SIX points – five from play – and the man of the match award were the fruits of William Buckley’s labours on his championship debut.

BY JOHNNY CAROLAN

The St Finbarr’s man (22) admitted that he could scarcely have wished for a better start.

‘Probably not, no, to be honest. You just wanted to contribute your own bit. I was happy enough – it was great to get going and feeding off the lads there, in fairness to them, Alan, Brian, and all of them. They were keen to give it to me, as well, so it was great.

‘I suppose, yeah, they (the scores) might have been important but I think it's just, as I said, just feeding off the breaks of the lads.

‘And you saw the scores the other lads got there, even Barry (Walsh) today. You can see there, every single one of the lads, (Shane) Barrett even, they all popped up with vital scores today.’

Buckley has shone at every level for club and county and so, while he knew he had a big opportunity, it was not one to bring on too many nerves or sleepless nights.

‘That kind of preparation is done at training,’ he said. ‘We trained very hard for the last two weeks, even since the start of the year. So that is probably the hardest part, the training.

‘When you get selected then, it is just about expressing yourself out there, so that is what it's all about then.’

It leaves Cork in a good position ahead of the visit of Limerick next Sunday, with Buckley aware of the importance of dealing with the task at hand.

‘Yeah, it was all about two points. I think we just focus on the next game,’ he said.

‘It was all about winning here today. I think that's exactly what we did. We knew Tipperary, in fairness, they're All-Ireland champions for a reason, and we came here just to get two points.

‘It is great to have a championship game under our belt. Limerick, obviously, are fantastic. We saw that in the league final. We have a lot of work to do again for next week. We'll dust ourselves down and go again for next week.’

At the other end of the field, Ciarán Joyce acquitted himself well in his first championship outing at full-back.

Limerick will represent another challenge, but the Castlemartyr man is adjusting to what is a sea-change from life in the half-back line.

‘Oh, it's a huge difference,’ he said. ‘It's a different ballgame completely. ‘You're constantly concentrating on your men the whole time and you can't lose concentration for one second, because the full-forward line, for Tipp and for every team, they're very good.

‘So if you lose your concentration, they’ll turn you in and score. I’m still getting used to it.’