He’s about 4 years older than both though. Almost 36 with
A body breaking down with injuries.
Still a warrior but yesterday he looked his age.
See above.
They’ve turned up after games like this and wired into Limerick before, so they can turn that on. Whether they know their best team, gameplan, or can turn on that form as before under O’Connor remain to be seen.
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They’ve turned up against Limerick on occassion but haven’t in their three biggest games in the decade; until they do they really are unproven and to my mind overrated
This is it. They got far more refereeing breaks yesterday. What hope do we have on their patch…
Good to see frees given against defenders pushing a man in possession out over the sideline. Kyle Hayes and one of the Downey brothers were dinged for it.
Tommy O’Connell has improved the Cork midfield but none of the other changes have worked. Mullins looked out of his depth and overall that Cork forward line is too light apart from Hayes.
Gillane was unplayable, Hegarty looks to have lost half a step but still integral to Limericks puckouts.
Limerick looked to be at full gas, pace will trouble the 30 plus crew in the backs.
The Cork crowd near me were horsing out a serious amount of abuse towards the referee and Limerick players.
The Clare Dublin game was closer to a challenge game than championship.
Quilligan had a bizarre start to the second half hitting a series of awful puckouts into the wind for about 5 minutes.
Cork had Limerick’s number under Pat Ryan. They were the better team in every game 2023-2025 bar the 2025 round robin clash which was a cod.
The 2024 All Ireland Semi Final was a hammering too everywhere except the scoreboard at the final whistle.
Yesterday looked a regression from Cork. It cannot be underestimated how clueless they were. Maybe they were playing 4D chess and didnt want to finish Byrnes/WOD/Casey etc this early in the year but I doubt it.
The narrative will now be that Limerick are back etc which is fine. Gillane needs to be shut down obviously but outside that, they aren’t really up to much. Hopefully Bull O’Brien pisses off Kiely enough with that display to get dropped as he can hurt you. Reidy and AOC won’t when it comes down to it. WOD is a huge upgrade on Hayes at 6 but his lack of elite level distribution will ultimately cost them.
Overall it was a poor enough spectacle of a game with a load of big lads crashing into each other like Rubby League with offloads going out the back door. It was then a guessing game as to which way the free would go for the ‘tackle’/‘throw’.
Looks like it will be up to Tipp and Clare again to save Hurling like we have done for the last few years. Galway might need another year to help us out.
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Currid has made some difference already.
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@thelimericks have completely forgotten how to enjoy a victory 
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@peddlerscross Ben should have brought in someone like Flannery. But the difference yesterday was a psychologist.
Don’t worry guys, the sweeper kings will save hurling
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If they can keep the pocket clean, the likes of John McGrath and Jake Morris can get enough separation against man coverage to catch those downfield throws.
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There’d be no making a show of themselves hitting sliothars into farmers fields on Currid’s watch.
They’ll be sticking out the chests assuming they’ve played an extra man back and the opposition has a meltdown
The only new starters seem to be William Buckley who offers more from play than the 2025 version of Pat Horgan and Tommy O’ Connell who got on a huge amount of ball yesterday but didn’t do much with it. Brought it into heavy traffic on the regular. For the one point he did score he had Brian Hayes inside fuming that he didn’t shift it right for a goal chance. Will Mullins Keep Coleman out of the championship team?
Cork’s problem may well be that they have a plethora of good to very good players but very few Hall of Famers. Most of these players have managed to survive through the Kingston, Ryan and nascent stages of the O’ Connor era. There’s an art in delegating too and if O’ Connor is as reluctant to modern coaching as some posters make it out here then he’d have been better suited as a motivator in the 90’s and 00’s era that he played in himself when the cult of the managerial motivator was very much in vogue.
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Playing into a big wind yesterday the cork half backs were very high up the field, the bull amd gillane 2 on 2 with 40/50 yards of space, we should have gotten a few more goals. Cork targetted byrnes on the puck outs, he looked back to his prime picking the ball out of the air and sendimg it back over the bar in the first half
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I couldn’t believe Cork left all that space in front of Gillane all day. Mellerick and Sean o D getting the blame but Gilane will do that to any corner back if given the space.
Yesterday can’t have been easy for you.
We’re here for you - it’s ok not to feel ok.
O Connor is a better free taker than gillane over a consistent period. One off day doesn’t change that.
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