Christy O'Connor: Cork need to play much better to beat Limerick, Tipp clash was poor quality

In the aftermath of last Sunday’s Cork-Tipperary match, the TV cameras immediately flashed to Ben O'Connor and stayed focused on the Cork manager for one minute and 17 seconds.

As O’Connor shook hands, exchanged well wishes with Cork supporters, posed for photos and selfies and signed autographs and jerseys, the camera lingered on O’Connor as Joanne Cantwell and her studio analysts, Donal Óg Cusack, Joe Canning and Liam Sheedy, discussed the match.

The camera only switched off O’Connor during William Buckley’s man-of-the-match presentation and interview before immediately returning to O’Connor mingling on the field for another 24 seconds. After a brief interlude and return to Cantwell and her guests in the TV box, the camera then switched back to O’Connor for another 22 seconds.

During all that time, O’Connor was smiling, beaming and basking in the warm afterglow of such an important win. He was naturally soaking up the experience after his first senior championship victory, but O’Connor also looked like a man who’d been liberated from all the pressure he and Cork had been under before the game.

“Psychologically, it’s a massive win for Cork,” said Canning in his analysis. “If they had lost today, they’d be going to play Limerick next week under pressure, whereas now, not as much. Plus they’ve a lot of confidence from having beaten Tipp in their own backyard again.” 

DREAD

One win doesn’t necessarily mean anything in such a cutthroat championship. Games against Limerick are always highly pressurised but Sunday’s match certainly doesn’t carry the same sense of dread and trepidation that it could have if Cork had lost to Tipp.

Cork were in a far more perilous position against Limerick in 2024, when a defeat would have knocked them out - and they embraced that pressure and hurled out of their skins to record a seismic victory. 

With the pressure now eased on Sunday, Cork should play a lot better for it.

They’ll need to because last Sunday was a poor-quality match. The game was bound to carry the psychological strain from last year’s All-Ireland final, but the tactical terms were also determined by Cork’s style and how it appeared as if they’d went into the game preparing for a sweeper.

Starting Niall O’Leary at centre-back and Rob Downey in the corner on Stefan Tobin was a clear sign that Cork anticipated Tipp pulling a man back and that Downey would set up as the spare man in the Cork defence.

Even when that didn’t happen, Cork were playing the ball a lot shorter to their half-forward line, which was their primary source of scores; the Cork half-forward line of Barry Walsh, Shane Barrett and Darragh Fitzgibbon were outstanding and got 0-12 from play.

Buckley, who played in a more withdrawn role, bagged 0-5 from play. 

Brian Hayes and Alan Connolly accumulated just 0-3, but Cork aren’t playing the ball into their inside line as often as they were.

Part of that last Sunday stemmed from Cork’s tactical set-up of how midfielders Tim O’Mahony and Tommy O’Connell played further back the field, receiving ball in deeper positions, working it out and looking for the half-forward line.

It was a clear change in strategy from the league final when the Cork midfield pushed up higher up the field. So are O’Connell and O’Mahony going to push up again now on Sunday, or sit back like they did against Tipp?

The smart money suggests that Cork will do what they did last Sunday. There is a lot of merit in that setup because they are better defensively set up and are less exposed. It enabled Rob Downey, when he moved to the centre after Tobin was taken off, to sit back more in the second half and protect the full-back line.

On the otherhand, Limerick and Tipp are two totally different teams. The Limerick half-forward are going to come deeper looking for possession. Limerick’s midfielders are going to sit deeper than Tipp’s. 

Tipp played with a three-man full-forward line, but Limerick will only play with two. And no matter how hard Cork try and stop it, Limerick are still going to get plenty of ball in, though now it's Peter Casey starting alongside Shane O'Brien in place of the injured Aaron Gillane, which does change the dynamic.

Pushing up, going after Limerick higher up the field and taking your chances at the back is a real risk. But it’s equally as big a gamble to sit back against Limerick when they are so well set up to play against that style.

So do Cork want to take on Limerick at their own game? The Limerick forwards will certainly tackle a lot harder and make life a lot more difficult for Cork to work the ball out from the back than the Tipp forwards did last weekend.

The other concern with being more conservative against Limerick is that it reduces Cork’s ability to score goals. And Cork haven’t been threatening goals for a while now.

They only created one clear-cut chance last Sunday. Cork only created two goalscoring chances in their last two matches. In their last two games against Limerick, Cork only scored one goal, which was a defensive mess-up. And they’ll need goals to beat Limerick now.

Being more functional has diluted some of Cork’s flamboyance but there are other benefits in that approach too, especially in how they are defensively set up. After shipping 3-15 off turnovers in last year’s All-Ireland final, that number was down to 0-10 last Sunday.

FLUID

Cork are becoming more tactically fluid and adaptable, especially around match-ups. Sunday is another massive test but, after convincingly beating Tipp, and after becoming used to overcoming Limerick in big championship matches, Cork can attack this challenge now with more freedom and abandon. Especially at home.

And with Limerick having to go to Ennis in nine days, most of the pressure on Sunday is on Limerick.