Munster final defeat takes the pressure off Cork hurlers

Cork’s Munster final showing was certainly a disappointing one and has made their path to the All-Ireland final a little more challenging. But that could reward the Rebels elsewhere.

After a round-robin phase which produced the perfect record of four wins from four, it was always going to be a challenging ask for Cork to produce another excellent display and defeat Limerick again. That they failed to overcome the Shannonsiders last weekend takes the heat off the Leesiders and hands the All-Ireland favourite tag to Limerick. And that’s absolutely no harm.

The round-robin meeting between the two was certainly swayed by Cian Lynch’s red card, and now that Limerick have won both the Division 1A league and Munster finals, it will offer Cork a clear indication of where they’re lacking and what they’ll need to produce between now and next month if they hope to end the drought.

At the moment, Limerick look the stronger team. And so, if Cork are to reclaim the Liam MacCarthy Cup this year, it will almost certainly come by defeating Limerick in Croke Park with that title on the line. That gives them a month to get in shape, provided they handle the next two games.

ROAD TO CROKER 

Offaly will be massive underdogs going into this quarter-final, even with how well they’ve done to reach this stage. The loser of Cork and Limerick is hardly the draw you’d want to be facing going into your first All-Ireland quarter-final for 23 years, and so the Faithful’s hopes of victory are exceptionally slim next weekend.

Eoghan Cahill, Brian Duignan and Dan Bourke posted great Leinster championship campaigns, but they will miss Charlie Mitchell dearly.

Cork have obviously been dealt their own injury woes, Darragh Fitzgibbon was sorely missed in the Munster decider and Tommy O’Connell is set to miss out next week, with Tim O’Mahony potentially joining him there. Ciarán Joyce has obviously been a monstrous loss to Ben O’Connor’s team.

But defensive efforts were in no way Cork’s shortcomings last Sunday, even if there were a few wobbles. Cork have been very strong at the back for pretty much the entire campaign so far, and conceded the fewest out of the five teams in Munster. Their failure to win last Sunday came from not harnessing enough with the breeze, and completely failing to poke Limerick against it.

Offaly will struggle to get scores against Cork’s defence, even with the Rebels being thinly stretched. Cahill and Adam Screeney especially will find it tough, particularly when Damien Cahalane has been going so well in Joyce’s absence.

The 23-point tally scored against Limerick was Cork’s lowest since their league defeat to Limerick at the start of March. Only against Kilkenny away and in the Munster Senior League games versus Limerick and Clare have Cork scored fewer than that this year.

It would have been nice to see Cork win the league and Munster again, but you can be certain every single fan in the country would take an All-Ireland win over those two titles.

Cork have been in better positions and faltered, and they’ve been in worse positions and turned it around. They will be favourites for the quarter- and semi-finals, and while that’s no guarantee of anything, it shows this team is in a very strong place and likely will be for another few years to come.