AllCork32 and red&blue
I was informed Tim O'Mahony's injury is a dead leg which has not allowed him to train properly. I didn't think such an injury would effect a player that long but my source stated it would be 2nd or 3rd round of the league before he's available.
Brigadier Cleburne
A Limerick man said to me recently John Kiely must be fed up with the behaviour of his players off the field and among a lot of Limerick folk the feeling was embarrassing despite their success, so not even near everyone in Limerick think like you not to mind elsewhere.
Their aggression on the field is allied to the breaking of the rules in hurling but it started with Kilkenny. This is playing in your face hurling and there is no place for it in the game going by the rules but unfortunately it is now allowed and encouraged. It suits the current Limerick mid-field players as they are not stick men but ruckers and maulers. We have the referees all buying into it and reffing the inter-county games differently from club games, this should not be the case as the game is HURLING with it's own rules and should be refereed the same way at all levels. The way last years AI was refereed by Colm Lyons compared to the way he refereed say last years Cork Co. championship semi-final between the 'Barrs and Newtown, this is evidence in itself that the standards have dropped, I recently mentioned this to a well-known referee and he acknowledged there was a directive to them from Croke Park to referee inter-county games differently to club games. We have pundits on TV stating this has to be the way to preserve the physicality in the game as the game is all about possession, years ago skill and stickwork were paramount but those days are gone.
This isn't an excuse for Cork, as I stated before the county board let standards across all levels drop in hurling and football in their need to focus on their own agendas. However Cork could easily have defeated Limerick in the 2018 AI semi-final while under poor management and did defeat them in 2019 in the championship at the Gaelic Grounds under the same poor set-up. Kieran Kingstons second spell was poor as he needed a different group of mentors with him and his cherry picking only got worse last year not to mind playing a poor style obsessed with short passing and running inept game for far too long. Pat Ryan is now emphasising direct play and when the injured players return it should take us a further along a rocky road. However that curve started already and next Saturday night is another stepping stone that has a significance all of its own for this Cork team. It was nice winning the last one and let's try and win the next one!
