How will Cork hurlers cope if Tipperary go for a sweeper again?

All roads lead to Thurles on Sunday for the Munster Hurling Championship, with the prospect of a rare close championship encounter between Tipperary and Cork.

The Cork-Tipperary hurling rivalry goes all the way back to the 1880s and is one of the most celebrated in the history of the GAA. However, bizarrely, there has been a real lack of niggle and regular competitive games between the two proud counties since the early 1990s, with recent results being prime examples.

They fought out a thrilling draw in May 2023, with Cork scoring four goals through Declan Dalton, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Robbie O’Flynn and Brian Hayes in a 4-19 to 2-25 cracker, but in all the other recent championship encounters between the two, the result has been a blowout victory for one over the other.

Cork triumphed by 3-30 to 1-24 in 2022. They then won by 4-30 to 1-21 in 2024 and 4-27 to 0-24 in last year’s Munster round robin, while Tipp famously overturned that result in last year’s All-Ireland, 3-27 to 1-18.

Add in last year’s league final, when Cork comfortably won by 3-24 to 0-23, and that is five out of six encounters that have been of damp squibs.

All Cork fans can still feel the sting from last year at Croke Park, so they require no reminder of that loss. Given the trauma of that defeat, it is difficult to remember that Tipperary went into that game extremely nervous given Cork had destroyed them in four out of five of the previous big games.

Strangely, both sets of supporters will probably feel a sense of vulnerability prior to throw-in, as neither set knows what to expect on Sunday.

Barry Walsh’s withdrawal from the Cork U20 team, for their midweek tie in Waterford, means we can be fairly sure that the Killeagh youngster will start on Sunday, probably in one of the wing-forward berths. William Buckley appears to have the right corner-forward slot nailed down after his impressive showing against Limerick in the league final, when he slotted three crisp points.

CLEAN

That would obviously have ramifications for either Seamus Harnedy or Darragh Fitzgibbon, as it might mean that Harnedy might be kept in reserve as a second-half impact sub, or it may mean captain Fitzgibbon is about to be restored to midfield to get him into the game. The first of those would appear to be the cleanest of switches, as moving Fitzgibbon would have further repercussions for Tommy O’Connell and Tim O’Mahony’s roles, meaning there would be a lot of moving parts.

The personnel are only half the story, as a major focus will be on how Cork set up, especially so if Liam Cahill’s side deploy a sweeper again.

Cork completely failed to figure out their way around Tipp’s packed defence last July. You would expect that Tipp would be quite happy to ask the question once more and see if Cork have come up with the solutions in the interim.

It is likely Shane Barrett, Walsh and Fitzgibbon would drop deep to shoot from distance, with William Buckley drifting into pockets of space, in that scenario. It would certainly be worrying if Cork continued to go early and long and got cleaned out by the Tipperary defence once more.

One of the advantages of the Cork half-forward line coming out would be choking the space Tipp enjoyed in Croke Park last year.

In the league final, the Cork full-back line was left exposed, with Aaron Gillane running riot. The expectation is that Rob Downey will sit in a much deeper position from now on to help cut out the supply to the inside forwards.

Ciáran Joyce looked extremely impressive in shutting out Shane O’Brien in the league final in the full-back position, so he is likely to be deployed there going forward, and definitely while Dáire O’Leary and Sean O’Donoghue are probably unavailable.

Their absences have opened up an opportunity for Ger Millerick to display his man-marking skills. Given Tipp’s excellent stick passing prowess himself and Joyce can certainly expect to be tested.