Cork v Tipperary: Defensive improvement as important for hurlers as goal threat

On the Monday after Cork played Galway in their final regular league game two weeks ago, Anthony Daly addressed the issue of the increasing hype around Cork in his Irish Examiner column.

Daly began by detailing some of the stick he got on the day of the game when hordes of Cork supporters – including some Cork friends - interpreted his words as Daly trying to set Cork up ahead their trip to Ennis on Easter Sunday. 

Daly disagreed. What he had written that day was more or less what happened later on that evening. How was that loading bullets into a gun-chamber?

“Cork people can say all they want that I’m setting them up but what else do they expect me to say?” asked Daly. “If I was giving them stick, they’d be saying that I was running them down or not giving them more credit than they deserve. I’m just calling it as I see it.” 

The evidence was pretty obvious. Daly wrote on the Saturday about Cork’s lethal goal threat and how they were gunning teams down with green flags. 

Hours later, Cork blew Galway away with goals.

“No matter what I say anyway, Cork are going to find it hard to keep a lid on the hype,” wrote Daly on the Monday. 

“I’m not adding to the hype. Cork are doing that themselves by playing as well as they are. And they’re not just winning – they’re blowing teams out of the water. 

"How do you row that back? You can’t. Nobody in Cork wants them to.” 

BELIEVE THE HYPE

Even if they wanted to try and keep a lid on the hype now, Cork couldn’t get anywhere close to managing it. 

How could they? A sellout Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Tipperary? 

A league final – especially when Cork haven’t won an All-Ireland in 20 years – shouldn’t matter this much. But it does.

Nobody in Cork is worried about getting carried away. 

Nobody is fretting about how a league title may set Cork up for a fall and the anticipated payback Clare have lined up on Easter Sunday after the hammering they took from Cork in Ennis four weeks ago.

That’s just how Cork people think. Call it arrogance, confidence or an inherent birthright – even after going two decades without an All-Ireland – Cork just expect to win. Especially when they think they’re good enough.

Before last year’s All-Ireland final, confidence was never as high around the county, especially after having beaten Limerick twice. Did that over-confidence seep into the squad ahead of the final? No. 

Cork didn’t win because Clare were marginally better on the day.

Cork have just got better since. They have got even better again since losing to Tipperary in late February, radically improving the areas where Cork struggled that night, but which have been pivotal to their progress since; defending runners coming through the centre of their defence; the quality of ball going into their full-forward line; and goalscoring.

Cork have been scoring goals for fun but their defence has improved just as much as the league has progressed. 

Niall O’Leary has been outstanding. Rob Downey has also gone to another level. Seán O’Donoghue has responded really well since coming back from injury. Cormac O’Brien may not start in championship but he has done really well this spring.

Management have also used this campaign to evolve the team’s style and structure. 

Tim O’Mahony’s form and increasing status at midfield has given Pat Ryan and his management the licence to look at Darragh Fitzgibbon at centre-forward and Shane Barrett on the wing, a move that worked well against Galway.

Ethan Twomey’s ability to get on the ball and use it well facilitates that move of Fitzgibbon to the half-forward line and Declan Dalton to the full-forward line, though the big surprise is that Brian Hayes is named to start on Sunday instead. Hayes would have been a huge loss but there are still loads of goals in this team. 

Tipp have more pace in their side now and they’ll be far better structurally set up than they were when Cork blitzed them last May. 

But Cork will be confident of opening Tipp up. If they’d been more polished in Thurles seven weeks ago, Cork could have had at least five goals. An Cork are applying that polish now.

PRESSURE

A home national final increases the pressure on Cork to win but that pressure is already there for reasons of more than just expectation. 

After losing three national finals in the last four years, the timing of this decider heightens the potential risk and fallout of losing.

Losing the 2022 league final to Waterford did huge damage to the team’s confidence in the first two rounds of that Munster championship, when Cork were hammered by Limerick and beaten much more convincingly by Clare than the final score suggested.

On the other hand, this team is more worldly and experienced now, with their response to losing last year’s All-Ireland final underlining how well-equipped Cork now are towards dealing with adversity and emerging stronger from it.

In any case, Cork won’t have even countenanced losing here. 

The team have been outstanding in this campaign. Cork look to be on another level but can they go up another couple of levels again for the championship? Are their more gears there?

Those questions will be answered over the summer but none of that is relevant now. 

Cork will expect to win a first league title in 27 years. And when Pat Ryan’s side more than likely do, the supporters won’t see it as hype leading into the championship.

That’s just Cork confidence. 

And you can’t keep a lid on that.