Limerick & Clare have walzed through the round Robin. Neither had a poor performance in fairness to them. We’ve had 2 pathetic outings, capitulation to Limerick from 40 mins and even worse was the Clare first half. 2 very good performances then against teams that were in a heap.We should reserve judgment on Clare and limerick too so because cork were so poor when we played them. The truth of the matter if we apply this logic is nobody has beaten anyone in the Munster championship this year.
Take each game on its merits. Corks intensity and workrate and execution was very good in two of the games and very poor in two others. These are things mainly in our own control. Main thing to think about now is Antrim. Could we lose that? Very unlikely but not impossible. Win it and play the loser of Galway/Kilkenny, is that winnable? On all available evidence yes it could well be. Then play Limerick or Clare could you win that, well we usually beat Clare when we need to but they’d probably start lukewarm favourites, Limerick would start very heavy favourites but could we (or any of the top 6) beat Limerick if we showed up and they misfired or were tripped up. Of course any of the top 6 could in such a circumstance. If it couldn’t ever conceivably go wrong for them John Kiely and all their crew wouldn’t be bursting their bollox every night at training.
Limerick and Clare are the form teams but We’re one of three or four teams with Wexford, Kilkenny and maybe Galway (although they could be closer to Clare) an outside but real chance of winning an All Ireland. Given where we were three weeks ago you’d take that.
I’d love another go at either (we’ll be doing well to even get a shot at these again this year), as we’ve changed things up since those defeats. I’d find it hard still to be confident of beating either tbh. I feel more confident than I did before the Waterford game though, small mercies.