Cork v Waterford: Christy O'Connor on how Rebels can fix issues exposed by Limerick
MY BALL: Ger Mellerick of Cork defends against Stephen Bennett of Waterford at Walsh Park. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Prior to last Sunday, the last time Cork had lost a Munster championship game, the manner of the defeat to Clare in April 2024 wasn’t as debilitating as it initially appeared – to the players and management anyway.
In the eyes of the public though, it was doomsday stuff. Cork had zero points from their first two games. Limerick were next up in round 3. Anything other than a victory and Cork were out of the championship.
And still, Cork consoled themselves with how they’d performed against Clare.
“We were delighted with how well we played against Clare, especially in the first 50 minutes,” said Pat Ryan last September. “The players took great heart from it, which gave us great confidence going in against Limerick.”
Ryan felt that Cork “would win”, which they did. A year on though, after losing a first Munster championship match in the meantime - a 16-point whipping from Limerick - how confident are Cork going into Sunday’s match against Waterford?
Last May, Cork had to win, Limerick didn’t.
Twelve months on, Cork have to win again – but so do their opponents.
For all the brilliant hurling Cork played earlier this year, the team is not playing anywhere as well now as they were this time last year.
Too many players are not operating anywhere close to the levels they reached in 2024; Shane Barrett, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Eoin and Rob Downey, Alan Connolly, Ciarán Joyce.
Cork’s best defender during the league – Niall O’Leary – is out injured. So is Declan Dalton.
Seamus Harnedy was one of the tiny handful of players to emerge with credit last Sunday, but he still doesn’t seem to be operating at full fitness. Neither does Rob Downey. He may be the team captain but, fitness issues apart, Downey has still been taken off in Cork’s last three games, either by half-time, or early into the second half.
Was fitness concerns the reason Cork didn’t start Downey at centre-back last Sunday? Or did the Cork management think that Ciarán Joyce was a better match-up for Cian Lynch than Downey?
Lynch is unmarkable at the moment, but that match-up certainly didn’t work for Cork.
It's easy to make excuses for Cork’s insipid display on Sunday. It was a game they didn’t have to win. Cork were coming off the back of a three-week break, where training was heavily disrupted by injuries. Limerick were hell-bent on atonement after last year.
Yet there are no excuses for the manner of Cork’s capitulation, and how much they were physically bullied and beaten up by Limerick. If it was only a challenge game, Cork would be disgusted to only score once – a goal from a free – in the last 22 minutes. So how can they justify only one score in that time-span of such a huge Munster championship match?
Getting physically outmuscled to that degree has again raised all the old questions that Cork’s struggles to win an All-Ireland has left so open-ended. Are the old cracks opening up?
Cork’s principles have left them wedded to the three-man full-forward line but that set=up negates Cork’s ability to cover the middle of the field. When Limerick had an extra body around the middle of the field last Sunday, Cork’s biggest issue – especially in the first half – was that too many players weren’t fully sure who they were supposed to be picking up.
When Limerick brought so many bodies inside their own half on their own puck-out, they were able to pick Cork off in too much open space at the other end.
Restricting Brian Hayes goes a long way now towards shutting down Cork.
And Waterford have a player – Conor Prunty – with the physical attributes to keep the ball out of Hayes’ hand. Even if Hayes goes to the corner, Waterford have the option of moving Mark Fitzgerald to full-back on Connolly.
Fitzgibbon will always be a threat at centre-forward but moving Barrett out of that position looks to have back-fired – because Barrett is better in a central position. Fitzgibbon is too, but they could do with Fitzgibbon’s presence back at midfield alongside Tim O’Mahony. Especially when that midfield partnership worked so well together last year, and earlier this year.
One match shouldn’t cloud what Cork have done, and what they’re still capable of doing this year, but the dangers of a defeat like last Sunday is not only the psychological damage it could do to Cork, but the psychological boost it could give to Waterford.
At the outset of the championship, the last thing Waterford needed was to be going to Páirc Uí Chaoimh looking for two points to ensure their progress. That’s still a huge challenge, but it doesn’t look as daunting now.
Cork are lucky that this game in on in the Park, which has been a fortress over the last year. Yet the longer Waterford stay in game, the more the pressure will increase on Cork. If it reaches boiling point, the crowd then could become as much of a hindrance as a help to the players.
Still, despite all the risk and jeopardy around this game, it’s just as well for Cork that this is a knockout game with everything on the line, just it was against Limerick last May.
Last Sunday proved that when Cork are not fighting on their backs, and are not going at full throttle, they are capable of being run off the road.
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