Cork hurlers begin Munster campaign against Tipp side that experimented in league

Fri, 17 Apr, 2026 - 10:05

Jack McKay

Munster championship is back, and the Cork hurlers get underway this Sunday in Thurles, in a fitting bit of symmetry, beginning where it finished last year, against Tipperary.

After last July, there is only one aim this year, win the one title they couldn’t manage in 2025. And if early indications are anything to go by, they will not be short of backing.

A sizeable allocation of tickets has already been returned from the Premier County, increasing the prospect of a Cork majority crowd inside Semple Stadium, which would give the Cork hurlers a needed boost following the flat performance in the league final and the general room for improvement shown in the league.

But for the All-Ireland champions, their 2026 league campaign was far from impressive.

Tipp used a total of 37 different players across the six games, registered 25 different scorers.

Only two players appeared in all of their fixtures – Andrew Ormond and Darragh Stakelum – but the pair had four and two starts respectively. Jake Morris, Conor Stakelum and Bryan O’Mara had the most starts, with five each.

Cork's Eoin Downey tackles Tipperary's Jason Forde during the Allianz Hurling league division 1A final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh last year. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

On the scoring front, Jason Forde led the way with 3-26 in five games, enough to rank him seventh in the overall scoring charts with an average of 8.75 points per game. Only 2-5 of his tally arrived from play, though.

With placed balls excluded their top scorer was Morris with 1-15, while John McGrath scored the same 2-5 from play as Forde.

Noel McGrath was Tipp’s fourth highest scorer from play with 0-8, despite only one start and three bench appearances.

Five different players scored frees. Forde and McCarthy hit 17 each, Eoghan Connolly scored seven, Jake Morris four and John McGrath two.

Besides Keith Ryan and the one point he scored in his 14 minutes of National League action, John McGrath was the man to put up the highest average points from play figure, with 4.33 PPG from play in the 178 minutes he played.

Four other players registered averages above 3.00 PPG, Noel McGrath (3.73), Stefan Tobin (3.59), Morris (3.36) and Forde (3.12). Morris and Forde were the only players from that top five to start more than one game.

It’s fair to say that Tipp’s scoring returns from the league were quite underwhelming, but so too were their performances. They won three of six but two of those wins were against Offaly and Waterford, who were both relegated. They were sloppy against Cork and decimated by Limerick.

Tipperary’s Jason Forde with fans after the win over Offaly in the league this year. Picture: ©Inpho/Ryan Byrne

DEFENCE

Defensive statistics in the GAA are still primitive. Without tackles, interceptions or passing success rates, it's difficult to look at defenders analytically.

The most useful metric available is points conceded while a player is on the field. Without minute-by-minute data, we distribute scores across minutes played to calculate an average points conceded per game. It's imperfect – a full-back can't be blamed for a midfielder's error at the 65-metre line – but it offers some value.

And so, of the Tipp defenders to play at least 200 minutes in the league, they conceded 23.3 points per game with Johnny Ryan involved, the lowest of any.

With Séamus Kennedy in the team, Tipp’s prorated concession rate climbs to 24.2 PPG, while it’s 24.3 PPG when Michael Breen played. Their highest concession rates from defenders were with Ronan Maher (27.5 PPG) and Eoghan Connolly (29.3 PPG) playing.

Cork hurling talking points: Tipp primed, Fitzgibbon to midfield and Alan Connolly must deliver

There was plenty of experimentation and plenty of rotation, but the champions look far from settled. Whether they’ll come out ready on Sunday or not remains to be seen, but Cork will have every opportunity of getting a win.

Minutes per player in six league games (added time included):

Jake Morris (375),

Bryan O'Mara (374),

Conor Stakelum (342),

Oisín O'Donoghue (314),

Rhys Shelly (300),

Cathal O'Reilly (299),

Andrew Ormond (284),

Séamus Kennedy (269),

Willie Connors (259),

Eoghan Connolly (255),

Sam O'Farrell (255),