100% Crusty.
When I left Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday I was in a bad mood, angry and disappointed.
But by the time I got home and dried off I started to see it in a different light very similar to what you mention above.
I hope our players and management learn from this loss, and I think they will
Most of us take a few days to read the reports, look at the podcasts and review the stats and then judge the game and where we are.
I think that both Limerick and Cork will take positives and negatives from this game.
The stats reveal quite a lot.
Cork won 5 of their 15 contested restarts. 3 went out of play. This resulted in Cork creating just over 50% of the scoring chances that Limerick created.
Kiely prides himself on Limericks scoring accuracy but they were wasteful and we had 1 wide.
You can interpret stats any way you want but I think that Cork can take more consolation in that they were roundly beaten in almost every metric but Limerick had to rely on James Owens to get the win. (I'll come back to refs later on)
Limerick had a full deck but Cork were missing Fitzy and Robbie O Flynn.
Yes, you can argue that Limerick won't be so wasteful from play and placed balls again but Cork simply have more areas to improve upon.
Take Barry Walsh for example - He's a generational talent but erred in taking the ball into contact with Limerick (on one occasion, he tried to get tru 3 defenders) That's a relatively easy fix - with the expert use of the free hand by Limerick, you can't go into contact so you need to usually look to go away from goal and offload to a free man. If he practices with 2 men on him, doing Limerick type challenges, he'll quickly learn this. I expect this issue to be sorted.
Another relatively easy fix is to work on our restarts - we can and will improve the next day we face Limerick (I expect we will)
I think Cork will learn more but Limerick will see their mistakes as well. Both will improve but I hope that Cork have more areas that they can fix.
Back to refs - It's really getting serious now. Owens reffed the 2 recent Cork/Limerick clashes completely differently. In the RR, he let everything go and we were wondering what was going on in the first 10 minutes - he did the opposite in the MF.
He had a huge impact on the result, the last day. The free against Connolly that led to a point was a poor call and the free that led to Limericks goal was also a wrong call IMO. He missed 2 obvious fouls on Hayes & Buckley (Ben referenced these) and was very unfair to SOD resulting in his substitution. We can trot out the usual drivel that Cork have only got themselves to blame but IMO, the ref made mistakes that cost Cork the game. The free count was 18-13 - the opposite to the RR game.
To illustrate how close it was, we hit the post with a 65 and Connolly was unfairly pinged, Byrnes pointed.
There is now a big issue with officials - players/management don't know what's a foul - the biggest problem is use of the free hand - Limerick have perfected this. It seems that a player can impede a little but will get pinged if he over does it. The ref must decide how much impeding is OK. That's farcical. We have every scenario now. The Tyler Walsh free for all. The Owens ping everything but with Owens it can be different game to game. The MF last year was a joke. Tyler did not ref the first half and Limerick full back line had a field day. He pinged more in the 2nd half and then Owens came in and pinged most fouls. 3 types of reffing in one game. Talk about the lack of consistency.
IMO - the GAA must grasp the nettle and make a few tough decisions. Either allow use of the free hand to impede an opponent or not. All refs must be encouraged to apply the rules consistently. We have Kennedy from Tipp that blows everything. Tyler lets everything go and Owens can do either (within a few weeks)
I challenge any GAA big wig to claim that the rules of hurling are being applied on a consistent basis.
But returning to Cork v Limerick - Pat Ryan thinks that Clare could have a big say yet. I disagree and expect Limerick to hammer Clare.
Cork have a few injuries now (TOC & TOM) but the squad depth should cover this. It looks like a semi v Galway.
I'd see that as 60:40 for us and I expect we will face Limerick again in July.
There are too many variables to call it now but I'd see it as almost 50:50 with Limerick being slight favourites due to their dominant HB line. Ben will be trying for a plan to allow us deal with their HB line and his success could yet decide who takes Liam Mac
