Christ above, what a gammy few days. Before the harsh detail it's important to acknowledge an amateur group of lads trying to give their all for Cork, sacrificing a lot, crossing the white line & giving some great days to supporters this season. They're hurting more than any of us now. The abuse that's been dished out to them this week outside the county on national platforms is an absolute disgrace. Lads like Mullane and co talk about mental health and online abuse etc re amateur young players and then the same fellas couldn't have been more spiteful and vitriolic sticking the knife in this week. Compare it to KK not getting out of Leinster, also suffering collapses... sugar-coated 'poor Derek' soft tones for the week that followed. Unfortunately, we are now the England soccer team - high profile talented players, huge support, huge pressure and anticipation and a massive swathe of the country willing us to fail, and finding it hilarious when we do.
I'll get to issues pre the semi final but in terms of the game itself, watching back the tv coverage shows some similar things to last year but also some other aspects that make it worse than last year for sure. Galway were brilliant but they showed how they are a work in progress at times and certainly it wasn't a performance by them remotely near what Tipp produced in last years final. Unlike Tipp, last Saturday the door was repeatedly opened for us to come roaring back into the game but we turned down the invite 5 or 6 times. So of note in that first half:
- The plan seems quite clear on both sides. Galway do what they do, and they give Cork the short ball and space to do whatever we want inside our 45. We're ready for this and probe across the pitch and try and beat the dual sweeper thing (mannions either side) and on the ball we do this quite well at times.
- Straight away it's clear however that when they turn over the ball, they're under no pressure from cork and they consistently get 2 short passes away without contact of any sort
- Straight away it's clear their out ball of Rabbitte is working too well - he becomes 70% of their puc out targets I reckon, and if they're not shooting from distance 70% of their open play target. R Downey is not within the 15m we expected him to be on that contest and a problem is evident after 10 minutes
- We're also up and running with unforced edgy errors. Tim is off it from the throw in, a mile off it (as per last year. R Downey lets a ball get taken off him he never normally would. Connolly gets a ball taken out of his hand by Mannion, and on 30 mins when we are 5 up, Barrett taps the ball off the bas without pressure and it hits the ground... galway turnover is then Cahalane yellow 5 seconds later
- Our purple patch from 18 to 30min (Galway no score and we go from 3 down to 5 up) is notably unfeverish - we are on top but casual. Tim and Barrett have an exchange of passes that's just a joke - either of them could have shot. Galway are calm and slow the game down while playing poorly.
- It's now evident we have no intention of shooting from distance, a bizarre development into the scoring end Davin stand. And while we seek 1 type of score, Galway (and any other top team) are going after every type of score. Morrissey scores from corner back in an embarrassing training game fashion on the 34th min with Glennon receiving a puc out and jogging to the 65. We were well on our way to our lowest hooks, blocks, tackle tally of the year (82)
Half time and you'd think these issues would be addressed - I thought Buckley and Roche would be on at the start of the second half, and that we'd sit deeper, but no Galway see how much of a sitting duck we are and push up and they take over quickly but shockingly easily.
- As mentioned earlier, Galway have some excellent periods of play but their purple patch is only a few minutes when you watch it back, we are responding with a malfunction even when they go from purple patch to a flatter few minutes
- Galway respond to the Fitzgibbon red with 4 wides in a row
- Unlike last year we get loads of opportunities to get back into it (from what is on re-watch an ok Galway performance) but we can't take them - we don't want to shoot a score. That gaelic statsman graphic of our 11 (yes 11) shots and where on the pitch they come from vs Galways 25 sums it up. Our usual hot spot from a shooting perspective is the 12 position... this was a dead zone for shooting for us all day.
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A few kept battling to the end (SOD), others battled but headlessly (Barrett), others not really anywhere to be seen.
Not dissimilar to last year, as the year progressed we fell back to what we knew - picking the same players, and playing the same way. Ben was doing great stuff early doors - an incredibly tough pre-season, making calls on some lads, new faces during the league. But the Limerick RR game saw a switch from zonal to man on man in the half back line to turn things around & 3 up top (it works v Limerick) and then a couple of weeks later we see the 3 inside against waterford - those couple of weeks we were just continuing on what we always did. Collins selection for that Offaly league game after Paidi sul did so well in Nolan park, Connolly's selection from the get-go... so many opportunities to change the dial and bit by bit nothing changed. We couldn't even keep Buckley playing at all-star form on the field.
The 3 up with Alan Walsh really fails on work-rate. Connolly was the furthest from goal and he doesn't make effective tackles or turnovers. If you still expect Rob to sit, and TOC to cover Rob then you're kinda accepting the opposition will find space and free and tap over scores and we think we'll score more. Tackle counts drop.
We are assessing players on technical and physical attributes (we've the best players in the county in the squad you'll hear from most) but clearly now we don't have the best players in the county on the team as there are 2 other attributes - tactical and psychological, and we've a rake of lads not at the races on those areas. Last Saturday a couple of lads were making unforced errors they hadn't made all year... why then and there and not in other high pressure games over the last 2 years? Last year I thought mgmt decisions - tactical and personnel - was the main problem; this year mgmt were also at fault in those areas (maybe worse this time?) but it's hard to deny now that the common denominator is a cluster of experienced hurlers, some of the best in the country we think that can't correct course in croke park. And of course the critique is full of absolute horseshit (some dopes calling the Munster final a second half collapse) but we are now the England football team and apparently you can now throw any sort of shite the way of the cork team and it's fair. Joshua Ryan leapfrogs SOD into an all-star team - yep that makes sense.
There's a parallel universe where this year was 3 in a row, and ROF is a cult hero for his 1-1 in the '24 final that got the ball rolling. It's a fucking crock of shit and no point in calling it anything else but we keep going, we have the ingredients to fix it and get back to the top - hope we can be a bit more radical, ruthless, more honest and harder working when it really matters.
