Recent content by DougMM

Maybe lack of fight is the wrong description, given as you’ve mentioned, they did well to come back into the game after being down a man. Lack of physicality and ball-winners might be more accurate as both Waterford goals came from high balls launched down on our half back line. O’Connell and...

Because there's people who genuinely believe it and a lot of people seem to be talking rubbish about one of our greatest hurlers.

This is a great post from before the match and could as well be from after the game or anytime from the last 5/6 years. There seems to be a chasm between the traits that we expect from our players compared to other counties, particularly the successful ones. In Limerick and Kilkenny you don’t...

No need for this. He might not be at his best but he has brought us closer to winning an AI than just about any other player in the last 19 years. A legend who almost hit the winning point in 2013 AI final, and scored a last minute point against Limerick to bring that semi-final to extra-time...

It was noticeable that a lot of Clare's bigger and more physical guys were from their minor team last year. I know Walsh is in the squad, but have either of the other big lads from last year's minor half forward line been involved? Hallahan is another tall lad from that minor squad and will...

I agree he showed good character and he’s a talented player, but not sure he’s been at his best in the opening two games. Had some poor wides and, like all Cork forwards in the first half, was second best to his man in the air. Against some of the more physical teams, I’d wonder if we’ll have to...

Picking five forwards with almost identical strengths is really odd and hasn’t helped us so far. Has O’Connor not been watching the Cork senior hurling team for the last 15 years? You can have all the small skillful forwards in the world but it doesn’t matter a jot if you don’t have guys who can...

Can’t understand this either. It would be one thing sticking with a senior core of players who had consistently won things, and who we needed to stick with because of little underage success. Or if we were a county with a smaller number of GAA clubs and couldn’t really afford to experiment with...

The disappointing thing is that this isn’t an overly young team who have the time to learn from these defeats. In the starting forward line named against Donegal, we had Deane who is 32, Hurley who will be 32 when the championship starts, O'Driscoll who will be 30 when it starts, McSweeney will...

Have a lot of respect for your opinion, Corkonian, but surprised by that comment. Maybe there is too much emphasis on size in next year's minor team and you’d know more than me here, but as far as I can see, the most successful underage teams we’ve had in recent years have all had a lot of size...

That’s an interesting one. I’d agree that we’re probably 2/3 forwards away from being at the same level as Derry. The next question then is how to do we get to the level of Kerry and Dublin. It's been a great year of progression but we probably have a bit to go until we're genuine All Ireland...

Cork retained possession from 84% (21/24) of their kickouts by mixing up short kickouts, mid-range kickouts and long ones. The risk of a goal is always there when you aim for such a high retention rate but it's a risk that teams are willing and happy to take in the modern game. It is worth...

Wasn’t O’Mahony part of a recent Eire Og U21 team that won a 3 in a row? The list is pretty short if you’re looking for young Cork coaches who have won a load of major competitions outside of (or even inside) Cork. None of our schools have won a Corn Uí Mhuirí in the last 10 years. No Cork...

There were definitely valid questions about the coaching at U20 level this year but I thought the minors looked exceptionally well coached. They won the majority of their kickouts despite being the smaller team, which is a rare occurrence at any level for a Cork intercounty football team in the...

There were a few reasons why they couldn’t close it out but the biggest reason by far was the performance of the referee. In what world is that rugby tackle not a blatant free in and black card with two minutes left? The rugby tackle was followed by the Dublin player ripping the ball off the...