Cork hurling: Positives and negatives from league opener in Clare
Patrick Horgan of Cork after scoring a goal last Sunday. Picture: INPHO/Natasha Barton
AN extremely poor third quarter cost Cork against Clare on Sunday.
They failed to score for 13 minutes in the second half until a Horgan placed ball, didn't judge the wind when shooting and coughed up a series of cheap frees. Having gone in level, 2-7 to 0-14, at the break, they were 0-21 to 2-8 in arrears after 48 minutes.
Still, a comeback was on the cards, propelled by Seán O'Donoghue and Ciarán Joyce's defensive excellence, the introduction of Shane Barrett and Shane Kingston's sniping around the middle third, until David Fitzgerald brilliantly teed up Seadna Morey's goal.
That issue is ongoing, though conversely some of Cork's best sequences came after Joyce broke from the half-back line.
The delivery up front was better against the gale than with it. As well as raising green flags through Tommy O'Connell, excellent at times, and Patrick Horgan, Robbie O'Flynn blasted the side-netting. Clare could have goaled too, of course, Patrick Collins was fast off his line to pull off a smart stop from Mark Rodgers.
For Clare, winning without Tony Kelly, Shane O'Donnell and John Conlon was the ideal start to the campaign, though Cork were without a host of big names too, including Seamus Harnedy, Tim O'Mahony, Mark Coleman, Damien Cahalane and Darragh Fitzgibbon.
The Rebels had a sprinkling of rookies, with wing-back Cormac O'Brien the pick of them, while Eoin Roche and Eoin Carey also acquitted themselves well. The issues were elsewhere.
The league is being reformatted for 2025, so Cork must finish in the top three to avoid relegation or be the best fourth-placed county from either section. That adds extra bite this spring, as well as the fact this is Pat Ryan's second season which brings additional pressure.
It'll be interesting to see what Ryan and his selectors do when the more experienced hurlers return. Given his exploits with Blarney last season, Coleman is an option as a roaming half-forward while Fitzgibbon can operate in that zone as well.
Twomey was strong in the air on Sunday and worked like a dog on the breaks at the weekend; the opening goal was all his doing.
Conor Lehane was utilised in a playmaking role instead of his usual sharpshooter deployment and against the wind picked up the world of possession, finding pockets of space. He didn't have as much joy further up but clipped one classy score late on. Overall, that opening 35 minutes showed where he might fit in for championship.
Into his 17th league campaign, Horgan's finish for the goal was as clever and clinical as you'd expect and another moment of magic led to a converted free for a foul on Twomey. O'Flynn, back from his injury nightmare, cut a frustrated figure after looking sharp early and it was almost as if he was forcing it a bit.
While Cork have been infuriatingly inconsistent in the modern era of the league, they've made four finals since 2010. They lost all of them of course, including two to Waterford in 2015 and '22 when they completely underperformed, a defeat to an understrength Kilkenny in 2012 and another no-show against Galway two years earlier.
An opening-day loss makes it trickier to get to the league decider but supporters won't be too bothered provided they emerge from the Munster round-robin into the All-Ireland series.
There was a fine crowd of 7,380 at Cusack Park and a good atmosphere for February. It'll be livelier again when Kilkenny are in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night. And they could do with the win after this.
App?
