{"id":333770,"date":"2026-03-07T12:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333770\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:36:07","slug":"limerick-and-cork-have-good-reasons-to-go-hard-and-go-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333770\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick and Cork have good reasons to go hard and go smart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three-quarters of an hour after the Kilkenny-Cork game<\/a> finished last Sunday in Nowlan Park, there were Cork players still out on the field signing autographs and taking selfies for the travelling supporters. That\u2019s some going for an away game.<\/p>\n

And that registers with the players. They love having that huge following, and they certainly don\u2019t take it for granted.<\/p>\n

In the last year or two I\u2019ve seen that described as hype, almost as if it\u2019s a negative. I thought the whole point was to have big crowds following hurling and creating a fantastic atmosphere – to have a full stadium, music blasting, people getting into the game and supporting their team. Where\u2019s the downside in that?<\/p>\n

Limerick have great support as well, and I\u2019ve seen their players give their time after games to the supporters. Kilkenny were the same when they were on top.<\/p>\n

In a game situation that huge support is a help to a team, no question. Coming down the home straight it raises the energy and benefits Cork. That boost isn\u2019t necessarily at the expense of the opposition, by the way. It wouldn\u2019t affect an experienced side like Limerick because of the belief they have in their playing system.<\/p>\n

This Saturday evening in the Gaelic Grounds is a big one not just for the points, but because it\u2019s getting towards the time when Cork and Limerick will both want to get their championship teams on the field.<\/p>\n

It’s a chance for both teams to stress-test their playing systems. For that reason I think whoever is available for Cork needs to be played, and the same for Limerick. It looks like both will progress to the league final, and you can\u2019t go into a league final without proof that the system is working.<\/p>\n

Cork are facing Offaly in the last game, and as well as they\u2019re doing, Cork will expect to win that with something to spare. When Limerick played them last weekend<\/a> it was clear they were a little bit flat, though John Kiely did say afterwards they\u2019d put in a block of hard training.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t subscribe to these notions that teams don\u2019t want to show their hand in games at this time of year. You go as hard as you can in every game. The thinking behind \u2018you don\u2019t want to give away too much\u2019 doesn\u2019t really stand up if you examine it.<\/p>\n

\"BarryBarry Walsh has given Ben O’Connor a selection headache. Pic: Inpho<\/p>\n

These players all know each other: they play against each other a few times a year. Positions may change, and as the play becomes fluid players pop up in different parts of the field, but both teams play to their system.<\/p>\n

Stopping Limerick\u2019s system is a challenge because they play it so well. You push onto their half-forwards? That line can still win ball in tight spaces, the hands are good, the passes stick – and their full-forward line has worked a one-on-one or two-on-two – now you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be interesting to see how referee Se\u00e1n Stack handles the game because if you\u2019re physical enough in the middle third and don\u2019t give Limerick the opportunity to get going with their triangles, and to connect with the inside line, you have some chance. If you don\u2019t, and the players outside get their heads up to see what\u2019s on inside, then it becomes a lot harder.<\/p>\n

Cork\u2019s approach will be interesting, because it\u2019ll show how they want to counteract Limerick. If they play three up, for instance, they\u2019ll be trying to isolate the Limerick defenders rather than allowing them to back each other up and overlap.<\/p>\n

There are places up for grabs on both teams still. Cork have a few defenders putting their hands up, while last week Barry Walsh gave Ben O\u2019Connor something to think about up front. Darragh O\u2019Donovan will be a big loss for Limerick – he\u2019s a key man in terms of linking the play, feeding the forwards, getting that hard work done in midfield.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m expecting a real contest in Limerick, not shadow boxing, whatever that is. If you think about it, the shadow boxing argument would mean players saying, \u2018when we play this game we won\u2019t do what we\u2019ve been practicing and preparing for months\u2019. That makes no sense.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also heard a bit of the \u2018only one thing matters to Cork, or Limerick, this year\u2019 argument, and that baffles me as well.<\/p>\n

People seem very keen to make hurling all about one day and one game, the All-Ireland final. This weekend you\u2019ve got two great teams, a keen rivalry, a full stadium, or near enough to it. Enjoy the game for what it is. That\u2019s why the lads are training for six, seven, eight months – to run out onto the field and look around at the crowd, take in the noise, and think, \u2018this is great – this is why I\u2019ve done all the work, and I\u2019m going to enjoy it.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

When he was managing Cork Pat Ryan often said to us, \u2018you\u2019re going to work, that\u2019s serious, but you come to training, to hurl, and that\u2019s supposed to be fun\u2019. And he was right. You don\u2019t start off playing under-nine with your club to be thinking after a street league game, \u2018well, we\u2019re on to the next match now\u2019. You play because you enjoy it, and sometimes a player can lose track of that.<\/p>\n

On that note, there\u2019s been a bit of discussion of Alan Connolly\u2019s comments after the Kilkenny game last week, when he said the team wanted to \u201cwin the league, win Munster and win the All-Ireland, that\u2019s our goal.\u201d I thought that was great. That\u2019s how every team thinks. I guarantee that even teams which have no hope at all of winning the All-Ireland are still in their meetings saying, \u2018this is our aim, to win the All-Ireland\u2019.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of a catch-22 here in that if Alan had just said, \u2018we\u2019re only thinking about the next game now\u2019 last Sunday people would be saying it was typical – a player saying nothing, or being too serious altogether.<\/p>\n

Then he expresses something that every other team and player thinks, or should think, and people are saying Cork are cocky, or he should have kept quiet. You can\u2019t win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three-quarters of an hour after the Kilkenny-Cork game finished last Sunday in Nowlan Park, there were Cork players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2110,1965,72371,1964,61,60,17406,112],"class_list":["post-333770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-sport","tag-hurling","tag-munster-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick-gaa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}