John Horgan on hurling: Cork need to make full use of this preseason competition

There had been speculation that the pre-season provincial inter-county competition, the Munster SHL would not take place in the opening weeks of January next year.

The reasons given were that the intercounty calendar was already too congested, a fairly gruelling national league campaign containing at the very least, six games in a short space of time quickly followed by the cut-throat Munster championship with the third level Fitzgibbon Cup thrown into the mix as well, so many players from all the counties involved in that.

All viable reasons maybe but surely any pre-season competition that will be done and dusted in a very short space of time should be about players that are part of an extended panel striving to make their mark.

And if they do so in the few games that are played in it they may feature in the deliberations of the management when they are finalising their panal for the national league.

We have been reading bits and pieces about who has been brought into the Cork hurling panel, who has been omitted etc.

We know for a fact that fantastic warriors, Seamie Harnedy and Damien Cahalane have had the curtain drawn on their inter-county careers.

Deccie Dalton is gone too and there are others that we are not certain about Dalton's career has been much shorter than the other two and there are plenty out there who still believe he has something to offer, this column is among them.

With the county championship season in slumberland until next July and early August, the Cork boss Ben O'Connor will have had plenty of time to reflect on the 2026 campaign and how the players that might have been under his radar competed.

Did they do enough to merit a call-up which might further their chances for involvement later on in the season that lies ahead.

Yes, there is a big difference between playing in the Munster League and the greater intensity that the national league and championship will bring but it is a good enough starting point to put down some sort of a marker.

Any of the main players who featured in last season's league, Munster championship and All-Ireland championship should not be involved in the pre-season competition.

Those who have been retained, the management know enough about them already, the important thing now is who puts up their hand in the early weeks of January.

Opportunity knocks

The Munster SHL should be all about auditioning for newcomers, trying to seize an opportunity if it is presented.

In fact, there should be a specific panel chosen to participate in the two or three games that Cork will play in it.

They are grouped with Tippeary and Clare, the top team to qualify for a final meeting with the winners from the other group which features Limerick, Clare and Kerry.

The Munster League should tell us something regarding the strength of the squad, Limerick always using it to try and find out more about certain players that they have their eye on.

Early January might not be the most inviting time of the year to be playing hurling when some grounds might not be in the pristine condition that they will be in later on.

But that's exactly what a management should want, looking at players in an intercounty environment in what could be testing conditions, sometimes a tough physical ask, hitting hard and getting hit hard.

We have been listening to pundits stating that Cork teams are not on a par with others in the physical stakes.

Launchpad

The half-back line in any team is now perhaps the most important line in a team's make-up, a vital defensive bulwark and the launchpad for an attack at the other end.

To be fair, the Cork trio of Eoin Downey, brother Rob and Mark Coleman are a formidable trio but the Limerick triumvirate of Diarmaid Byrnes, William O'Donoghue and Kyle Hayes stand apart.

When Declan Hannon stepped away there were fears on Shannonside that replacing him in the number six shirt would be extremely difficult. Well, that wasn't the case. O'Donoghue stepped in and the show continued on as before.

It's that type of Limerick physicality in that line that has made all the difference in the county staying well ahead of the rest.

The Munster League provides us with a very early in the year collision betwween Cork and Tipperary and just a short time later they will enter the ring in the national league.

Cork and Tipp has a storied history and nothing will ever change that but the intensity of their rivalry these days is not what it once was.

The older one gets the tendency is to reminise that bit more about days long gone and recalling the savage clashes between the counties in the '50s and '60s is something that still stirs the brain.

Beating Tipp back in those times meant everything to Cork followers and vice-versa in the hurling homes of Tipperary.

The schedule of the intercounty hurling season is extremely demanding now, a county could, if successful like Limerick were last season playing anything up to 16 games in a short enough time frame, two or three in the Munster League, at least six in the national league, at least four in the Munster championship, a quarter, semi and final in the All-Ireland.

To be anywhere near the top of the intercounty hurling tree now it's an absolute imperative that you have a squad of players capable getting you there.

And that brings us back to the pre-season Munster League, trying out players in all positions and and try to determine whether or not they can cut it when the demands go up a few notches.

It was perceived last season that Cork had a squad well capable of matching what John Kiely had in Limerick. Being very honest that was not the case and hasn't been so.

Yes, Ciarán Joyce was a gigantic loss in 2026 and having him back will be a huge positive. But the squad strengthening needs to be all over the field and, hopefully, whoever gets an opportunity in the two or three pre-season games and subsequently in the early games of the league can make a strong enough case.

Of course, the bar is raised as the season progresses and it all boils down to the performances in the Munster championship that gets you out of the province and on to the All-Ireland stage.

Cork management teams don't usually publish their initial pre-season squad and that's something we'd like to see, get the conversation going about who's in and who's not.

There will always be room for movement in any squad, doors not being shut, that sort of thing.

The All-Ireland famine has gone on far too long now, yes we have no divine right but to help that to change we need the strongest possible squad and the Munster League provides an opening opportunity for further progress down the line.

This present generation of Cork hurlers has a following like no other, they crave success.