Normally youād be disappointed losing a game, but itās frustrating/annoying more than anything with the manner of it. I heard the Kiely with interview on Sporting Limerick and it echoed pretty much everything I was saying myself last night.
The first half was unacceptable, Cork tactically outwitted us and we were too slow to react on puckouts. It has happened a couple of times but I felt we were much slower than usual to get a handle on it.
Second half we were very good to be honest. You would never have been worried at half time, weāve been in this position many times before. But to fuck it away having clawed back control of the game; now that is annoying. Itās a new experience for the team. Various reasons for it happening but I do think we generally played very well in the second half and it was just being so easy to score against in the first half that really killed us.
I said beforehand that I thought we would probably win because games involving Cork tend to just have a scandalous number of chances. And that was true but we didnāt come out on the right side of it. It looked like we would when we went 4 up but, fair play to them, they kept plugging away and never wilted. The goal to win it is an abomination from a Limerick pov but you would think that will be something we will learn from, so Iām not as worried about that.
More worrying would be that they managed to isolate us in battles for pace way too easily, and won those battles. Hannon hurled well on the ball but was definitely exposed by Barrett in a footrace. Normally, Limerick donāt really allow that to happen, the overall work rate covers individuals. But I think Byrnes being so out-of-form meant that that half-back line, which has been a strength so often, was a weakness. Kyle was immense tbh, he was putting out fires all over the place but Harnedy & Barrett were huge for Cork.
We were a young, pacy team full of energy in 2018. Now, we are an older, experienced team with loads of hurling but we definitely are susceptible to pace. And I know a few of the Cork posters were saying that Cork arenāt as quick as they once were, and that may be true, but they still have a few flyers and were able to exploit that.
Again, when you lose a match, there are so many small factors that lead to a defeat. Even with all Corkās pace, we had wrested back control of the game. We were turning them over on short puckouts regularly (in both halves) and the damage that they were doing on long puckouts was definitely nowhere near as bad in the second half (the wind obviously a factor there) but the first half, we were lucky to only go in 8 down. Nickie pulled off another couple of miraculous saves and we were maybe lucky they didnāt put the head down and go for goal another couple of times.
I do think that we miss someone in the Mulcahy/Casey role and I would make that change the next day. If it has to be English, it has to be English. When Downey sat in in the first half, we had no real outball because the gap between half-forward & full-forward was too much. When we broke the line and ran at them, it opened up but, again, we just lack a little bit of raw pace in that midfield/half-forward region. And Cork were vulnerable to it but we just didnāt do it enough.
We also have a concern with the form of Byrnes. Thatās 3 games where he hasnāt really got going. He is such an important player for the team in an attacking sense but he is just not contributing. Teams are trying to shut him down in terms of getting possessions, which takes out our longest deliverer. That should open up a space down that channel but the problem is that heās also making poor decisions and defending poorly at the moment. We need everyone firing to be at our best and they exploited that flank so much, and got joy. It also leaves Hannon more exposed. Hannon himself got caught pushing way up the pitch too much and left a lot of space for their full-forward line to run into and they were beating us in footraces.
WOD did okay yesterday, was very good at times but I felt he could have offered more protection to the half-back line in the first half. After about 20 minutes, I thought we should have dropped right out the field and just left the Cork full-back line have the ball, they were no threat. And just choke the space back the field, the wind meant they were landing it well inside our '45 and we were taking massive gambles leaving free men behind our HB line. You have to do it at times but crazy to do it for any sort of long periods.
On individuals, Finn will be a massive loss. He brought a calm head to proceedings when we were under cosh. Some game for FOC to be thrown into for his debut; he went in at a time when we were shipping water and we had just lost the best full-back in the country. He made one costly mistake and was beaten in an aerial mismatch once but, other than that, he was really really good. Fought for everything and came out with some great ball. Heās a good yoke and that was a baptism of fire. Nash struggled first half, came into it second half. Thought Dan did fairly well against a difficult opponent.
Half-back line Iāve spoken about. Kyle was excellent but obviously the penalty was costly. I think there is no way he makes that decision if it crosses his mind that it would be a penalty, probably assumed itād be a yellow and 20m free. Sadly, that assumption was costly. Obviously Kingston needed to be taken out way earlier, he canāt be allowed to flick the ball over someoneās head. Really poor defending down that flank.
Hegarty was immense. If Limerick win the All Ireland, he will probably be Hurler of the Year, heās just in that kind of form. Flanagan was on fire. Three brilliant finishes for the goals. Buzzed around like his old self, full of running & energy. I thought Gillane was always an outlet and a constant threat. The rest were good at times but probably not enough across the 70 minutes. I felt Reidy would be a lot more influential than he was. Lynch was decent in the second half but nowhere near as influential as the last 15 in Ennis. Tom had grown into it and had won a few hard balls.
Subs probably didnāt make as much of an impact as they have previously. Two classy scores from Adam & Aido, FOC did well but Boylan & DOD2 didnāt get much of a chance to make an impact. Adam didnāt get on as much ball as you would like after his score but worked hard.
Going forward, we will need Finn back. We miss DOD too, we miss his distribution. And I would play English inside at 15 personally. I donāt know whether Kiely will do that though. We have a couple of question marks over form and a couple of questions over pace. Some of them are linked. You donāt want to overreact and make a host of changes but obviously we are now going to be playing a very energetic Waterford side with survival probably on the line. I would imagine we will be out if we lose. So a couple of tweaks may be needed. Or players need to bring serious form in training.
Finally, on Cork, they had to bring a performance and they did, fair play to them. Tactically, they got a lot right and exposed weaknesses in Limerick. They still concede a huge amount but I suppose thatās just the nature of their game. Their work rate from midfield up was much better than it usually is. Ethan Twomey I thought was excellent in midfield, heās a serious player. The one cautionary note for them is that they seem to get too riled up: they should have had two red cards yesterday and it would have been the third game in a row that they had got stupid sending offs. They were quick to pull off Eoin Downey to avoid a second yellow and Stack didnāt see the Dalton incident, so they got away with that one. But Coleman threw the hurley at Hego while on a yellow card, Stack went across to book him, took out the notebook and then bottled it when he saw it was someone he already booked. Just an incredibly stupid thing to do when on a yellow card, and it would have cost them the game again. They took him off pretty much instantly after that but they now have a real chance to go through if they beat Tipp, they cannot afford another red card. Bring fight and work rate, just have to know where the line is.
Still, the likes of Brian Hayes played better than I thought he was capable of. Fitzgibbon caused his usual havoc finding those pockets of space. Harnedy was definitely MotM for me though, I thought he was unbelievable. We didnāt test the half-back line enough defensively. Full-back line is definitely there to be got at and not comfortable on the ball at all. If we had reacted quicker to shut off the long puckout, I think we had more than enough to win. Just a little bit slow to sort it out on the pitchā¦
