Defence from the front giving Cork hurlers solidity - but it's the minimal expectation

Speaking to the press after Sunday’s win over Clare, Cork attacker Alan Connolly was asked if scoring 11 points was more satisfying than having a few goals and a few points to his name.

Rather than plumping for either, he instead cited the importance of workrate – hooks, blocks, tackles and turnovers – in providing the first line of defence.

It is something that has characterised Cork’s Munster campaign to date and, when asked about it, manager Ben O’Connor pointed to the necessity of such efforts being a baseline expectation, given the competition for places.

“If you have ten or 11 fellas sitting outside who want to be in there where you are, you'll run too,” he said.

“That's the easiest thing you can do in this game, is run. It is a bit like watching Arsenal, pressing high up the field, and we'll try and keep the pressure off the lads at the back.

“That's the way we are training, that's the way the lads are playing, and it's just pressure from the panel that is there that the minimum required is hard work.

“Hurling will take care of itself, but once the boys are trying hard, that is the main thing we are judging a lot of fellas on.”

To that end, the 16-point win on Sunday was the exception compared to the four-point wins over Tipperary and Waterford and the two-point victory against Limerick.

Cork managed ‘only’ four goals across the four games but ultimately durability and pragmatism provided enough of a bedrock to negate the need to go out and hunt goals to win shootouts.

O’Connor isn’t against free-flowing hurling by any means but ultimately it’s a results-based business and as much depends on the opposition as it does on Cork’s intentions.

“No, it can't be that every day,” he said.

“Teams are going out to set up against you, the same as we go out to set up against other teams so as I said two weeks ago, if we get enough points to win a game, I'm not bothered about the goals.

“It's nice to be getting the goals but still we got the one today and we'd two more chances that we maybe butchered. Once we're winning games, we won't worry about that.”

And it was one that they won in a comfortable fashion, with Cork’s 14-point triumph over Clare on one side with Limerick’s 15-point triumph in Ennis while the Banner had three points to spare at home to Waterford as well as beating Tipperary by 11.

They will go into an All-Ireland quarter-final against the losers of the Dublin-Galway Leinster final, while Offaly will await the vanquished team in the Cork-Limerick tie.

On form up to now, Cork and Limerick are the clear market leaders but, as we have seen in the not-too-distant past, much can change once the format changes to knockout hurling.

For Cork, they have done what they needed in the round-robin but much bigger tests await.