How to pick the Cork hurling team? Go for the players fully fit and in form at training
Patrick Horgan and the Cork hurlers before the Kilkenny game in the Páirc. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
LITTLE will have been learned from Cork’s bloodless 5-28 to 0-16 rout of Offaly in Tullamore on Sunday in terms of Cork’s championship credentials.
Hopefully, though, it is a sign that Pat Ryan’s side are starting to move up through the gears with next month’s Munster championship opener against Waterford looming on the horizon.
Ultimately, no one is going to lose the run of themselves off the back of a facile win against a poor Offaly side who could only manage five points from play over 70-odd minutes. This fixture merely served as a good run out and got decent game-time into several players like Declan Dalton, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Alan Connolly who were returning from lengthy spells out.
The headline-grabber was undoubtedly Connolly, with the 3-1 tally he bagged from play, in his time on the pitch. The Rockies attacker missed all of last year’s campaign due to injury and Cork certainly missed his eye for goal in their key fixtures that went down to the wire in 2023, that ended up being so costly.
If Cork manager Pat Ryan can get a full bill of health for the round-robin Munster championship campaign it will be certainly interesting to see how the Cork full forward line is configured, as you would imagine a front three of Robbie O’Flynn, Connolly and Brian Hayes, who pilfered 1-1 himself after replacing Connolly on the 58th minute, would offer a huge goal threat, which could well be the difference between getting out of the province, or not.
Of course, that would mean no starting place for Patrick Horgan, and it is hard to imagine the Glen man missing out, but there are certainly options aplenty for Ryan now.
Fr O’Neill’s Declan Dalton notched seven points on his own return to the team, and you imagine his hurling will sharpen up even further with another few games under his belt, while his replacement Darragh Fitzgibbon also looked extremely lively given that it was his first appearance of the season, with his quickfire 1-1 late on.
One thing that Sunday’s game in Tullamore probably did tell us is that certain members of the panel are unlikely to have huge involvement in the championship now given their lack of game time in the league to date.
We only have next weekend’s away trip to Wexford remaining and we haven’t seen Daire O’Leary at all, Conor O’Callaghan only got the one run out against Kilkenny, and that was out of position in midfield. Micheál Mullins and Eoin Carey have barely been seen, while Robbie Cotter appears to be down the pecking order up front, despite the run in Offaly.
You would imagine that the odds are now against them in terms of having big roles to play in 2024.
The late selection of Tim O’Mahony at centre-back, in place of Ciaran Joyce, will have raised eyebrows, and it has probably been confirmed at this stage where the Newtownshandrum man will be deployed. Many observers would have been expecting him to be used in the half-forward sector.
With the likes of Dalton, Fitzgibbon, Seamus Harnedy, Sean Twomey, Ben Cunningham, Conor Lehane, Shane Kingston and Shane Barrett options there, he is obviously seen as more useful for Cork right now as a defender, at wing-back, assuming Joyce is available.
Should Waterford beat Kilkenny at Walsh Park next Saturday then the winners of Wexford-Cork will secure a semi-final spot in the league, so there could potentially be more than just the league points up for grabs.
Cork can expect a much stiffer challenge down in Wexford Park next Sunday. Liam Rossiter’s charges will have been targeting the Cork game as a chance to test their championship credentials, and Pat Ryan will get a better barometer of Cork’s state of health from that trip than he did from the long trek to Tullamore.
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