Cork Hurlers - Part 2

[Instabroke]

Wouldn't be reading a whole pile into the other day. Lots of players (on both sides) in the middle of a heavy training period.

On the we have good but not great players.....

All Ireland winning teams tend to have 6/7 All Stars...

 

[North Cork Star]

Happy New Year to everyone on here! Hoping 2024 will be a year to remember for all things Cork hurling.

I thought the Canon O' Brien Cup was an enjoyable match played at a decent standard for the time of the year. You could see a lot of lads wanted to impress Pat Ryan and Co. I don't anyone looked out of place on the pitch.

Between UCC and Cork, there was 36 hurlers for Cork on the pitch for the game. UCC have a very strong team this year and will be hoping to go all the way in the Fitzgibbon Cup. UL will be their main challengers I reckon.

On top of those 36 hurlers who played the last day, the likes of Patrick Horgan, Séamus Harnedy, Robbie O' Flynn, Mark Coleman, Eoin Downey, Seán O' Donoghue, Niall O' Leary, Ethan Twomey, Conor and Damien Cahalane, Micheál Mullins, Brian Roche, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Tim O' Mahony, Pádraig Power, Ciarán Joyce and Patrick Collins didn't feature at all. That is 53 hurlers of a high standard in our county. There's strength in depth in our panel now. Probably the most competitive our panel has been in a good while and Pat and his selectors will have a lot of late nights trying to cut his panel down to 36 and subsequently the match day 26.

I think we can all agree that Conor O' Callaghan and Cormac O' Brien are currently doing well and will hopefully create good competition for places in the back line. William Buckley was outstanding in midfield. I think he is currently not on the Cork Senior panel as he is in with the U20s but I've a feeling Pat will like to have a look at him. His pace would cause teams problems in the latter stages of a game in particular a la Shane Kingston.

I see Tommy O' Connell as a midfield option too. He is a stick man but by God he is teak tough and strong for his size and loves the physical stuff. I could see him tried in midfield for the league.

The likes of Ben Cunningham, Brian Hayes and Robbie Cotter did well too and could see game time in the league.

All in all, it was a positive start of our season. Lots of hurling to go. I'm hopeful we'll build on last year and get out of Munster. I'm not sure if we are ready to claim All Ireland honours but hopefully we'll be in with a shout.

 

[Crankycorner]

What we badly need to address this year is the periods of the game where we go missing. Usually 10-15 minutes after half time. Happened against Tipp, Clare and Limerick. If that happens again we’ll be out of the Championship again before the start of June.

 

[North Cork]

The great thing about sport is the uncertainty.
It is constantly evolving and changing and we repeatedly see that there is no sure thing.
It isn't that many years ago when the discussion was if any county could ever win van All Ireland again, such was the Kilkenny dominance.


I must start paying more attention at games in the future. I didn't realise we were so terribly far behind Limerick and if you read the posts of some on here we are like lambs to the slaughter when playing them.
My memory was that in 2023 Limerick needed to beat us or risk going out of the championship altogether.
They eventually beat us by a point after getting what I think could be described as home town decisions.

I thought that we were competitive at least and I think probably unlucky on the day..... others may disagree.

We don't have to worry about what Limerick are doing in2024, we need to concern ourselves about what we are doing.
We need to get ourselves right and see where that brings us. If Limerick are good enough they will win again, if we are then we have a chance.

We have a young improving squad, it seems that we have three key players back from injury, we have a management team that hopefully has learned from their 2023 mistakes.

I don't know what 2024 will bring, but at present there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful.

 

[CorkLiam1999]

Any more news on the release of these new "Championship-only Season tickets"? The GAA really made a balls of it this year, 140 euro for 5 league games, 3 of which are away from home, Wexford and Offaly away are not appealing at all. You get charged more per game with a season ticket than if you don't have a season ticket at all! Only the GAA could come up with something like that. Where is the incentive for a repeat customer, or loyalty? Holding people to ransom for the guarantee for a AI Final ticket is laughable, and a cop out.

 

[red&blue]

Any more news on the release of these new "Championship-only Season tickets"? The GAA really made a balls of it this year, 140 euro for 5 league games, 3 of which are away from home, Wexford and Offaly away are not appealing at all. You get charged more per game with a season ticket than if you don't have a season ticket at all! Only the GAA could come up with something like that. Where is the incentive for a repeat customer, or loyalty? Holding people to ransom for the guarantee for a AI Final ticket is laughable, and a cop out.

Yes it is but these new championship packages, they are not season tickets, will not come with a guarantee of an all ireland final ticket, only the season ticket will do that

Have they ripped us off? Yes they have

Am I willing to take the chance on picking up all ireland final tickets if we get there? No I am not

 

[red&blue]

The great thing about sport is the uncertainty.
It is constantly evolving and changing and we repeatedly see that there is no sure thing.
It isn't that many years ago when the discussion was if any county could ever win van All Ireland again, such was the Kilkenny dominance.


I must start paying more attention at games in the future. I didn't realise we were so terribly far behind Limerick and if you read the posts of some on here we are like lambs to the slaughter when playing them.
My memory was that in 2023 Limerick needed to beat us or risk going out of the championship altogether.
They eventually beat us by a point after getting what I think could be described as home town decisions.

I thought that we were competitive at least and I think probably unlucky on the day..... others may disagree.

We don't have to worry about what Limerick are doing in2024, we need to concern ourselves about what we are doing.
We need to get ourselves right and see where that brings us. If Limerick are good enough they will win again, if we are then we have a chance.

We have a young improving squad, it seems that we have three key players back from injury, we have a management team that hopefully has learned from their 2023 mistakes.

I don't know what 2024 will bring, but at present there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful.

Great post

 

[hurley68]

I am looking at Tipp match,from last year on Tg4 If we haven't a lot of new men to come onto this year's team we are going no place.

 

[Crankycorner]

I am looking at Tipp match,from last year on Tg4 If we haven't a lot of new men to come onto this year's team we are going no place.

I agree with this somewhat. At certain parts we were ripped apart. We can’t afford to keep going missing in matches. Hopefully the returning players from injury will make a difference.

 

[imigrant]

I am looking at Tipp match,from last year on Tg4 If we haven't a lot of new men to come onto this year's team we are going no place.

It is a more generic/general comment than you would normally make. Who would you consider from that Tipp match to be unsuitable for this year's squad ?