Cork v Limerick: Conversion of goal chances likely to be key

Speaking at the launch of the Munster championships in Cahir at the end of March, Cork manager Pat Ryan spoke of the importance of scoring goals.

“From our point of view, if we want to be successful this year, we’ll need to be scoring three or four goals,” he said.

“If you want to be doing anything really in championship, I think you need to be scoring three or four goals to be winning your games.”

In the four championship games Cork played in 2023, they scored eight goals – though somewhat ironically the only victory, at home to Waterford, was the game where they failed to raise a green flag.

Against Waterford in this year’s opener on April 21, Cork managed just one goal, an individual effort by Alan Connolly late on, and there were not many other opportunities created.

The engineering of chances was much improved against Clare a week later. Even so, they had failed to fully capitalise on opportunities for Darragh Fitzgibbon, Patrick Horgan and Alan Connolly before Horgan found the net early in the second half.

Shane Barrett was unlucky not to add a second goal soon after that, in a period where Cork were in the ascendancy.

While Horgan, from a free, and Robert Downey did have late goals, they came at a time when Cork were chasing the game and three-pointers were an absolute necessity. They might have even stolen victory when Damien Cahalane had a late shot that was blocked by Clare’s Mark Rodgers.

Now, with survival on the line against Limerick this evening in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (7pm), Ryan knows that sightings of goals are likely to be at a premium and he wants to see a high conversion rate.

“That was one thing we took away from Walsh Park, that we’d have been disappointed with,” he said.

“We’ve been getting goals all year and we got goals last year. You have to give credit to Waterford as well but we just didn’t get the ball in enough. We had too many wides in that period below in Waterford and that’s what ultimately hurt us.

“I think we got a lot of dangerous ball in the last day, we got a lot of our runners through, and pure efficiency let us down. Obviously, there was good defending as well and good goalkeeping from Clare but, from our point of view, if you want to be beating the All-Ireland champions you can’t be taking one out of five chances.

“They mightn’t even give you five chances – if they give you four, you need to be taking three out of those four; they might only give you three and you need to be taking all of them.

“It’s something we’ve been working on and trying to make sure that our efficiency is high, but at the same time, you have to keep the scoreboard ticking over against them, too.”

Against a team as aerially impressive as Limerick, it will also be important for Cork to win their puckouts.

While Clare seized upon Cork’s restarts in the second half a fortnight ago, Ryan makes the point that much of that was to do with the fact that Cork were down to 14 players following Seán O’Donoghue’s red card.

“If you look at the percentages in the first half, when we were playing with 15 v 15, we did extremely well on our long puckout,” he said.

“In most of the games, it breaks 50-50 and I’d more concerned that we’re not turning the ball over enough in the opposition defence. That’s where you get more scores.

“Obviously, we were playing 14 v 15 the last day, it ends up being a hard thing. In fairness, Clare pushed up on us and you’re forced to go long, with no threat of going short.

“Then, you have to win your ball 50-50 because all they need to be able to do is just recycle it back to the spare man. That’s what happened a good bit in the second half.

“It’s about being more clinical in what we want to do as well in those periods. That’s what Limerick are brilliant at, in the last 15 minutes of games they put the pressure on you.

“That’s what we need to get back to but we need to be disciplined in our approach and make sure we keep 15 fellas on the field. Then that gives you a chance to take them on.”