The other thing about this is a lot of lads seem to question whether or not the required standard us coming through. How many munster minor have limerick won in the last 5 years? Secondly, the cork u20s of the last year are being built up as the next best thing. And yet, they scraped over the line against limerick in the Munster final. A little bit better game management there and I suspect limerick could have got a result. How many of the starting 15 from last Sunday would have been recognised outside the outside the county. Granted the opposition werenāt great but they were absolutely ruthless from first whistle to last.
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Weāre only topping up as well. Cork will need 7 or 8 off that 20s side.
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If they had Paddy OāDonovan playing last year they would have beaten that Cork 20s side
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It makes a massive difference when you donāt need half the u21/u20 team to make the big jump and be the difference in the senior ranks immediately. It also settles the likes of English or O Neill that they donāt have to be the next big thing, rather they can just slot in nicely in an elite, high standard set up. Itāll only improve their performance that way. The opposite is what Lynch effectively was like in 2015 with all the hype and expectation, itās not easy
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Yep it has happened a little bit with Clare and Waterford were a large portion of an underage group stepped up to senior level. It happened in limerick too tbf.
Itāll be difficult for cork. They need to get 3 and 6 sorted and thatās not easy.
Also When limerick broke through in 2018 it was very open.
For cork to get to limericks level it will take incredible coaching and thatāll take probably at least two years with the right coaches. Do they have the right coaches in place?
For cork a big problem is the difference in physicality too. I know they arenāt small men and canāt all be beasts but limerick just gobble teams like cork up like in the AIF. The āskinnierā or smaller lads like Casey and maybe Nash are still absolute beasts in their own right. Cork have some lovely stickmen tbf but Jack O Connor or even Fitzgibbon arenāt at the same physical condition as the Limerick lads.
Itās been said many times before but Galway are the only team close in terms of physical condition and they just generally arenāt good enough to beat Limerick anyway
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Yes and thereāll be pressure because of their underage success which wonāt make things easy either.
Itās great to be looking down from the top.
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Cork played the whole championship without Barrett and Connolly and were the much better team on the night.
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The u21s in 2015 just about got over Galway and in the Munster final in 2017 the much lauded Limerick u21s beat a Cork team minus Fiyzgibbon, Meade and Hennessy by 2 points in one of the worst refereeing displays Iāve ever seen from Rory mcgann.
Nobody is claiming last yearās 20s to be the next best thing. But youāre nitpicking trying to find reasons that they arenāt. There are some quality players there that will come through in Cork. Iāve always said Cork have to win at u20 before we can think about a serious push at a senior AI. It will take time but Cork will be back in the not too distant future.
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Iām zen bro.
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I held him in my arms all night as he cried his eyes out.
Glad to hear it.
Come on Tom youre a married man with kids this is uneccesary
It wonāt be just meā¦ Bill is gonna murder him when he gets hold of him. Heāll truly have to watch his back.
They have the potential to be a really good side in a couple of years with the minor team from last year and the u20s. Itās just hard to breed success from it in quick succession, like Limerick did. Then, as we well know, if it doesnāt bear fruits early on it can get ugly. Itās not a bad position for Cork as at least they are producing players, but it would be something to be wary of. Clare in 2013 had a brilliant year but they fell apart after that, probably not a lot of it down to players. Limerick just had the perfect backroom team and people in place to set them grounded and hungry each year. Cork iām not sure if they have that yet
Anybody intending going to the match in Ennis on Sunday would want to buy their tickets this morning. Almost sold out already.
Fully sold out now by the looks of it.
Gone