{"id":335558,"date":"2026-03-08T15:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335558\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:45:12","slug":"positives-for-ben-oconnor-despite-disappointment-of-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335558\/","title":{"rendered":"Positives for Ben O’Connor despite disappointment of defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the outcome at TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night was not the one Cork wanted, manager Ben O\u2019Connor felt that the defeat to Limerick will serve as a learning experience.<\/p>\n

A Rebels side featuring just seven of the starters from the Munster SHC final win over the same opposition at the same venue last June managed to stick with their opponents for three quarters of the game before Limerick went into overdrive but O\u2019Connor could still take solace from the display.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, disappointed with the result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were well in it until the middle of the second half, they got on top of us then but we fought back well again in the last ten minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cDelighted with the performance, disappointed with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limerick looked likelier victors for long periods but it wasn\u2019t until they blitzed Cork for an unanswered 2-5 in a 13-minute period to go 12 ahead that their supremacy was franked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found it hard to get a foothold, they took over in the middle third and it took us a while to get to grips with,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when we did, our fellas battled back again and we had the few that had to go off with injuries, D\u00e1ire [O\u2019Leary] and Eoin Roche. We’ll learn a lot from it. <\/p>\n

\u201cDisappointed we didn’t get goal chances, they’ll come another day. A learning experience for a lot of our fellas that wouldn’t have had that kind of a game under their belt. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we learned enough of them tonight to see that we have plenty fellas good enough to play at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Alan Walsh in possession, shadowed by Limerick’s Se\u00e1n Finn. Picture: Inpho\/James Lawlor<\/p>\n

The eight-point margin at the end was more favourable than might have materialised after Limerick\u2019s surge and so Cork\u2019s response to score five of the last six points was encouraging for O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe got a foothold again and got a few scores,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disappointing thing is that we never looked like getting a goal. You are always going to need a couple of goals if you are going to beat Limerick. <\/p>\n

\u201cA worthwhile exercise, got game-time into a lot of fellas. Just disappointed with the result because we set out our stall to win every game this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow that’s out of the way, we just move onto Offaly in a couple of weeks’ time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that sense, Limerick was a free hit for Cork as they know that any positive result against the already-relegated Faithful County will be sufficient to make the final for a second straight year.<\/p>\n

\"DamienDamien Cahalane looks to avoid Limerick’s Barry Nash. Picture: Inpho\/James Lawlor<\/p>\n

Limerick join Cork on eight points and they will similarly know that a win or a draw at home to Galway will be enough to set up a re-match \u2013 however, victory for the Tribesmen could put them in the decider. O\u2019Connor is focused on his team\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Offaly in two weeks\u2019 time and we’ll look after our own side of things again,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in our hands, we\u2019ll be going out to win that, and if we do, we are guaranteed a league final. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were told that at the start of the year that we\u2019d have only have been beaten in one game and only have to win one more game to get into a league final, we\u2019d have taken that.\u201d<\/p>\n

De<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the outcome at TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night was not the one Cork wanted, manager Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-335558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335558","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=335558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}