Hurlers must raise the floor not the bar if they want to realise Cork's potential

When new Munster head coach Clayton McMillan rocked up to Thomond Park last summer in his first press conference he referenced that Munster needed to focus on “raising the floor instead of raising the bar” in terms of attaining improvements and achieving better results.

After winning their opening five games of the season, it looked like they had done this, although in the past month, it appears as though the floor depth needs addressing once more given an untimely dip in form and fortunes. The statement is one that also could be applied to the Cork hurlers, as they attempt to brush off a second successive All-Ireland final defeat and work towards finally getting over the line.

McMillan described how a successful team needs to get to a situation “when your best day at the office is a 9.5 and a poor one is a seven, not a four or a five”.

A seven in last year’s All-Ireland final probably would have been enough for Cork to win, but in truth minutes 35 to 70 did not even reach four or five levels, as the Cork challenge wilted in the face of the frantic Tipperary onslaught.

Cork’s stats in 2025 were impressive. In the league, they played seven games, winning the final in April against Tipp by 10 points.

They lost just the one game in February, away to Tipperary at Semple Stadium, in what was one of those flat league performances that has everyone wondering on the “heaviness” of recent training sessions.

Cork headed to Clare and were 12 up yet needed a last-gasp Declan Dalton free to level it and allow them to escape with a point. A 9.5 first-half performance followed by a 3/10 display.

They beat Tipp by 15 before they received an unmerciless 16-point hammering from Limerick in their next game.

Cork had been 15 points down at half-time at the Gaelic Grounds. Game over, with 35 minutes to go. To their credit, they did play with pride in the second half to stem the flow, but they were never coming back after a first half performance that was possibly flirting with a 2/10 rating.

Victories over Waterford and then Limerick, in the Munster final, saw the bar being raised, before they destroyed Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final with another one of those 9.5 showings that we all know they are capable of. And then the All-Ireland, which we all obviously want to move on from, where a 7/10 first half was followed by a second-half display that some might argue did not deserve more than 1 mark.

Ben O’Connor’s biggest challenge as new Cork manager is to rid this Cork team of these gigantic fadeouts that they experience too frequently.

Perhaps one of the reasons Cork can be so vulnerable to these is the fact that they can be too brave in their approach, persisting with the three-man full-forward line regardless of how a game was going, which way the wind was blowing or how the scoreboard looked.

BALANCE

A degree of pragmatism needs to be introduced. Cork can still go after teams with the three-man attack, but if playing against a sweeper or a stiff breeze, then plans need altering, even if that is just to turn those 12- to 15-point bleeds into the concession of seven or eight points instead.

Or to look at it a different way, to raise the floor by turning a 3/10 performance into a 7/10 one that keeps you in the game.

The retirement of Patrick Horgan arguably makes it easier for Cork to be more adaptable in 2026.

The Glen Rovers legend had to play in a three to get the best out of his considerable talents, but you can imagine a scenario going forward where players such as Declan Dalton, Barry Walsh, William Buckley and Robbie O’Flynn are comfortable playing up top or in the half-forward line? 

Cork should be able to alter their approach within games more easily.

Going to a two-man full forward line, when needs must, would allow Cork to get more bodies in around midfield, which should straight away see Cork’s concession rates drop when they are taking punches.

This is where opportunity knocks for the likes of Brian O’Sullivan, Tommy O’Connell, Brian Roche, and Micheál Mullins, as these players possess the type of work-rate required around the middle to help Cork raise the bar when needed.