Cork hurlers can still get their season back on track

NOT too many would have had money on a Cork win against Limerick in the Munster hurling semi-final and sadly they were proved right.

But for commitment and effort, you certainly can't fault the Rebels effort on the day.

The concession of the two goals in first-half injury time were killer blows and ones they never recovered from. The second wouldn't have come had the ref blown after the time he had indicated for stoppage time was up, but that's something you can't really dwell on.

In fairness to Cork they didn't deserve to be down by six at the break as they had played well, but a number of mistakes cost them dearly, ironically mistakes by forwards not defenders.

Eoin Cadogan, Damien Cahalane and Sean O'Donoghue had done impressive jobs on keeping Tom Morrissey, Seamus Flanagan (who did get two points) and Aaron Gillane quiet and they were far from the influence Limerick would have hoped for. To their credit they maintained that all through and it's not too often you see all three being called ashore.

Defensively Cork were very much on top in the opening quarter, particularly the full-back line, with two of Limerick's four points coming from frees.

COSTLY ERRORS

Mistakes by Cork led to the other two, but they were ones made up front when perfect passes from Collins were fumbled and Limerick split the posts on both occasions.

After the water break Cork we still motoring well and when Conor Cahalane was taken down for a penalty it was looking good for the Rebels.

Peter Casey found himself in the sin but when Nickie Quaid saved Horgan's penalty it boosted his side and seemed to deflate Cork.

In the 10 minutes Casey was off the pitch they outscored Cork by four points to two, again with a number of mistakes costing the Rebels. By half-time it was not looking good as those two late goals had us in real trouble.

Again it was fumbling on the ball by Cork that led to the first goal, but in fairness, there was little Cork could do about the second, a superb strike by Kyle Hayes.

Again the second half was a tight affair and a few more avoidable errors proved costly for Cork. Did the players mean to make them of course not, but they proved costly.

THROUGH THE BACK DOOR

So we now head for the scenic route again, one that has become a little bit too familiar for Cork in recent years and one they would no doubt prefer to be avoiding.

Now they must wait and see who their opponents will be and with the likes of Galway and Wexford in the equation, it certainly won't be an easy tie.

Looking back there are plenty of positives Cork can take from this one, with their defence looking more solid than it has been in recent times.

It's going to be hard to dislodge the six that started, Niall O'Leary, Tim O'Mahony and Mark Coleman, the other three to those mentioned earlier. All did enough to suggest they will be there again the next day and deserve to be.

Ger Millerick looked like he has solved the 'who will play alongside Darragh Fitzgibbon in the middle of the pitch?' question.

A solid performance from the Fr O'Neill's man would suggest he should make the starting 15 again the next day. But it's from here up that the real questions still exist as to what are our best six starting forwards.

Pencil in Patrick Horgan straight away but after that really it's very much up in the air. Robbie O'Flynn impressed at times as did Jack O'Connor and these three were probably the best of the six that started.

All players can have off days, they are human after all, but we need to have a serious look at this area ahead of whoever we play in two weeks.

Have no doubt that the likes of Alan Cadogan, Luke Meade, Shane Barrett and Alan Connolly will be only bursting to start and have no doubt at least one of them, if not more, will start the next day.

At this stage, to me, Cadogan and Connolly in the corners alongside Hoggie is worth a shot and maybe make the step of moving O'Connor to the half-forward line.

No doubt the Cork management will have a lot to mull over in the coming days, but they can do so with plenty of confidence from midfield back, we just need to add those final pieces up front and hopefully drive on from there.