John Horgan: Hurlers badly needed that but they're far from the finished article

AS the old saying goes, a win is a win and that is all that matters at the conclusion of any sporting event.

Well, the Cork hurlers achieved that objective last Sunday in their crucial league encounter at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with Waterford but it was a victory that you certainly would not be writing home about.

The league points on offer were of paramount importance, more so from a Cork viewpoint as they entered the fray winless and bottom of the pile in Division 1A after two previous losses against Clare and Kilkenny.

Waterford were on the board with a brace of points after their win over Offaly so the pressure was heaped on the home team to a much larger degree.

When these two counties renew acquaintances exactly two months to the day from last Sunday in their opening joust of the Munster championship, the stakes will be considerably higher and the likelihood is that this league encounter will be reduced to just a footnote in the story of the season.

Both counties are on a similar journey at the moment, being part of next season's seven-team Group IA, the elite group in the competition and building up a bit of momentum for the minefield that will again be the provincial campaign.

From that perspective, Pat Ryan will be the happier of the two managers who patrolled the sideline last Sunday but he will be realistic too in his analysis of the game that he had just witnessed, enough done on the day but a hell of a lot more to do before the championship flag is raised.

The consistency that he is obviously looking for over the 70 minutes was a bit better than it had been in the earlier rounds but, at the same time, he and the rest of his management team cannot have been happy with how Waterford were allowed back into the game when the cause seemed lost for them.

That was when Cork held a 10-point advantage in the second half only to concede the next seven scores to the opposition, seven points without reply.

Suddenly a substantial advantage had been reduced to a puck of a ball before the tide was halted which eventually gave the home team a slender two-point victory.

And if Waterford had not been so profligate with their final delivery which included two very scorable points being missed from placed balls, one in each half, who knows what might have happened.

By the end of the contest, Waterford were well into double figures with their tally of wides, some of them downright sloppy.

In their two losses, Cork were guilty of going for lengthy periods without troubling the scoreboard operator, this time it was a case of not being able to hammer home the substantial advantage that they held and making life very difficult for themselves as the game entered its final minutes.

But the end result was all that counted and a losing sequence has been ended, something that was looked upon as being hugely important.

It was one of those gey February Sundays by the Lee, a day that would not entice you to leave the comfort of your sitting room and a day when digging deep was the order.

It certainly wasn't pretty, a fairly hard watch at times but these types of games can act as a positive when the bigger and more important questions are posed.

To repeat, it was all about the win and despite not lighting any bushfires, there were positives for the Cork management, for Waterford too probably given their number of high-profile absentees and the manner with which they reinvented themselves when it looked like they might be in for a bit of a drubbing.

POSITIVES

To the Cork positives, Jack O'Connor had a very good day at the office in attack, rifling over three fine points from play and firing home a brilliant individual goal which proved to be so crucial in the final analysis.

Brian Hayes made a significant contribution too on the scoreboard, a hat-trick of well-executed points and he also won an important free which was converted by Patrick Horgan. Seamie Harnedy made his first appearance of the competitive season, the management getting valuable game time into him and he slotted over two tasty points while another seasoned warrior, Damien Cahalane was back in business too.

There was a return to the fray too for Alan Connolly after a very lengthy spell on the sideline due to injury and his introduction will certainly have been welcomed.

Overall, Cork had 10 different scorers, among them Ciaran Joyce, Ger Millerick and Eoin Downey with three big points.

Maybe the fact that Cork had to dig deep for the victory in the end will stand to them too going forward but there's still a lot of hard graft ahead before we get a better picture of how things are.

The management have a lot of players at their disposal right now and getting the right blend throughout the field will be uppermost in their thoughts as things start to progress that bit more towards the big championship days.

Despite the fact that their two remaining games at the group stage of the campaign are on away turf, Offaly in Tullamore and Wexford in Wexford Park, Cork are now much better positioned to secure one of the three spots in next season's elite seven-team group.

Davy Fitzgerald has now seen his charges lose two on the trot to Clare and to Cork but he will take encouragement from the fact that in both instances the margin of defeat was not what some might have envisaged because of the absence of some key players who will be back over the coming weeks to bolster the set-up.

SETBACK

Ethan Twomey's withdrawal so early in the game because of injury was a blow for Cork and it is to be hoped that it won't be a protracted spell. 

To sum up, Cork are finally up and running in this league campaign and that far outweighed everything else last Sunday.

The need, however, remains for more consistency within the game and if the position that you find yourself in of being nine or 10 points to the good you have to ensure that your opponents are not allowed to make things nervy for you as was the case last Sunday.

We'll learn a bit more after the two trips into Leinster.