John Horgan on hurling: Battle for places in Cork forward line has never been tougher

When the knockout stage of a national competition is reached, the expectation is that the fare on offer will provide us with a game that would be at least competitive, entertaining, maybe absorbing and wouldn't be decided until its latter stages.

Whilst it's still very early in the season, the expectation was that Cork and Galway last Saturday night at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh would deliver for the 20,000 that turned up with a lot of the above.

With the semi-finals in this season's campaign having been dispensed with, the top two teams at the group stage going through to the final, this encounter was, however, a semi-final in all but name.

A league campaign is never going to come near what the fierce intensity that the championship brings and, for the most part, it is quickly forgotten when the stakes are raised considerably higher.

This season's NHL is not going to be that fondly remembered either unless Cork and Tipperary can up the ante to a far greater degree in the final because thus far we have had far too many games that were decided long before the last whistle sounded.

The games involving Tipperary and Galway, Kilkenny and Wexford, Limerick and Kilkenny, Limerick and Galway and Cork against Clare were all too lopsided, one team far superior to their opponents on the scoreboard and the issue decided far too prematurely.

Now, Cork against Galway last Saturday night can be added to that list, four goals dividing the teams after the 70 minutes and the game rendered as a foregone conclusion a long way out.

Cork, of course, must be exonerated from any blame for the vast difference in the scoreline at the finish.

They were, by far the superior team from early in the proceedings, more concentrated and once the Galway net started to rattle it was effectively game over.

This was the third time in this league campaign that Galway have found themselves at the wrong end of a severe battering and it certainly has provided their supporters with a lot more questions than answers before their voyage in the Leinster championship begins.

In fact, when Cork banged in their brace of goals early in the opening half against a strong wind one got the sense that there was only going to be one outcome, a home victory without having to endure any real type of a searching examination.

Galway did manufacture a few goal chances of their own but nothing of any great significance materialised from them and going to the dressing room those two goals in arrears, the portents did not look good.

Both of Cork's first-half goals were well invented and the execution from Brian Hayes and Darragh Fitzgibbon was equally efficient.

CREATIVE

Patrick Horgan's ability to create space for himself and others was a feature of the early proceedings and this was another occasion when the Glen Rovers player exhibited all that is good and creative in attacking play, his tally of 1-9 speaks for itself.

Shane Barrett too continued his excellent form in the number 11 jersey and it is going to be fascinating to see how it all unfolds as far as the starting six for the championship opener against Clare next month is concerned. In all my time, as a young supporter back in the day and subsequently as a reporter for this newspaper, the competition for places in the attack has never been as great.

That was something that Patrick Horgan alluded to last week in Croke Park at the launch of the Féile.

On current form, he is a nailed-on starter.

Blasting home four goals to add to the six that they rammed past Clare in Ennis will have opposing defenders on red alert when the far more serious stuff begins and there is a confident streak now running through this Cork attack that has to provide plenty of cautious optimism going forward.

And we stress the word cautious because in the thundering intensity of the Munster championship the story is likely to be much different with no guarantees no matter how well the secondary competition has gone.

And it has gone very well for Pat Ryan's team thus far, very progressive with four wins, one draw and just the one loss has to represent a job well done.

Of course, their final opponents from the Premier County have done better, five wins from six and all that sets things up very nicely for what is a staggering statistic, the first meeting of the two counties in a league final in 65 years.

It could be stated without being contradicted that Saturday night's installment lacked any great intensity but that has been the story more often than not in the Division 1A campaign.

Too many games had run their course too early, the outcome all too inevitable but maybe we'll get a humdinger of a final that will help to provide the competition with something to remember it more by.

Cork had the impressive number of 11 different players contributing on the scoreboard and another clean sheet on the goals front says a lot for the defensive unit which was again led superbly by team captain Rob Downey and with Niall O'Leary impressing again.

Getting some game time into the likes of Seamie Harnedy, Alan Connolly and Shane Kingston, Mark Coleman too was another positive takeaway from Saturday night and we have already seen the effectiveness of young Diarmuid Healy against Kilkenny.

CHEER

Harnedy's introduction was greeted with great enthusiasm and the departure of Horgan after his stellar performance arguably drew the biggest Cork cheer of the night.

Where Galway are concerned, they remain the enigma that they have always been with the question usually being posed, what Galway will turn up today and in their three defeats in this league campaign they took very heavy trouncings from Tipp, Limerick and now Cork.

The group stage in both divisions is done and dusted now and without a shadow of a doubt, the best teams in both have emerged and will contest the two finals.

Cork and Tipp seemed to want it a lot more than the other four counties in the top flight and the GAA will certainly be rubbing its hands in anticipation of a huge attendance for the final, maybe even close to a record in the modern era.

And let's be honest, when it's Cork and Tipperary, both currently in such a rich vein of form, colliding in a final that may not be as massively important as the Munster and All-Ireland campaigns will be, the game still takes on a significance and an aura of its own.

Cork and Tipp, down the Marina or in Thurles, it's always an occasion to eagerly look forward to, evoking memories for those of us in the much older category of titanic battles from yesteryear.