Cork v Limerick: Competition for places driving panel, says Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman’s first two years as a starter on the Cork senior hurling team, 2017 and 2018, yielded Munster titles.

Since then, however, the provincial crown has been the sole preserve of Limerick and Saturday’s final at TUS Gaelic Grounds will be the Rebels’ first appearance in the decider in seven years.

Coleman couldn’t have foreseen such a gap materialising.

“No, certainly not at the time,” he said.

“It seemed like it was, I suppose, for my career, anyway, it was a great start, like, and you think it was going to happen the whole time, but it's great to be back in another one.

You kind of probably took it for granted at the time and didn't really appreciate it for otherwise so it's nice to be back.”

Coleman is likely to be in the number 7 shirt on Saturday, as he has been for most of the past decade, though that grip hasn’t always been secure in recent times.

With injury limiting the Blarney man’s appearances during Cork’s successful Allianz Hurling League campaign, Cormac O’Brien played so well in his stead that the Newtownshandrum man started the final with Coleman coming on.

However, O’Brien himself suffered an injury between then and the start of the championship, allowing Coleman to reclaim the spot. He feels that the competition for places is mutually beneficial.

“A hundred percent, yeah, and I've definitely benefited from myself, personally.

“I was out of the team for the league final, and I suppose, unluckily for Cormac, he just picked up an injury before the Clare game, he probably would have been starting out as well.

Something Pat always says, 'the next man up', and it’s just about trying to take the opportunity.

“There's probably five fellas for every line on the pitch, minimum – even more, going into the depth of the panel.

“You saw we had three or four fellas injured for the Waterford game, and we had three or four started, another new three or four came on, that strength in depth is important.

DIFFICULT

“When you're training, no matter who you're marking, you're marking a top-class forward, it's very difficult training around here, to be honest.

“It has to be beneficial, driving fellas on.”

Coleman and Cork will hope that that helps to bring a stronger performance on Saturday than the visit to Limerick three weeks ago, when the hosts triumphed by 16 points.

“I think we just met them on a very good day and we were probably maybe five or ten percent off,” he says, “but it looks like you might as well be 60 or 70 percent off if you're five percent off against them. They'll take you apart.

FORWARD

“It's good to be able to go back up and rectify it and that it wasn't fatal.

“We’ve played it on many occasions where we were off it and we were knocked out of the championship, so it's good to get those learnings and be able to bring it forward into the championship.”

With so much on the line, it’s understandable that Coleman’s life at the moment doesn’t allow for much beyond work and inter-county commitments. Not that he minds too much, though.

“We'd be training, probably four times a week, so a lot of days are just planning, a lot of evenings are planning for the next day, just getting our food and getting our gear ready, going straight from work to training and stuff like that,” he says.

“The days you're not training, you're recovering, you're swimming, you're doing your bits and pieces, doing your personal gym-work at home.

Everyone always says to me, ‘Jesus, it’s some sacrifice,’ but I don't see it as a sacrifice at all.

“You're coming in here, you're training at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, out pucking beforehand and you're just training with your friends, sure it's enjoyable, it's no sacrifice.”