Campaign trail set for honest conclusion

In these days of phoney wars and lies and damn lies, it's possible that any promise may soon be forgotten

In these days of phoney wars and lies and damn lies, it's possible that any promise may soon be forgotten. But Sunday's Allianz National Hurling League final in Thurles, at least if you believe the Kilkenny and Cork managements, promises to be an honest contest.

If you believe Cork manager Bertie Óg Murphy, there are no longer any excuses for losing in the league. Plus, his side are starting to feel like underachievers and it's time now to end that.

Likewise, Kilkenny selector Noel Skehan views the game solely from a winning angle. There is much youth in the Kilkenny side now, and why should they jeopardise their positions by holding back on Sunday?

So the agendas from both counties were confidently presented in Dublin yesterday, even if the comparisons with the current general election campaigns were impossible to resist.

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"Well, Cork will be looking for an overall majority on Sunday anyway," said Murphy. "We've taken the league very seriously so far, and that was reflected in the first game we lost against Tipperary. We were very disappointed that day because we'd set out our stall to win every game.

"But when Tipperary won the double last year, that sent out a message to all managers, to cop themselves on and stop making excuses when they lose in the league, going on about the heavy training and all that.

"We certainly want to win a national league now, and no one in Cork is thinking about the championship until Sunday evening."

Skehan admitted his side are a little more surprised at reaching a league final, but from the start of the season the attitude has always been about winning.

"We came into this year's league having been beaten by Galway in the championship," he said, "so we wanted to test some new players and bring some freshness back into the panel. We brought about 10 new players into panel, and played them in different positions, and I suppose at the start of the league I didn't expect we'd make it to the final.

"So it was trial and error for us for a while, but the players responded and are eager now to hold on to the jerseys. The fact we'll be picking our championship panel very soon helps us as well, but like every match we've played this year we're going out to win it at all costs. And I don't think it's possible anyway to switch a team on and off. Complacency sets in and that's just not on."

Murphy has few complaints about Cork's route to Sunday's final, except for the minor blip against Tipperary: "Our first game away against Limerick was vital. When we overcame them we knew we had a good chance of qualifying, but from the start we wanted to win the thing if at all possible.

"Beating Tipperary the second day was especially satisfying because all the players knew it was a must-win situation, not just because no one in Cork wanted to lose to Tipperary twice in a fortnight. The younger players especially learnt a lot from the defeat and we were very happy with our performance in the semi-final."

Cork are sure then to be as testing an opposition as Kilkenny could have asked for at this stage: "Cork seem to be knocking up 20-odd points all the time now," said Skehan. "So we'll have to pay a lot of attention to Cork's free-flowing game.

"But at the moment we're picking the best team we've got. All this talk about it being a B team is simply not true, but the turning point for a lot of these younger players was the game against Clare in Ennis. They played very well that day, and the pressure is on everyone now to keep their place."

Nor does Skehan want any complacency to creep in, as it did last summer: "Looking back now, Kilkenny just didn't play well on the day. That's taking nothing away from Galway, but we won through Leinster so easy that sometimes you don't put the same effort in that you think you are, and mentally they may have got a bit comfortable. When players get comfortable on the field or the sideline it can be dangerous thing. That's one thing we don't want to happen this year."

Murphy is already confident that his side have closed any such window for complacency: "There was a feeling in the camp when we started this year that players were underachieving. Losing to Offaly in 2000 wasn't so bad because that was the first real taste of defeat for a lot of the players, but when we were beaten by Limerick last year and spent the whole summer without intercounty activity, you could sense that the players didn't want that to happen again.

"The attitude in training has reflected that, and we have six new players. We have players looking over their shoulder now as well, and wondering if they'll be picked again the following Sunday. So to lose to Limerick last year was a big disappointment, but in the long term it might have been healthy."