Shane Barrett: Do-or-die nature brought out best in Cork but they must do it again

Shane Barrett feels that being in a backs-to-the-wall scenario brought out the best in the Cork hurlers on Saturday night – but he knows that one result counts for little on its own.

Having lost away to Waterford and at home to Clare, Cork had no margin for error left when they faced Limerick on Saturday evening at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Fighting for their championship lives led to Cork producing a stunning display as the All-Ireland champions were beaten by 3-28 to 3-26. It was the Rebels’ first championship win in six matches and a first against Limerick since 2019.

However, as impressive and enjoyable as it was, it was still only part of the task. Cork are still in a position where nothing but a win will suffice when they play their final round-robin game, against Tipperary this Sunday (4pm).

The hope is that, as with Saturday, the knife-edge nature of the fixture will ensure that Cork are ready for another tough examination.

“I suppose we always say that that’s when we’ve been at our best over the last two or three years,” Barrett said.

“Look, we were in this position in 2022 as well, we lost the first two games, dusted ourselves down and beat Waterford and then things opened up.

“You need a bit of luck – it’s still probably out of our control a little bit, all we can do is go up to Thurles next week and hopefully put in a performance.

“The last two weeks, we met up after the Clare game and just said, ‘Who cares, we want to put in a performance against a Limerick team going for five in a row.’

“If you couldn’t get up for a game like that, with a glimmer of hope of qualifying if we won our two games, you’re in the wrong sport.

“That was our approach the last two weeks.”

The end of Saturday night’s game saw the stands and terraces empty on to the pitch as the Cork supporters hailed the marvellous result.

While the 19-year wait for an All-Ireland title has been well-documented, the current group of players have endured near misses across the last two championships.

Before Saturday, the previous four championship games had all ended in defeat but with an aggregate margin of just seven points. Finally, they came out on the right side of a close match and Barrett was delighted to see what it meant to the fans.

Equally, he knows that it must be backed up.

“Yeah, 100 percent,” he said.

“You could see what it meant to the people of Cork there, the outpouring of emotion that’s probably been held inside them for the last God-knows-how-long but, particularly with this group, the last year, being on the wrong side of results – one more point last year and we’d have got out of Munster.

“Obviously, to get a day like Saturday is very special, obviously we’ll remember it for the rest of our careers, but at the end of the day it’s only two points and we regroup and we go again next week.

“If we don’t go up to Thurles next week and perform, what was the point?

“We’ll regroup, analyse it and dust it off and then go hard for Tipperary next week.”

It’s likely that the game was the last inter-county hurling match in the Páirc for 2024 and the team won’t have the opportunity to train on it this week either as preparations are made for Thursday night’s Bruce Springsteen concert.

For the ‘real’ Boss, Cork manager Pat Ryan, it’s not a major issue.

“In fairness to the county board, they’ve been brilliant to us,” he said.

“We train here an awful lot and that made a huge difference to our performance, being able to come in here.

“Obviously, it’s hard to get access to it at times but we’ve a fantastic facility and you see what it’s like when it’s rocking here.

“There’s been a lot of criticism of Páirc Uí Chaoimh down through the years but, when you get games like that, it’s a pity we don’t fill it enough.”