Cork’s Daniel Relihan and Michael Hedigan will take to the court for third successive oneills.com All-Ireland 4-Wall Senior Doubles final (Saturday, Croke Park, ladies final at 2pm and men's afterwards) after a hard-fought semi-final win over Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy and Colm Jordan (Saturday, Croke Park, ladies final at 2pm and men's afterwards).
“In the first game, I thought everything went our way, I thought we played fierce well in the first game, any set-ups we got were killed and our serves were going well,” explained Hedigan (below) in his post-match interview on Spórt TG4.
“In the second game, nothing worked at the start of the game. I think we were down 7-2 and then we were down 17-12 then towards the end of the second game. I think we took a time-out and that was the difference, our serves started to work and we killed well.”
The experience picked up over the years helped the defending champions weather the Westmeath storm in game two, Relihan said.
“In the first game there was nothing between us but once we got to 13, our serves started working, I actually got two poxy kills and they worked in our favour. You just have to take those chances, one of the kills, I actually hit Michael before it on my back swing - I suppose you have to make your own luck.
“In the second game, that's the way handball can go, you're going to face purple patches. When you're playing a player like Robbie McCarthy, he's going to dominate at times in a game and you have to manage those patches really. I think the serve dictates a lot in doubles and I feel like when we got going finally in the second half of the second game, that came into effect then, we started to kill more.
“We just had to get our serves right, it was our first championship game this year, you're going to have a bit of rustiness. Just thankful we got through it.”
The Corkmen had no quarter-final after receiving a walkover from Tipperary but, said Hedigan, they trained twice at HQ and put a good game plan together, which helped them secure their place in the final.
But, said Daniel, the job is far from complete.
“Last year there wasn't too much pressure, we were probably going in as underdogs to the championship. This year is a small bit different, we are going in seeded one, a bit of a target ion our backs. we're going to do our own thing, we're going to focus on ourselves over the next week.
“We might watch a bit of this game here but look, we've played both of these pairings before and they're both going to bring their own qualities but I'd be confident that if we do our own thing, we'll hopefully perform well on the day. Take it as it comes then.”
Watch the semi-finals on Spórt TG4 below: