and that’s what our dressing-room is full of.
“Sport is sport, somebody always wins and somebody always loses. But you can lose badly or you can lose with a bit of respect and a bit of honour, and our lads did that today.”
