Its very hard to know what Waterford will bring
The best young hurler in the country. He was outstanding for the 21âs last year.
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Iâve never seen a player continue to run so often after the second catch, a massive engine as well, I compared him to Tom Kenny last year but I think heâll be much better, a topper
he has more skill than Tom Kenny I feel
What do ye make of the new format men or is it too early to make a call on it ?
Before he got red carded and missed their 2nd and final game?
He was outstanding in the game he got sent off in in fairness. Probably would have beat Limerick if they had him
He was but it was a very poor stroke and he left himself down big time. Saw him for charleville twice last year and he was anonymous. Looked close to his best again today when he got going
The less ulster bogball on the better
Waterford have only got to finish Top 3 in a league of 5 and theyâre only passing up on 2 home games. Tottenham Hotspur finished 3rd in a league of 20 in the season gone by having to pass up on 19 home games.
Itâs not right having one closed terrace in a Munster championship match. It has been policy for a few years but it just doesnât look or feel right. Even on the highlights it looks brutal today in the GG and Cork.
Atmosphere was fairly muted today generally. Only came to life belatedly.
Obviously the do or die nature is removed and it felt flat enough even when the teams came out and for the parade etc.
There was no need for a parade today . The Munster council will close the terrace to save dosh .
No chance, they came to Limerick with 7/8 men in their defensive line. Limerick were comfortably the better team as proven their AI win:
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Their AI win proves nothing. Cork were the second best team in the country. They got beat by two points in a tight game without their best player from the previous game
I can assure you Galway would have beaten Cork also.
Galway werenât great. They had Conor Whelan and not much else. The Limerick lads on that u21 team are much better hurlers, or in much better form at least now than they were then
I think Galway were decent. Whelan is a top hurler. He is as good as there is in the country. I thought Cork got lucky in Waterford, Dalton was outstanding that evening. It is all about opinions I suppose, not much between a lot of these teams. I think Linerick just had a few more marquee players than others.
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Comparing it to the Cork and Tipp games last year I thought we were set up far better yesterday than we were in either of those games last year. Better shape in the forward line, good movement on our puckouts and we looked to feed the inside forwards far more. If things had gone our way it is a game we could easily have won, we won more than enough ball in the forwards to win the game but didnât capitalise on it. In game management left a lot to be desired and Cork certainly seemed to win this battle. Cork are a better side than I gave them credit for and gave a decent performance yesterday.
On the balance of play we should have been three or four up at half time, not a point behind. Shane OâDonnell seems to be getting universal praise for his performance but I thought his selflessness on the ball in the first half was a bit issue, half a dozen times good ball was put into him which he won and Iâd say we managed to get a point out of it. The vast majority of time he made space and should of taken the shot on and instead he looked to play the pass and the man who received it was swallowed up by Cork defenders. He was more direct and hit some scores second half and he put in a big shift but too many scores left behind in that first half.
Conlon and OâDonnell worked hard while McGrath just looked that half yard off the pace, got on plenty of ball but just wasnât able to make space to get his shots off. Maloneâs speed of hurling isnât up to this level but their is no doubting is honesty and attitude. He can be frustrating to watch but until a lad with more hurling matches his workrate and effort I would keep him in the team. Wouldnât be surprised to him go midfield from the off the next day.
Our backs were alright in isolation but they simply donât play as a cohesive unit. The contrast between our defending when a cork attacker took on his man and when a Clare attacker did it was fairly stark. Cork would flood bodies back and crowd out the space while our defenders for the most part stayed with their men. We knew it before today but Seadna Morey simply doesnât have the defensive instincts for the full backline and we are really missing a couple of natural defenders back there who anticipate danger rather than react to it. I thought Cleary and Fitzgerald were very good in the first half.
Kelly didnât make much of an impact in midfield but really came into the game when moved to half forward. I think people are being overly harsh on him from yesterday, but we certainly need to try and get more from him over 70 minutes.
Cork got the upper hand on us in the second half and we simply couldnât get ourselves back in front. Cork got a lot more from their subs with OâMahoney and Brosnan both making decent contributions and winning hard ball. Ours made little impact.
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That was a beautiful pass from Oâdonnell for Kellyâs goal.
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