Much like our senior team
The full back line will bear the brunt of criticism but I thought they did well for the most part. Half back line is the worry. OāHalloran was fine man marking but I thought made some really poor support run which led to turn overs in the second half while Moylan never got going. Hayes flashed but is still a bit green. Costello was very a quiet second half and I thought Ball was lucky to not be subbed at half time as he was struggling but o thought did well after the break, got on a good few breaks and was unfussy and decisive with it which we needed more of. Keane looked rusty.
Thought Rodgers looked very living off scraps
+1 score difference after 4 games is definitely a fair reflection
Youāre not wrong about the full back line, my initial reaction was to focus on their mistakes, but when you take a step back and look at the whole 60, they did a lot of good.
I think the half back line definitely limit the type of hurling we can play. None of them are particularly good at delivering the ball inside and theyāre not breaking lines either. Its always the full back line ending up with the ball around the middle third, never OāHalloran/Hayes/Moylan. Iād say across the 4 games weāve probably got 3 or 4 points from the line as a whole, which is poor. I said after Waterford that Iād look at Moylan as a half forward, and I still think its worth a go. His defensive positioning is really poor and his tackling is suspect too. Heād be another puckout option too and it might lift a weight off of him, he looks to be struggling a bit for confidence. He did come off a small bit lame, so maybe heās out and its a moot point.
Hegarty to six the next day with Hayes pushed up to wing forward or Doherty in there, with Collins or Fred roving instead of Boyce I think makes the most sense.
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20s playing Cork tomorrow, hopefully they can put a halt to our losing streak. Minors, 20s and Seniors all last week, a couple of those fairly convincingly.
Minors are all but out now as far as I can see, barring Tipperary putting a huge score on Waterford. I didnāt see the Limerick match but watching the other 3 I thought they looked a weak group overall. The holdovers from last year acquitted themselves well for the most part but we didnāt look to have much outside of them. Injuries to O Brien and Plunkett didnāt help either obviously. Looking at our u15 championship this year and last year, Iād be a small bit concerned for the next couple of years at this age.
Where to even start with the Seniors? Completely outworked both on and off the ball, outfoxed on the line and ultimately completely out hurled inside the white lines. Thereās a fair whiff of 2019 about us now, only replace Tipp with Limerick as the ones embarrassing us on our home patch. We just seemed so flat, players, crowd and management all included. Hopefully that can be rectified for Saturday week, otherwise weāre in deep shit. Iād expect us to revert to type somewhat. Cleary seems to have forgotten how to play full back so youāll probably have Darragh Lohan back there. Malone to midfield is a no brainer, Davy Mc to 7 is too. Iād like to see Conlon back at 6, even just to steady us for the first 45 mins.
Up front, our biggest problem is our lack of work rate. You can carry TK because heās capable of winning a game on his own, but heās the only one we can have. Rynne needs to be replaced by someone who is willing to run and tackle, O Neill would fit that bill. Reidy has run out of rope at this stage unfortunately, Stritch deserves his chance to start. Iād think even if we kept the same 15 from Sunday theyād bring far more intensity the next day, but heads probably do have to roll after such a non performance. Itāll be interesting to see who goes and plays Clare Cup this weekend, apparently Conlon was the only Clon lad to play for them last night.
Terence Fahy faces into his 4th consecutive 2nd vs 3rd place playoff match. The away team has won all 3 of the previous instances, so hopefully that continues. Glass half full view of the match would be that we were the masters of our own demise, fix that and weāll have a right chance. Iād be a bit worried that its easier said than done, and that when pressure is on we might repeat the same mistakes. Walsh is playing for Cork and heāll surely play at 14. Loftus didnāt do too badly on him defending wise, his looseness in possession was what blackened his book last week. Hopefully, same as our seniors, weāll have a more experienced centre back and in turn give our full back lines more cover.
Hegarty will definitely come in at 6, probably at Hayesā expense. Easiest thing to do is just make a like for like swap , and its easier drop Hayes than Moylan/OāHalloran. Ronan Keane is another one whoāll likely start, and add a bit of physicality and striking to the middle third. In the forwards, Boyce has been poor in his two starts and will lose out. Itās probably between Doherty and Cleary to replace him. Iād go with Doherty but they might prefer to hold him in reserve like last week. Otherwise all the forwards on the bench are very similar. Iād give us a good shout of winning here, I still think we have the better hurlers if we can stop ourselves from self sabotaging. Should be a good game at the minimum
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Weāll have to bring Loftus to Thurles
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What a tonic that was! Absolute warriors the lot of them, could have won by 12 and it would have been warranted. Work rate was unbelievable and we dominated them physically. In fairness both teams played their part in a cracking game, the last 20 minutes were incredibly frantic. I thought Tierney was very partial to Cork for the first 40, but he swallowed the whistle then and helped contribute to that brilliant last 20.
I normally end up focusing on negatives but the only one Iāll mention here is the struggles we keep having on long puckouts. Kilroy is unbelievably dogged but wonāt catch that many, we have to be better on breaks the next day.
We look to have a fair crop of backs coming through, which is exactly what we need. Casey was and will be a big loss, heās hardly put a foot wrong all year. I think he was feeling it before the game a bit, he didnāt do any of the sprints in the warm up. In hindsight we could have maybe held him out, but that would have been a very hard call to make. Loftus was brilliant in the air, Cork only wanted to hit Murphy at puckouts, and that suited us just fine. Gunning was super again, the ball he won off of Walsh and he was dragged down after felt like it was worth a point or two. Hayes was solid out, his delivery isnāt great at times but he had a fine game. Having Hegarty back was huge, he helped cut off 3 goal chances in the first 10 minutes alone and heās just so composed. Looked back to his best of a few years ago, probably no coincidence it comes after his first real break in years. OāHalloran was brilliant again, to the point where Cork lads on twitter are convinced Barry Walsh must have been injured. Couldnāt just tip their caps to OāHalloran or Gunningā¦
I was delighted for Keane that he lasted the full 60 and did well in that time. Heās barely played for the last 3 years so itās great to see him play like that tonight. Costelloe was solid out again, heās a prototype midfielder. Definitely another level for him to reach vs Tipp the next day still. Ball was absolutely unreal once he came on, Roy Keane vs Juventus '99 esque. He must have foiled 10 Cork attacks in the last 15 minutes and he used the ball well too. Heās earned his start the next day out.
Fred Hegarty is absolutely one of a kind. He plays the modern wing forward role to a tee, covers the world of ground and is so comfortable in possession. His shooting was off tonight, so he decides to take a score 1 handed 
. Kilroy is an absolute grafter, without him weād be fucked. The amount of tackling he does and the amount of punishment he takes at puckout time is immense. Collins wasnāt bad by any means, just didnāt seem to run for him really. Heāll be better the next day out. Cleary was very good too, he was probably a bit unfortunate that his 2 prior starts were in Sixmilebridge on a cabbage patch. Took his 2 goals very well and was fairly involved otherwise too. Rodgers is so sharp around the goal, his goal was fabulous and he brought of a good save with another shot after picking up a break.
Tom OāConnor though lads, absolutely unbelievable. Itās absolutely unfathomable how much this lad has improved not only in the last 18 months, but even in the last 6 months. A fella who was playing Academy hurling with SJDB 2 years ago! He was even a sub for Flannansā Harty 1/4 final in January. To go from that to what heās been for this team over the last few weeks is mindboggling, and he seems to be getting better every week. If we just fed ball into him instead of shooting from out the field it could have been a cricket score. Hopefully he can keep this rate of development up, because weāll have an absolute star on our hands.
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Thats one learning. No need to drive all those balls wide from distance when the full forward line offers so much
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