Conor Counihan was in upbeat mood after Cork claimed their first piece of silverware of 2012 at Tipperary's expense in yesterday's McGrath Cup final.

"It's a competition we decided to enter this year and, having entered it, we wanted to win it," the Cork manager explained.

"We've had good ground up to this in our games but that pitch was very tough to play on. We had a number of new players out there again today and it was an opportunity to have a look at them. It was pleasing."

His Tipperary counterpart John Evans paid tribute to Cork 'keeper Ken O'Halloran who produced a couple of outstanding saves to deny Barry Grogan.

"Ken O'Halloran made superb saves. He was man of the match from a Cork point of view. It doesn't mean we'd have won the game if we had got one or two (goals).

"It just goes to show that we can create chances. The breaks didn't go our way. We need to be taking the points - there were a couple of point chances from frees that you've got to be putting over the bar," he said. Tweet

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