The Clare win showed the guys who have been integrated into the Cork squad are now learning what’s required to be an intercounty hurler.
After they beat Clare I told my buddies that I fully expected Cork to beat Limerick and they did!
Limerick had been doing all the hurling so far this year, but The Rebels went down there with a bit of a score to settle.
On Sunday you’ll get a big crowd at Pairc Ui Rinn and I expect Cork to come out on top against Tipperary. At this stage of the year, I’d really like to see Cork hitting the ground running, pushing on and taking control of games early.
Hopefully, they’ll pick up another result against the old enemy this weekend.
Record not a worry for Sheedy just yet
Tipperary have only one win in their last nine League and Championship games, it’s not a great record, is it?
However, Liam Sheedy has to be given time to get his house in order.
He obviously went into a situation where there was unrest and a bit of unease, so the Tipperary faithful will allow Liam that time to put his own stamp on things.
Tipp fans will want to see a performance on Sunday though. They’ll want them to go to Cork, give a really strong showing and really put it up to the home side.
Tim needs to keep things tighter
To the untrained eye, people are saying Tim O’Mahony is a must at centre back for Cork. However, I don’t remember Ronan Curran or Brian Corcoran coughing up five, six, seven points a game at centre back.
It’s not a slight on Tim, it’s the way Cork’s system is playing.
By allowing the centre forward to drift out unmarked, that does allow Tim more freedom and the licence to go hurling as well. But, I believe Tim is leaving the back door open a small bit at the moment.
If you are going to allow great players like Tony Kelly and Shane Dowling to float around, someone is going to have to take responsibility for O’Mahony’s man in the middle of the field.
The Cork management need to look at the bigger picture and you need to keep the door slammed at the back to stop people running down the middle.
There’s a star in the Valleys
There’s no denying Cork have added to their squad during the National League.
Stephen McDonnell, Aidan Walsh and Cormac Murphy may be new to the squad this year, but they have a huge amount of intercounty experience. They’ve all played Senior Hurling Championship for Cork before, so you’d like to think their experience adds to the panel.
They also used David Griffin, Darren Browne, Robert Downey, Dan Dooley, Conor Cahalane and Patrick Collins, so I reckon the management have addressed the strength-in-depth issue. There was pressure on them to do that, but they were man enough to admit a weakness and that it needed sorting out.
That’s nine guys straight away who have got a chance to stake a claim to get into the Championship panel. They’ve all impressed in their own ways during games and the management will be happy with that.
One guy I would like to see introduced is Chris O’Leary from Valley Rovers.
He had an outstanding Fitzgibbon Cup campaign with UCC and was one of the standout Cork players from that competition. I hope the Cork management use his physicality and size. Bring him in, give him an opportunity and see if he can make the grade.
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