Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before

While we have been here many, many times before in the past twenty years, after last year we’d probably felt like these dog days were over.

Those days when Cork never really came out of the dressing room. Those days when Cork’s performance was lacking so many of the necessities like work, aggression and unity. Those days when Cork’s defending had you looking through your fingers every time the ball went past midfield. Those days when the ball came out far easier than it went in. Those days when you questioned the very soul of our existence.

Because, in the Pat Ryan era, Cork has always performed to a degree that has always made them competitive. They’ve always found a way to stay in a game, even when they weren’t going well. Prior to Sunday, they had only lost one competitive game by more than three points, the league semi-final in Nowlan Park in 2023.

In every other competitive game, they’ve always been within a puck of a ball. Walsh Park last year was a dreadful day, but with thirteen men on the field, there was only a goal in it. It was similar against Clare a week later. No matter how far off the mark Cork was, they managed to remain relevant to its outcome.

They’ve always given themselves a chance. Until Sunday.

What played out in the TUS Gaelic Grounds was quite probably the last thing everybody expected. What we were anticipating was the coming together of an irresistible force and an immovable object. As it turns out, Cork was all too malleable as Limerick just bent them to their will far too easily. Whether they broke them or not remains to be seen.

The style of hurling Cork play always leaves them vulnerable at the back. Over the years, we have never seemed able to develop a style of play that allows our half back line to sit deep to protect our full-back line. We’ve never been able to slow a game down, to shut it down.

Much like Éamonn O’Shea said to the Tipperary forwards before the All-Ireland Final of 2010, the motus operandi seems to be “attack, attack, attack.” It’s high in terms of risk and reward and it requires a huge amount of energy and work rate. When both of those are almost entirely absent, and you come up against quite possibly the greatest team of all time, a team who has had you in their sight for the best part of a year, well, things go awry.

So many things were just off from the beginning. Shane Barrett shot wide but had acres in space in front of him. Where we had come to expect Cork to go hunting for their goals, here they were settling for the point, and not getting it. Similarly, with Diarmaid Byrnes on a yellow card, there was no desire to take him on and force the issue, like Shane Kingston did a year ago. Everything that has made Cork a good team was absent, and we were left exasperated, pointing our fingers and shrugging our shoulders

Aaron Gillane’s goal was eerily similar to his major down the Páirc in 2022 and while Cork answered that goal reasonably well, from there the wheels just came off. To stay in contention, they needed everything to go right, like Patrick Horgan’s shot that was saved by Nickie Quaid and the pass from Brian Hayes to Alan Connolly that was just too low.

While the whole of Limerick was purring, I don’t think anybody embodied their iron will more than Mike Casey. He played with the perfect balance of anger, discipline and skill. He reminded Cork exactly of what they will need to be this weekend if they are to start putting the pieces back together.

Putting those pieces back together is a lot easier said than done.  Events have created a potentially devastating storm that makes form irrelevant, a league game that is championship in all but name. As has been said here before, someday Waterford will get out of the Munster Round Robin. Just like last season they enter the final day with their faith in their own hands, and once again not many people are giving them a chance. However, after last weekend, travelling to Páirc Uí Chaoimh is far less intimidating than it was a week ago, and it is far less of a challenge than it was to travel to Limerick a year ago.

What chance is there of Cork getting caught chasing the game? Of conceding a couple of early goals that they might just not claw back? They are still vulnerable to the type of early goal that Waterford landed in Walsh Park last April. Could Austin Gleeson make an appearance and party like it’s 2017? Or maybe Cork will come up with a performance that will get them back on track. If they are what we hope they are, they have to.

There will have to be changes, however. Last year we fell into what we needed to be out of sheer necessity as much anything else. Now, it very much feels like we are back in a very similar place. There are certain acts of repetitive madness that must be addressed.

More often than not in life we don’t get what we want, but the odd time we get what we need. Maybe Cork needed last weekend. More than anything, however, they need to do what is necessary on Sunday.

Corcaigh abú.

John Coleman