Cork hurling talking points: From missed goal chances to new jerseys
Cork’s Conor Cahalane turns Darragh Egerton of Westmeath. Picture: INPHO/Evan Treacy
For the third straight league game, Cork scored more goals than their opponents – they have now raised eight green flags and conceded just three – but, if there was an ‘expected goals’ metric used in GAA, their return of two against Westmeath would surely have fallen below it.
While Shane Kingston and Shane Barrett both netted in the first half, each had another opportunity saved by Westmeath goalkeeper Noel Conaty and the netminder also denied Pádraig Power in the second half when a goal looked a probability.
Cork could afford those misses in this game, where they led from pillar to post, but ruthlessness will be needed in bigger games further down the line. A positive at the other end was the fact that Cork's defending meant that Patrick Collins didn't have a save to make, though management will feel that the level of scoreable frees given away was too much.
Cork’s starting lineup features four players – league debutants Ethan Twomey and Ben Cunningham, Conor Cahalane and Brian Hayes – from county champions St Finbarr’s, while Cahalane’s older brother Damien might have featured too but for injury.
hurling fans will be saying novenas that Ben O’Connor can be added to the ‘Blues for reds’ (to paraphrase Gemma O’Connor’s Twitter account) ranks, though it looks as though his future might be more rugby-inclined. William Buckley is another of the young turks on the county-winning team that could make the step up in the future.
While one might have expected Cork to change jerseys against Westmeath based on a colour-clash, it was the visitors who donned an alternative strip, lining out in green jerseys (representing Leinster) with an Ajax-style central stripe in the county’s traditional colour of maroon.
Cork did have an alteration of sorts, though, as the hurlers and footballers had jerseys bearing the logo of Cork ARC Charity Support House while the match programme also heavily featured the initiative. There was nobody in Páirc yesterday whose lives have not been affected by cancer to some degree and if this raising of awareness helped even person then it will have been worth it.
Credit must also go to regular shirt sponsors Sports Direct, who gave up their usual spot so as to allow the Cork ARC marking to have prominence. All going well, one could foresee a situation where one league game a year would see the advertising space used for good causes.
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