Cork Hurlers - Part 2

[KolaKubes]

Absolute bullshit..I respect your view...
nobody brought this up til we were hammered
This team had millions wasted on them in the last two years..surely your fears would have been pointed out to them.

“Absolute bullshit..I respect your view”

Classic.

He’s saying nothing that isn’t completely uncontroversial in any other sport.

I was driving out of Castlemartyr the week of the final, looking at photos of players up and thought, surely be to fuck they took the players away from this all week? Then realised of course they hadn’t and my heart sank.

Getting the pantomine Cork langers off the stage next year with their lazy “coz we’re Cork” shit will actually help. Even if it does nothing internally, it helps motivate other counties to make us look like bigger fools.

 

[North Cork]

I can't speak for anyone else on this thread, but I'd say media coverage does play some role in terms of how well teams and individual athletes prepare for big occasions (as does social media and the reactions of people around you). It's a bit different for professional teams or athletes who are more secluded from the general public (e g., in an Olympic village). But GAA players by and large live amongst their supporters and interact with them every day, and that interaction is influenced by media coverage even if the players themselves are doing their best to ignore it. If you read accounts by managers abd players going back decades, they'll often speak about getting the build-up to a big match wrong and the players losing focus as a result. It makes sense to me anyway - in everyday life, I'd say if you are complacent and not prepared for something to go wrong at work, for instance, it can be hard to keep your composure and quickly readjust when things start going south.

Of course media coverage affects players, the level of coverage in recent years has gone through the roof , it is almost impossible for a player and his family to stay removed from the media coverage. As you have pointed out these players live in the community and can't walk away from the pressure it generates. This is true of every player and every county but not to the same level.

Cork hurlers in 2025 were more exposed than any other county because of the hype around them that kept building through the season... it would appear in hindsight the squad was not as well prepared to deal with this hype as we thought they were between the semi final and final in particular.

 

[Corkonian1]

The Cork players that have grown up in clubs that value work rate, hooking, blocking and cynicism over pure skill will have to come to the fore. We won’t maximise our playing personnel advantage until that reality of the intercounty game is grasped in the big city clubs especially.

I wouldn't associate hooking and blocking that much with work rate, they should all go hand in hand and are key skills but they're not emphasised as much as working ones socks off. It is easier for coaches to emphasise fitness and then shout 'run', 'track back' or 'work' from the sidelines. It is pointless telling forwards to track back into there own half if they can't hook or block but the 'rucks' are giving them reason to do so, the 'rucks' in hurling are destroying skills like hooking, blocking as well as the drop shot and should be done away with, rucks are only a form of smothering and belting or hitting opponents. The GAA have a sad mentality towards physicality in our game and the vast public have mainly fallen for this crap.

 

[Henrys Fonda]

I wouldn't associate hooking and blocking that much with work rate, they should all go hand in hand and are key skills but they're not emphasised as much as working ones socks off. It is easier for coaches to emphasise fitness and then shout 'run', 'track back' or 'work' from the sidelines. It is pointless telling forwards to track back into there own half if they can't hook or block but the 'rucks' are giving them reason to do so, the 'rucks' in hurling are destroying skills like hooking, blocking as well as the drop shot and should be done away with, rucks are only a form of smothering and belting or hitting opponents. The GAA have a sad mentality towards physicality in our game and the vast public have mainly fallen for this crap.

I think Cork is the opposite though, it was hurling skill that got us to two finals in a row. We can hold our own in the physicality stakes but we aren't over physical, in say the way Limerick are. I think the 2023 u20 team was a break from our usual mould, very skilful and very physical as well.

 

[Corkonian1]

The Cork management and players were too meek for getting engulfed in the media hype in the last 3 years. Imagine if they were going for the double like in 1990 and the thousands left attend training what would it be like. By Christmas 2022 Pat Ryan had done quite a number of interviews, Ben has done none yet. It appears since Mark Coleman's interview the players were told zipit under Ben.

 

[StoneHouse]

The Cork management and players were too meek for getting engulfed in the media hype in the last 3 years. Imagine if they were going for the double like in 1990 and the thousands left attend training what would it be like. By Christmas 2022 Pat Ryan had done quite a number of interviews, Ben has done none yet. It appears since Mark Coleman's interview the players were told zipit under Ben.

Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes have both done interviews recently but that doesn't suit your agenda

 

[Corkonian1]

I think Cork is the opposite though, it was hurling skill that got us to two finals in a row. We can hold our own in the physicality stakes but we aren't over physical, in say the way Limerick are. I think the 2023 u20 team was a break from our usual mould, very skilful and very physical as well.

The skills are of attacking play while using a full compliment of 3 inside forwards which PR's management should be complimented. Hooking and blocking wasn't key but should be more to the fore especially in defence. We've held our own physically and ended up winning ruck ball, Kiely chastised the GAA and media and therefore they got away with too much. Agree on the 2023 AI U-20 winning team but not on the Shane Kingston hit, more Cork folk needed to call a spade here and stand up for Kingston rather than ridiculing him, how this got more sm hits than Kyle Hayes hitting Darragh Fitzgibbon just shows the hatred of Cork.

 

[Corkonian1]

Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes have both done interviews recently but that doesn't suit your agenda

They are not relevant to the agenda discussed rather than my agenda.

 

[Henrys Fonda]

The skills are of attacking play while using a full compliment of 3 inside forwards which PR's management should be complimented. Hooking and blocking wasn't key but should be more to the fore especially in defence. We've held our own physically and ended up winning ruck ball, Kiely chastised the GAA and media and therefore they got away with too much. Agree on the 2023 AI U-20 winning team but not on the Shane Kingston hit, more Cork folk needed to call a spade here and stand up for Kingston rather than ridiculing him, how this got more sm hits than Kyle Hayes hitting Darragh Fitzgibbon just shows the hatred of Cork.

I don't know what people ridiculed Kingston but saying that he got away with a yellow isnt ridicule it's just calling out the incident for what it was.

 

[Corkonian1]

I don't know what people ridiculed Kingston but saying that he got away with a yellow isnt ridicule it's just calling out the incident for what it was.

It's opinion when stating 'he got away with a yellow' and it doesn't equate to a deliberate strike of a hurley on an opponent. The Cork reaction was the poorest for me as I know well the hatred from other counties. A similar incident to Denis Mulcahy on Cormac Bonnar in 1992 which drove others mad but Cork fans stood by Mul although there wasn't any social media back then.