[quote=âcaoimhaoin, post: 848545, member: 273â]Improved fitness alone would improve that Cork team. Experience is also a help and Walsh and Sheehan would certainly add a more dynamic element as well as serious ball winning ability.
Clare will probably destroy everyone next year though.[/quote]
Where does Sheehan play? Could Cadogan come back in at wing back? I think cork were blessed to get the final this year and i donât think theyâre the second best team in the country but fair play to them. They probably overachieved and i wouldnât see this cork team as anything to be afraid of but with OâSullivan back in the inside forward line and some of the footballers adding a bit of ballast around half forward and half back they could be a serious proposition next year.
[quote=âTheUlteriorMotive, post: 848593, member: 2272â]Tactically Clare were smarter than Cork but Cork could still have won. I donât see Clare as miles ahead of the others at all
Interesting to see if Clare get better. Everybody thinks they will but outside Cody and KK nobody has managed to bring same hunger.[/quote]
I surmise that Clare will have a dip next year and then win two in a row in 2015-16.
Kilkenny wonât win another All-Ireland in the next five years.
There is no such thing as over achievement in sport. You get what you deserve.
I agree with @Watch The Break on the half back line, but disagree on 2&3. Conor O Sullivan had a difficult replay but a great year and tactically Clare made it hard for Cork and Cork compounded it with naivety. McDonnell was Corks most improved player by the end.
The forwards need more balance though. O Farrell needs competition. Lehane has carried his good form into club championship which is a sign of consistency and maturity.
Sheehan could play anywhere from 5 to 14 Glas, but I would say 10/11 most likely. Paudie Sull is not a marquee player IMO.
[quote=âFran, post: 848592, member: 110â]Devaluing Corkâs win doesnât make me feel better about myself.
Itâs not necessarily one or the other you can try very hard and also have the quality of players (Clare). Or you can try very hard and be somewhat lacking in quality players (Cork).
Cork also had the benefit of an excellent manager who had done it all before.[/quote]
As did Dublin, Clare, Tipp, Limerick, Killkenny and Galway. Every major contender bar Waterford had an All-Ireland winner at the helm.
When it came down to it, Cork just didnât have enough quality defenders to cope with Clare from 8-15. They realised after the drawn game that it was a complete waste of Brian Murphy to put him on Kelly as Kelly was playing quite deep and wasnât really the focal point of Clareâs attacking play anyway. Instead they put him on Collins who had been directly involved in ten or more scores the first day and it worked very well. McDonnell then played fairly well when matched against Kelly as the freedom of the role seemed to suit him.
But while they got the the match-ups right on the two Clare players that seemed the most dangerous, they then had to contend with Egan, OâNeill, and OâSullivan getting cleaned out by Conlon, OâDonnell, and McGrath. And even though they resolved the Egan situation as soon as they could, they just didnât have enough to call on to deal with all the problems they needed to solve.
I wouldnât blame it all on the backs, I think to a large extent this Clare team has to be beaten by cutting off the supply. But Cork did manage to do that for a long stretch of the replay, and yet when they fought their way back to level they just didnât have the manpower to hold Clare off at the back. Iâm not knocking Cork at all in saying this, I just think thatâs what sunk them.
laughable that Cork has so little hurling talent available, they have to turn to the likes of football mullockers like Sheehan and Walsh, who wouldnât hurl spuds to a duck, and try to convert them into inter county hurlers
[quote=âcaoimhaoin, post: 848610, member: 273â]There is no such thing as over achievement in sport. You get what you deserve.
I agree with @Watch The Break on the half back line, but disagree on 2&3. Conor O Sullivan had a difficult replay but a great year and tactically Clare made it hard for Cork and Cork compounded it with naivety. McDonnell was Corks most improved player by the end.
The forwards need more balance though. O Farrell needs competition. Lehane has carried his good form into club championship which is a sign of consistency and maturity.
Sheehan could play anywhere from 5 to 14 Glas, but I would say 10/11 most likely. Paudie Sull is not a marquee player IMO.[/quote]
Whichever one of the corner backs played the spare man v Kilkenny had an absolute blinder and wasnât given enough credit for it imo. Iâve never seen a spare man hurl so much ball. Now you could say Kilkenny played into his hands but he didnât put a foot wrong in positioning or distribution. I think the same fella did a good job v dublin too after the sending off.
I would I donât hugely rate him but he could have added a bit of physicality and doggedness at wing back. Half back and half forward look to be where cork are lacking most.
[quote=âcaoimhaoin, post: 848616, member: 273â]As did Dublin, Clare, Tipp, Limerick, Killkenny and Galway. Every major contender bar Waterford had an All-Ireland winner at the helm.
Whatâs your point?[/quote]
Out of those teams only Kilkenny and Limerick had a manager who had done it before and neither if them were playing in the final so theyâre not applicable to my Cork / Clare comparison.
