Cork Hurlers - Part 2

Sense. Absolute sense. We don’t know what their plan for the year is. We have to trust it.
I think it depends on what phase a team & group of players are at.. in the building and maintenance phase inter county management seem to go hard for the league, as a building block initially and then to introduce new blood .. when a team has found it’s level, All Irelands won & mileage up on the clock the management have a different attitude and might hold off for the earlier rounds…
It’s generally the same with football, except for Ulster football teams who have had to mind themselves for the thunderdome that is the USFC.
 
Last year we beat limerick and clare in the league by a combined total of 20 points.Come the championship we lost to clare by 2 points,and limerick by 9 points. It is better to keep your powder dry until the championship.

Maybe - Waterford had a great league last year but were very flat come championship.
 

SoundMan

Full Member
Hoggy is a squad player and no more. His work rate and movement are very poor. If he was scoring 1-4 from play regularly, then it might be possible to carry him. He has not come near that for a long time - more often than not his contribution from play is 1/2 points. It was the correct decision last year to bench him and this year I see him as a 15/20 minute player.


Sorry now but if you've a forward regularly scoring 1-4 from play you're not carrying him. If the other forwards score anything similar then you're going to be winning every game because others chip in with scores too and the opposition are going to be at their wits end on which forwards to actually mark because they all regularly score 1-4 from play.

Hoggie certainly wasn't at his best but it likely didn't help that someone in the management made little secret of not rating him. Hopefully for everybody's sake Hoggie has an "indian summer" and scores a hatful this season - because it's 99% looking like his last. And don't forget, as well as scoring Hoggie does a lot of setting up scores too.
 

SoundMan

Full Member
I'd add that one thing Cork should be looking for during the league is an alternative freetaker. Hoggy might recover his form in general play this year, but he might not either, and it would be no harm to have the option of using him as a sub.

Which is more pressing - looking for an alternative freetaker or an alternative goalkeeper?
 

SoundMan

Full Member
This is getting ridiculous now. Nobody is saying it was all his fault. At various stages last year our forwards didn’t make runs to show for the ball. It was a collective failure. But Hoggie was especially disappointing given he’s supposed to be our most dangerous forward.

Throw away the shovel ffs. Why is the onus on a 34 year old "to be our most dangerous forward"? A guy you and many others wouldn't even start? I'd probably not start Hoggie myself at this stage but boy talk about a lightning rod for all that goes wrong :rolleyes:
 

SoundMan

Full Member
Neither because they have a goalkeeper plus multiple options for hitting frees

What's more pressing is finding a settled 6 backs

Given form, suspensions, and injuries it's usually quite difficult to have a settled 6 players in any general area of the field.

Yes we have other options that are used in hitting frees. And you regularly see someone like Hoggie hitting the shorter frees and someone else hitting the longer distance ones, so even if Hoggie is a starter, the frees aren't all his and his alone to be hitting.

BUT, and it's a big but, there'll only be one keeper start and the more he starts the more likely he is to be retained. This league is high time to try install the best longer term keeper. Couldn't tell you when we last won the hurling league, but anyone can tell you when Cork last won the All Ireland. That's when we need to have our top keeper AND freetaker in place. No doubt a number of freetakers will get exercised during the league, I'm just hoping that the opportunity is used to run the rule over some decent keepers, because I, like many others here, have reservations about Collins.

We don't want keepers dropping the ball into their net in Championship or messing up signals with his backs when playing it short or lofting high and hopeless punts where our forwards are unlikely to retain possession. Neither do we want free-takers missing relatively easy frees to go out of the championship by the finest of margins.

PR may not be able to steer us to glory this season or even next but fingers crossed he gets an awful lot right this season, beginning with getting our best squad together and on the pitch. If they're not good enough to beat Limerick or KK even, then so be it, but at least get the best 15/25 out there on match day means we'll have given it our best shot.
 

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