John Horgan on hurling: Cork can't take anything for granted from here, Croke Park has no hiding places

I didn’t think this year that I would be writing something about the Cork hurlers similar to what I wrote after their collapse in last season’s second-half against Tipperary in the All-Ireland final.

As they did last July, Cork led at the interval against Galway at the weekend, in the first of the two All-Ireland semi-finals.

The lead was only a point, but the advantage was still slighty theirs.

However, when the last whistle sounded, 40 minutes later, Cork were 11 points in arrears, outscored 1-14 to 0-5 by the Leinster champions in the second half.

The five points that they registered thereafter was better than the 0-2 that they scored in the second half of the final of 2025, but, in a nutshell, it was another second-half collapse, another sorrowful mystery to try and understand.

This was another grim afternoon at headquarters for Cork. For the third year on the trot, they came up short, the 21-year famine bereft of the Liam MacCarthy Cup now become 22. That’s staggering, really, when you think about it.

No county has a divine right to anything, from one year to the next, but in the hurling-obsessed county that Cork is, it’s a worrying statistic. And there are absolutely no guarantees going forward.

Everybody got it wrong — very wrong — in predicting what was going to transpire between 3.30pm and 5pm last Saturday.

Galway had not been fully written off, but as good as, which was sheer foolishness, given that this is a county that has illustrated, through the decades, that its hurlers can compete with any opponent on their best day, no matter those opponents’ elevated status.

Overwhelmed

Tipperary blitzed Cork in the second-half of last year’s All-Ireland final, and Galway were not far off in doing likewise on Saturday.

Their work-rate, use of possession, back-up play, puck-outs, turnovers, and decision-making were too much for Cork. Cork failed to deal with their energy.

At half-time last July in the All-Ireland final, nobody foresaw what was about to unfold, that Cork would capitulate in the second half. And so it was again, the Tribesmen turning the screw.

Cork were all over the place in the third quarter, going 16 minutes without a score and that’s fatal in a game of hurling in Croke Park.

The season has ended for Cork as it did last season: In 2025, it was a stroll in the park in the All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin and a subsequent trouncing by Tipperary. This time, it was a quarter-final mismatch victory over Offaly and an 11-point semi-final defeat to Galway.

Did those very one-sided games have any bearing on what followed? Who knows?

Did this ridiculous talk by the media and the fans about it inevitably being a Cork-Limerick final seep into the mindset of the Cork players?

That disrespect for the opposition was naive.

The football quarter-finals a week previously should have been an eye-opener for the hurlers. Louth had a famous win over Monaghan, Dublin had an unexpected win over Galway, and Cork were beaten by Mayo despited being favoured.

The greatest certainty in any sporting code is the uncertainty. Cape Verde doing what they did in the World Cup, in pushing Argentina to 3-2, is a shining example.

The couple of minutes leading up to half-time were crucial last Saturday, when Cork’s advantage of five points had been whittled down to just one going to the dressing-rooms.

Galway had turned the momentum more in their direction with the last four points of the half and what transpires before the interval in any code can have huge relevance on the resumption.

Micheál Donoghue’s Galway men subsequently took the game by the scruff of the neck and the Cork ship was taking in far too much water thereafter.

Over-reliant

Cork manager Ben O’Connor would have been reasonably satisfied at the interval, despite being only a point to the good. At the same time, in the opening half, Cork had been far too reliant on the brilliance of Brian Hayes to deliver scores from open play, a half-dozen of which he executed with aplomb.

To be fair, Alan Walsh took his goal well, and Shane Barrett posted a couple of points, as did Darragh Fitzgibbon before a second yellow card became red. Just as they were last July, Cork were down to 14 men.

Were those yellows justified? By the letter of the law, probably, yes, but they certainly were not malicious fouls. Aerially, Cork were a distant second-best in the second-half, Galway’s insatiable work rate decreeing that the big house on Jones’ Road has now become a very unhappy hunting ground for the Cork hurlers.

As a unit, not enough Cork players measured up and human nature being what it is, there will be queries about the sideline contribution.

Cork were perceived to have had the strongest squad, alongside Limerick’s, but is that true?

Might substitutions have been made earlier than they were, apart from Damo Cahalane going off at the interval, because of the yellow card he had picked up?

It’s always easy to be wise afterwards, but could the vast experience of Seamie Harnedy and Shane Kingston — Harnedy, in particular, because of his ball-winning ability — have made a difference?

That’s all pure conjecture, of course, but there wasn’t a dissenting voice at the end. Galway were thoroughly deserving winners against a team looked upon as much better in most aspects.

Jason Rabbitte caused endless problems with his aerial prowess, Ronan Glennon was here, there and everywhere, and a haul of three points was a notable contribution from a wing-back.

Tom Monaghan had a huge Leinster final display with 0-7, to which he added four more on Saturday. Young Cillian Trayers was a mighty influence, too, in defence, and the save that goalkeeper Darach Fahy made from Shane Barrett was crucial.

Galway had, by far, the best performers on the pitch, far more than Cork had and that was the ultimate difference. They had a full month to prepare diligently and the worry of being inactive for too long was never an issue.

When Cork had that five-point lead approaching half-time there might have been a perception that they were on the front foot to victory, having recovered from being 1-4 to 0-2 in arrears just after seven minutes.

But it was not to be and, in the cold light of day, Cork just were not good enough.

Two finals have been lost this season and a semi-final. At the end of any journey, judgement will be made on how you fared on the biggest of stages of all and that’s inside Croke Park.

The loss of Ciarán Joyce for the entirety of the championship was a huge blow, especially last Saturday, but all teams have to overcome injury problems.

So, that’s it for now. It will be six long months before we see a Cork hurling team in action again.

The Galway combination of experience and youthful ebullience was the big takeaway in another Cork tale of woe.