Cork Hurlers - Part 2

[Charley Sheen]

You’re missing nothing, it was moronic

Odd to see this creeping into the game whether it was for Cian Lynch or Hegarty.

Watched the first half back again and Cork were not as poor as originally first thought. Lehane and Beausang had 5/6 bad wides between them. Game should have been closer than 8 points.

Hegarty was excellent in the first 35 mins. Some great scores from distance. What a player he is.

ROF will be a big loss. Grown into a huge player for Cork. And was having a big impact on second half.
Horgan was excellent throughout. And looks fit and motivated. Deccie Dalton struggled on Sean Finn, but who doesn’t

The Limerick sub goalkeeper was very poor throughout I thought. Nicky Quaid would be a huge loss for them.

 

[Sir Shadow]

You’re missing nothing, it was moronic

More importantly any local update on Robbie's ankle? seem to be mixed outcomes. At least he could be back in a few months if he didn't break it, hopefully.

 

[red&blue]

Odd to see this creeping into the game whether it was for Cian Lynch or Hegarty.

Disgusting would be the word I’d use

Watched the first half back again and Cork were not as poor as originally first thought. Lehane and Beausang had 5/6 bad wides between them. Game should have been closer than 8 points.

Yeah our shooting was atrocious in the first half, we looked very nervy early on, settled well but Limerick had a great last 10 minutes to the half

Hegarty was excellent in the first 35 mins. Some great scores from distance. What a player he is.

Hegarty is a disaster to mark, he will drift anywhere just to get on ball, follow him and there’s a huge hole in our backline, don’t follow him and he’ll do damage

ROF will be a big loss. Grown into a huge player for Cork. And was having a big impact on second half.

Robbie was on fire tonight, should have got 2 goals and created another for us. Much more dangerous closer to goal. Will be an almighty loss

Horgan was excellent throughout. And looks fit and motivated. Deccie Dalton struggled on Sean Finn, but who doesn’t

Great to see he still has it. The burst of speed is gone but everything else is still there. Watching him now must have been like watching Ring in the late 50s, past his best but still a joy to behold

Deccie will have learned a lot from tonight, as will the management, Deccie is not a corner foward

The Limerick sub goalkeeper was very poor throughout I thought. Nicky Quaid would be a huge loss for them.

Limericks subs are no where near the level of their first time, they will fall off the cliff when a few of their older stalwarts retire

 

[beanee]

The Limerick sub goalkeeper was very poor throughout I thought. Nicky Quaid would be a huge loss for them.

His high save over Hoggie towards the end was excellent, Hoogie unlucky not to goal.

 

[leeside_rebel]

Realistically that wasn't even limericks sub goalie, Hennessy from kilmallock retired during winter. So really McCarthy was 3rd choice until now so very little experience. But he's won an all Ireland u21 few years ago and is highly rated in limerick.

 

[HurlingFan19]

Lot of good stuff said by posters here already. For me, the standouts were Eoin Downey, Brian Roche, Joyce, Hoggie and Robbie. Other lads like Tommy O C and Conor O Callaghan were also very good.

Dalton struggled big time, but still made a couple of scores and got a goal. Has to offer more but he definitely deserves another good few games to get used to the pace.

I wish Robbie the best in his recovery from a nasty looking injury. He was outstanding before he came off. Special mention to the Limerick players. About 3 of them came over to Robbie when he went down and helped him, taking his helmet off etc. I thought that was very classy from the Limerick lads.

Won’t be getting carried away with the win but a positive first outing. Limerick still destroyed us for large patches and are still a good bit ahead of us. That’s 3 games in a row we won by a late point. The lads showed great character and fight. Up the Rebels!

 

[morello]

There are some managers across various sports at various levels and for whatever reason the teams they manage will always fight their way back into games… ‘they’re never beaten’ - it’s a fantastic thing to be said about a team and as it develops it becomes stronger because the opposition come to recognise that team as a team that are never beaten.

Ironically as opposed to manic passion it’s often that the reasons these teams do it is that the manager espouses calmness and confidence when things aren’t going so well and the team and mgmt are focused on getting on top one step at a time when it matters most.

You could see it with the underage teams over the last few years but when it comes to ‘the championship minutes’ (half way through the second half) Pat Ryan’s teams get in the zone big time. Whatever about tactical strategy or player selection or formation, this mental strength and focus is what excites me most about the season ahead. And how nice it was to see 4 new lads embody this as much as any of the others - Con O’Callaghan, Eoin Downey, Brian Roche, Tommy O’C - well done all 4 of you.

And while it’s easy to say it’s only the league and limerick were missing loads of big names, it’s also easy to say Cork could have been so much better (loads of really poor wides) and and also now easy to see how damaging last years muddled mgmt was limiting the potential of the panel.

 

[morello]

Just on a few specific points:
- Dalton and Hoggy:
Patrick was in the zone and looked really sharp but please please please give free taking duties to Dalton. Why pick the best dead ball player in the county and then not have him on any sideline or free. They need to just get this done as Patrick’s free taking is dipping versus a few years ago. The change will benefit the 2 of them. I see a few posters say that Hoggy was getting the lovely bouncing ball from midfield in front of him and Dalton wasn’t. That was mainly because Hoggy was able to get that yard and Dalton wasn’t able to from Finn. Finn looked like a senior hurler playing a junior hurler at times but in fairness to Dalton he stuck at it, and did better in the second half… but just give him the frees and sidelines for fuck sake

- Full back line:
They were excellent - aggressive but smart and not over committing when they were not in position to win a ball. Of all the lines this was definitely not a test though - Flanagan was messing with flicks all night and the other 2 are firmly 2nd choice. Galway will test this line much harder. We need another option like O’Callaghan to put a hand up for corner back, I’m not a fan of Niall in there, fine hurler albeit that he is.

Midfield:
Meade had a fine game, rarely plays less than 7 out of 10 in fairness. There’s a combination of players where he’s starting lads… he won rucks, sprayed passes to the corner, he just will need more physical support alongside him. I’m a big BOS fan, he’s a serious hurler and great attitude, he did ok last night - could have stayed on longer and can play in different positions, nice and aggressive. Roche however showed what we were all looking forward to after watching him dog it out in underage finals. Some work rate on the youngfella… a championship starter I hope

 

[Coogee]

Disgusting would be the word I’d use

Yeah our shooting was atrocious in the first half, we looked very nervy early on, settled well but Limerick had a great last 10 minutes to the half

Hegarty is a disaster to mark, he will drift anywhere just to get on ball, follow him and there’s a huge hole in our backline, don’t follow him and he’ll do damage

Robbie was on fire tonight, should have got 2 goals and created another for us. Much more dangerous closer to goal. Will be an almighty loss

Great to see he still has it. The burst of speed is gone but everything else is still there. Watching him now must have been like watching Ring in the late 50s, past his best but still a joy to behold

Deccie will have learned a lot from tonight, as will the management, Deccie is not a corner foward

Limericks subs are no where near the level of their first time, they will fall off the cliff when a few of their older stalwarts retire

i agree to an extent but still think we will have a strong bench this year when you consider that it will likely feature Richie English & Dan Morrisey (if Hayes plays 7) This will be a big league campaign for young Coughlan but he will be a decent bench option in championship too. We will then have the likes or Reidy, O Neil and Boylan who all came up with big scores when needed last season and young o Brien from kilmallock and Adam English are probably a year away from making an impact. Agree that it will will be hard to replace a lot of the starting 15 but most of them have another good 2-3 years in them and others have 3-4 years.

 

[Bonbon12]

i agree to an extent but still think we will have a strong bench this year when you consider that it will likely feature Richie English & Dan Morrisey (if Hayes plays 7) This will be a big league campaign for young Coughlan but he will be a decent bench option in championship too. We will then have the likes or Reidy, O Neil and Boylan who all came up with big scores when needed last season and young o Brien from kilmallock and Adam English are probably a year away from making an impact. Agree that it will will be hard to replace a lot of the starting 15 but most of them have another good 2-3 years in them and others have 3-4 years.

You're spot on coogee. I certainly wouldn't be backing against the 4 in a row. Or maybe more