Cork Footballers

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

What a pathetic post. If that was my old man he hit he’d be getting a boot up the hole from me after the game.

Kevin Flahive.

 

[Shabby]

There is but they won't play, they have retired in their late twenties. Ricken went with a youth policy because of the success in 2019 and the vast majority of those players are injured. An even bigger joke is that only about 5 of the 2019 AI minor winning team are available to this year's U-20 team, the rest are all injured and mostly long term. They can blame KOD, hurling all they want but I'd seriously look at what programmes trainers have set for players and how the players are being trained and coached at the sessions. KOD gave Ronan McCarthy another opportunity but it was similar for Kieran Kingston. The hurling management have selected 19 year olds on the team but they have proven their worth and have the skillset, there doesn't seem to be any such development of players from underage to senior in football. The hurlers also held on to the mainstay of their older players which is crucial.

Regarding next Sunday and the immediate future I believe it will take Brian Hayes some time to adjust and develop, although he's tall he is similar in physique to many of the current Cork players who are struggling. Hayes should have some part to play v Down. Brian Murphy of Nemo is a player that should have been introduced to the set up, he never played inter-county minor but played U-21 at 18 for Cork and is about 23/24 now.

Overall Thomas Clancy, Daniel O'Mahony, Sean Meehan and Sean Powter are all nailed on starters in defence if available and we have to realise that they are currently irreplacable but development of other players is paramount.

Murphy of Nemo has been on the panel but he’s not up to it. He was absolutely cleaned out for UCC in Sigerson too against a team who weren’t even close to winning it.

The key part you mention there is the hurlers retained their mainstays to help guide some of the new, younger lads through. The football management haven’t really done that. As a result you have some novices with some awful experiences with Cork guiding even bigger novices. It’s a tough place to be for them all.

There is a raft of injuries which we can’t ignore and I feel sorry for Ricken on that front. Also it appears there are one or two players gone from the panel recently as well. This a major uphill task this season.

 

[bluesball]

When the draw was made for the league giving us 4 away matches i guessed we would struggle to make any more than 6 points we are 1 behind that target and if we manage to win our next 2 games we will nearly be safe.
Whats worrying is the way and size of our defeats none of which were close games.

 

[Evergreen]

I wish some day that it was cork that were the filthy team, alas not going to happen in the near future……..disagree obviously as it was clear Meath came to battle and hit hard and they read the ref perfectly who wanted to let things flow…..cork on the other hand….seeing cork players on the ground with their 2 hands held up to the ref looking for an intervention was awful

Yea it's like coming out of minor playing senior championship match looking for frees off the ref...ffs Cork get on with it ...no leaders on That team ..has someone spike o sullivan number and send it on to Ricken please

 

[Jukka]

Something I think stood out yesterday was how poor our tackling technique was. Lots of lazy arms with no chance of getting anything but a high chance of giving away a free. That for me has been the hallmark of the well coached sides compared to the others, and it's really worrying how poor it was.

Whatever people thought about Cian O'Neill, he has a proven reputation as a coach with top intercounty sides. Nobody from around the country was knocking down John Cleary's door, and it's hard to think it's anything but a drop down in standard. Ricken needs to be cut throat and ensure the group is getting coaching required to push on.

There needs to be a fucking inquest into the injury issue. It's not just that we're missing players, it's that those player miss out for so long and their injuries keep recurring that their chances of an intercounty career are blown away.

 

[Corkonian1]

Shabby

You're correct regarding his performances in the Sigerson but we've heard the same regarding Brian Hartnett. Brian Murphy was not rated good enough for the Cork minor panel and on the U-21 team a year later, he was then on the Nemo team that won the Cork and Munster Championships performing well. A former Nemo and Cork senior player said as a pundit Murphy is a future Cork senior defender but there doesn't seem to be any development or improvement of him as a player. Regarding Brian Hartnett he was a leader in 2019 on the U-20 team that won the All-Ireland, a physical player who dealt with the rigours, someone who distributed the ball well and could also take a score, overall an intelligent player but now he's injured long term and not deemed up to senior inter-county level.

Regarding your 2nd and 3rd paragraph we're on the same wavelength.

 

[junior footballer]

Does anyone know have they done anything to look at the injury crisis? The amount and seriousness of the injuries cork players are getting are ferocious, from the last couple of games we are losing 3 players a game and out for a while in most cases with obviously meehans injury and absolutes disaster.
Of course there is a coaching issue and morale must be desperate with the squad in so much flux every week. I wouldn’t be surprised to see down get a win here, it’s impossible in a week to get a team from yesterdays debacle to have a defensive structure, tackle correctly and win the majority of our own kickouts while alternating between long and short, as a form guide down drew with Meath in navan and were within 6 of Galway, overall scored a lot less then us and conceded a lot less also

 

[Hank Scorpio]

The problem with getting it as badly wrong as this group have in 2022 is that your set up totally fucked the following year playing division 3 and glorified Tommy Murphy cup, so in your words Hank 2023 was always going to be a write off.
The team is a shambles, it’s surely not too much to hope that a cork football team could do the basics like defend in a system and work their kickouts? We’ve heard a lot about fitness but it certainly isn’t getting better quick anyway never mind that incredibly we seem to have accelerated our injury count….now why is that? As a sign of how bad things are we have had 5 league games and 5 centre backs…..thats farcical stuff….. competitive in division 2 is surely not beyond a decently prepared cork team? Not winning or getting promoted but keeping it kicked out to the likes of Meath and Roscommon , we have been miles off the pace in every facet of the game so far with the possible exception of Clare who must be kicking themselves for dropping a point to cork -a coherent game plan with committed players and work from there would be a start but too late now it seems

Listen m8, I'm not jumping up and down with delight about whats happening but I think we certainly need to temper our expectations somewhat. Its certainly not out of the blue.

Its not been a great year so far but a fluke win against Kerry aside what has there been to show the last few years that this is a Cork side who can compete?

We need to support the new management team and the players and hope to see a big improvement as they go.



Whats the alternative, realistically.

 

[Dday]

Murphy of Nemo has been on the panel but he’s not up to it. He was absolutely cleaned out for UCC in Sigerson too against a team who weren’t even close to winning it.

The key part you mention there is the hurlers retained their mainstays to help guide some of the new, younger lads through. The football management haven’t really done that. As a result you have some novices with some awful experiences with Cork guiding even bigger novices. It’s a tough place to be for them all.

There is a raft of injuries which we can’t ignore and I feel sorry for Ricken on that front. Also it appears there are one or two players gone from the panel recently as well. This a major uphill task this season.

What players have left lately?

 

[junior footballer]

Listen m8, I'm not jumping up and down with delight about whats happening but I think we certainly need to temper our expectations somewhat. Its certainly not out of the blue.

Its not been a great year so far but a fluke win against Kerry aside what has there been to show the last few years that this is a Cork side who can compete?

We need to support the new management team and the players and hope to see a big improvement as they go.



Whats the alternative, realistically.

There is no alternative but this nonsense that it is what it is and shur it starts bext year is wrong, next year is division 3 and tailteann cup……it’s obviously better to be developing from a higher grade.
I don’t believe that a group that have no coherent defensive structure or game plan or who don’t seem to be able to manage players are going to improve and some wistful hope that next year will be better is based on nothing. This year unfortunately is a write off, I hope they manage to stay in division 2, the championship will be horrific, more importantly I hope no mor cork players get seriously injured.
I don’t think it’s too much of an expectation to see a cork team with a plan or play with spirit but perhaps it is