Cork hurlers have finally got right blend of youth and experience in the team
Seamus Harnedy of Cork in action against Gearóid Hegarty of Limerick. Picture: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
WHILE Cork fans will still be basking from the afterglow of the wonderful victory over Limerick, the grim reality is that there are no guarantees whatsoever that Cork will actually emerge out of the province into the All-Ireland series.
We do know that Pat Ryan’s side have to back up Saturday's victory with another win over Tipperary on Sunday at Semple Stadium or else their season is over, and the scalping of Limerick will have been in vain, but even a win there guarantees nothing.
Results in the other Munster round-robin fixtures will also have to go Cork's way. There are too many potential permutations to list them all.
For example though, should Clare lose one of their final two games to Waterford or Tipperary then Cork might find themselves exiting the championship regardless of what they do themselves, as they would end up going out on a head-to-head against the Banner.
Clare and Limerick could both still get knocked out, but the cleanest way of Cork progressing would be for those two rivals to win their remaining games, which would mean four points would be enough for Cork to qualify.
The final placings in Munster could well go down to the wire, however, and the only thing that Cork can do is to control the controllables, with the Tipp game now being essentially a knockout tie from a Cork perspective.
We could end up with a bizarre scenario where a team that has beaten the five-in-a-row chasing Limerick side do not make the All-Ireland series, while teams that lost and drew with Antrim and Carlow are at the business end of the championship. No disrespect to the likes of Antrim and Carlow, as everyone who loves hurling wants to see them making strides, but they are not Limerick.
The Cork management have been criticised for some of their decision-making in the opening two matches against Waterford and Clare, but they have to be commended for getting things right on Saturday.
Having seen Damien Cahalane and Sean O’Donoghue getting sent off for two bookable offences in those two losses they were taking absolutely no chances when Eoin Downey picked up an early yellow for a 'tangle' with Seamus Flanagan. They withdrew the Glen defender for Cahalane, which may have been harsh on Downey, but the switch reduced the odds of Cork being reduced to 14 men again, and therefore it was the right call, as this is something that could not happen a third time.
We can expect Downey to start against Tipp though, given that Seamus Flanagan did wreck in his absence, with him bagging 3-3.
It is easy to say this after a late comeback victory, but the Cork substitutions worked a treat on Saturday night, with Shane Kingston being the obvious headline grabber with his scorching run forcing the match-winning penalty for Patrick Horgan.
Ger Millerick was the right man to come on when Gearoid Hegarty was threatening to bend the game to his will, while Brian Roche and Tommy O’Connell provided badly needed energy in the middle eight late on.
Declan Hannon is one of the greatest hurlers of his generation, but he probably wouldn’t mind not seeing Shane Barrett again for a while. The Blarney man came on as a sub in the 2021 All-Ireland final, but he looked like the U20 player he was back then. He's a completely different animal now, and has the size, pace and work-rate to trouble any team, and with him now regularly contributing in the scoring stakes he has become an extremely important player on this Cork team right now.
At the start of the year, Cork were crying out for the likes of Hayes and Barrett to stand up, be counted, and to really and truly grab a jersey, and they have certainly done that.
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