If you look back you’d be surprised how many times Donal Og hit the ball long and how often Brian Corcoran was targeted. They weren’t a run first team. They ran when it was on and at the right times. They had two absolute hounds in Timmy McCarthy and Niall McCarthy who never stopped as well and facilitated some of the more exalted players on that team. Not much else needs to be said about Corks half back line of that era either. They were a rolls Royce of a team.
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There are no McCarthy’s on the squad right now, and management haven’t tried to develop a player like that. TBF maybe there is nobody out there in the county like that currently - Cooper was the closest in some ways.
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That’s the nub of it. They are possibly better than Tipp and Clare and could overcome both with their current tactics but would hit a wall later in the season.
When they are matched athletically by Waterford and Limerick they had no answers.
There is a lot of talk about Coleman but to me Fitzgibbon is the major player issue. He does nothing without the ball. He is a disgrace.
Roche from Bride Rovers is an option there in my eyes if Flynn is a long term injury.
It confuses me that they continue to hit short puckouts to fellas who aren’t comfortable on the ball. O’Donoghue is a good defender, but he’s not a fantastic hurler. I actually like Cahalane but again, not comfortable on the ball at all. O’Leary is slightly better on the ball but even he looked very hesitant the last day.
It’s not just Limerick that will let these lads have it and then get tight on the next pass because what damage are they going to do in reality?
They don’t seem to get any quick puckouts away to the half-back/midfield anymore (obviously teams are purposely trying to stop this), but it used to be a major tactic of theirs.
It’s hard to get the balance between defensive ability & hurling ability; in the past, full-backs would have been happy enough with no possessions as long as they keep their men quiet. And there is still a place for that but you’re not hitting puckouts to these fellas.
Tim is an attacking threat from wing-back but some of his defensive efforts have been pathetic. Coleman not dissimilar- even as a sweeper, he doesn’t seem to be picking up the right positions. Joyce is a good one but that’s a lot of responsibility on a young fella.
Yeah it would be interesting to see how Roche would get on. Very promising player. I thought Fitzgibbon thundered into the game against Kilkenny in the league but he has been found very badly wanting in the league final and again on Sunday. As the fella says he must have been going very well in training…
Millerick to 5, Joyce to six and Coleman to 7, O’Flynn to midfield, O’Mahoney to 11 and play 2 pacey lads inside with an extra body in the midfield/half forward line. Doubt it make a huge difference but at least the balance would be better.
Horgan is well down the list of issues they have but think they might have to move on from him for the balance of the team. Doubt Kingston will make the call, Cork look very like the 2016 version under Kingston at the minute
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Fitzgibbon is probably the best off-the-shoulder support runner in the game.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him win a dirty ball. And, for me, that’s number one job of a midfielder. Darragh O’Donovan’s performance at the weekend was almost perfect, I thought. Understated but did his job really really well. Fitzgibbon, you wouldn’t even have known was playing.
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Hoggie to bench the first move.
He was badly rattled by the perfectly fair tackling from Hayes
He is supposed to be incredibly impressive for the Limerick club he plays for, it it liberties?
Wasn’t playing in the league match I was at, was coaching only.
Don’t know if that’s the case for the year.
O Flynn should be given a go in the full forward line. Mellerick belongs in the full back line in my opinion.
Could be, I got talking to a player one night a few months ago and he said his command and puckouts completely changed the way the backs played in a positive way. Don’t know much outside of that
It truly baffles me. I must be the equivalent of a hurling dinosaur but I do not understand hitting a 15 yard pass to your corner back. So many examples of Cork coughing up cheap scores. The goalkeeper over carrying, free in. Gillanes goal after being turned over and over playing in their own back line. The forwards were supposedly not making the runs but it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. How many runs would you have to make before you would get the ball if at all. 2 or 3 times they did hit it in, again after overplaying it the ball was over hit and tricked out over end line. It was depressing to watch as a hurling supporter first. Nearly 40,000 people paid in to watch that shite. The game has moved on from when Tipp were trying to break Kilkennys stranglehold but relatively speaking Tipps challenge was not too dissimilar from Corks in how to win primary possession against physically bigger opponents. Lets face it how many clean contested catches are there in a game of hurling. Tipp simply tried to break every ball and contest it on the ground where there might have been a bit of equilibrium in the contest. At least you might pin back the Limerick/Waterford half forwards instead of having them on the front foot hunting you down all the time. Cork spend most of their time defending their own puckouts as well as the opponents and it must be energy sapping. Playing as a full back for nearly 20 years at adult level, I can tell you I like nothing more than the cacophonous sound of a ball being hit as it goes 90 yards down the field.
O’Flynn is playing in the the right position
He is needed in the half forward line but Cork cannot persist with an inside line of Horgan, Kingston and Lehane. You can have one of them. O Flynn would offer something different there. At least he demands the ball and makes runs. It was like watching u12s seeing the lads inside waiting for the ball standing on the spot. Granted the ball didn’t look like it would break the wall anyway but there was no attempt at trying to drag the Limerick defence around. Hoggie hasn’t made a diagonal run all year. Did Sean Finn even have to sprint during the game? By contrast Gillane, Hayes and Mulcahy dragged the Cork defence into knots.
Sure wasn’t coleman moved in from the wing as he was being targeted there for puck outs?
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He was, but I think you can protect him somewhat at left half back compared to centre back if you can solidify other areas.
I think he has more of a chance of excelling there if you can get the other two spots in the half back sorted and more bodies/workers in the middle third. I don’t see him having the workrate with and without the ball needed for midfield and thoughts of him going to 11 mid season is fanciful.
He’s probably being made to look worse than he is stuck behind a forward unit that don’t make runs or tackle and as part of a set of backs that can’t work the ball out. But even at that, surely his time at half back is up. He’s going to continue to be targeted with puck outs and with being run at anywhere in the half back line. At this stage it’s not fair persisting with him there.
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To be fair, Limerick showed the advantages of going short with the puckouts. Helped, obviously, by some crazy tactics from Cork.
But if you have someone like Nash in your full-back line, who is an unbelievably skilful hurler, he’s going to be able to pick out a second pass most of the time. And then you’re in the middle of the field, moving forward, without any contest for possession.
That’s the dream. Cork standing off the likes of Hego & DOD in midfield was just mental though; ideally, you’d like to force the corner-back to carry the ball. Now Nash loves nothing more than doing that but it’s still preferable to have him try to do that than pinging a ball to Hego free in midfield.
Teams need to mix it up but, particularly against the wind, teams are able to put serious pressure on your long puckouts so you do need to be comfortable with a short option.
I think there were 3 clean catches from puckouts by forwards in the entire game; 2 by Hego, 1 by Harnedy. Most is won on the breaks and Cork are not good at breaks.
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