Cork hurling talking points: Cutting edge comes to the fore once more in Galway
Tommy O'Connell of Cork celebrates after his side's second goal against Galway at Pearse Stadium. Picture: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Four points on the board, two wins from two, and already Cork have gotten off to quite a happy start to life under Ben O’Connor. Their Allianz Hurling League Division 1A title defence is still in its infancy, but while the performance in Salthill was far from polished, the outcome mattered here.
It was no cruise. Galway dragged Cork into a gritty contest, one that never really settled, and it took two late green strikes from Brian Hayes to finally tilt it towards Cork.
And while the manner of the win raised a few questions, the response from Cork answered others, too.
There were flaws throughout the display. Cork struggled badly for rhythm in the opening half, unable to establish any real foothold as Galway surged into an early lead. Their concession of cheap frees – an issue all evening, but particularly costly down the stretch when Aaron Niland punished each one – will also concern O’Connor and his selectors.
After such an efficient opening-round showing, this was another performance from the Rebels that yielded a seriously impressive scoring return.
Cork finished the night converting 69% of their chances, registering just six wides across the full 70 minutes. It follows on from their opening-day return and leaves them at 50 scores from 75 opportunities across two games – a conversion rate of 66.6%. That is a serious return.
It mattered all the more here because Cork’s start was so poor. After 17 minutes they were staring at a 1-7 to 0-3 deficit and had managed just three shots. Galway were dominant, physically and territorially, but weren’t extracting enough out of their control.
The only reason Cork didn’t find themselves further behind was the sheer number of missed chances Galway registered.
Cathal Mannion was their most prominent shooter especially in the opening act, but he was the most guilty culprit – he had chalked up five wides alone in the first half – while their full-forward line were completely nullified by O’Learys Niall and Daire, along with Eoin Roche.
Cillian Trayers did superb work on Declan Dalton and Galway’s defence functioned well for long spells, but that control began to loosen late on. Brian Hayes found space, Tim O’Mahony imposed himself, and the withdrawal of Daithí Burke was keenly felt as Cork’s physical presence grew.
As in the last outing, Cork’s goals were decisive and beautifully constructed. Hayes’ finishing was composed, but the real beauty was in the build-up.
The first owed everything to Darragh Fitzgibbon’s run from deep. He shook off Cianan Fahy, powered through Daniel Loftus, and slipped the final pass perfectly into Hayes’ path. It was outstanding.
The second was even cleaner. Alan Connolly won the breaking ball on the 45 and drove forward before releasing Shane Barrett. Immediately he offloaded to Fitzgibbon. With a simple handpass across goal, Hayes was in again.
Flow, execution.
It was, ultimately, those two moments of skill that sealed a Cork victory.
It’s worth noting that only 0-1 of Cork’s 2-20 came from a player who didn’t feature in last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Clare, as Brian O’Sullivan contributed a point in the first half, before being withdrawn at the break.
With the exception of 0-1 from Tommy O’Connell and 0-4 from Seamus Harnedy, the rest of Cork’s scoring return came from starters in that final defeat to Tipp. It also should be pointed out that Harnedy would have started the 2025 final, had he not just returned from injury.
It backs up what O’Connor – along with both current and former players – have made clear what needs to change this season.
The quality is already there, embedded across every line of the team. The job now is refinement, not overhaul. Maximising what they can get, and delivering on the big stage.
App?
