![\"Cork](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5060117_4_articleinlinemobile_EOHCorkClare02.jpg\" "\\"Cork")
Cork manager Noel Furlong and coach D\u00f3nal \u00d3g Cusack prior to Wednesday’s win over Clare. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\nThe possible outcomes were many and varied ahead of Cork\u2019s Fulfil Munster U20HC clash with Clare on Wednesday evening \u2013 the one that materialised means the counties must mean again next week.<\/p>\n
With Limerick and Waterford eliminated, the top three of Cork, Clare and Tipperary were guaranteed progression to the knockout section, but with the order to be determined.<\/p>\n
While Cork\u2019s 4-19 to 2-21 victory at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh put them ahead of Clare, Tipp\u2019s big win over Limerick meant a three-way tie with the Premier County benefiting from the best scoring difference to advance straight to the final.<\/p>\n
Cork and Clare will play off at the P\u00e1irc on Wednesday to see who joins them and manager Noel Furlong was delighted with how his team fared in terms of doing what was within their own control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s it,\u201d he said, \u201cand the first night coming away, if you told us we were going to have six points in the bag and a home semi-final, we’d have taken your hand off.<\/p>\n
\n I suppose it’s just disappointing that Limerick rested a number of their more established players in the other game and that looked like it turned into a no-contest.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cBut all we could do was focus on our job, and I suppose executing what we had to do here, and that’s exactly what we did. Results didn’t go for us in the other contest, but that is what it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we’ve another great contest here now to look forward to next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork manager Noel Furlong and coach D\u00f3nal \u00d3g Cusack prior to Wednesday’s win over Clare. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
Barry Walsh scored 1-5, including Cork\u2019s final two points as Clare pushed for a draw that would have put them top.<\/p>\n
The Killeagh man missed the win away to Waterford as it came just four days before the senior championship opener against Tipperary. Next week\u2019s semi falls just three days prior to Ben O\u2019Connor\u2019s side travelling to face Waterford and Furlong is unsure if the attacker will be available.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know what’s going to happen,\u201d he said, \u201cso we’ll have to see, we were just focusing on the Clare game.<\/p>\n
\n Barry’s been exceptional for us, any time he’s been available.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cYou see him performing at senior level, so Barry would have expected of himself to perform at U20 level as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was being double-marked at different stages and he still stood up and got the scores, took the punishment, he’s a credit to himself and we’re delighted to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
With or without Walsh for the rematch, Cork will look to create goal openings \u2013 both home matches in the round-robin yielded four green flags each.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, and look, we’ve been bringing that into the lads all year and we’re the top goalscorers in the competition,\u201d Furlong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s something we want to have as a hallmark of our team and you saw it there, we got a good few goals and we left more after us, so it’s something we’ll continue to encourage them to do.<\/p>\n
“It’s very much letting them make the decisions themselves \u2013 we have a framework but at the same time, if there is a freedom, if they see an opportunity, they go for it, and if you look back through all of our games, that has been the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had a lot of attacks from defenders, and even our inside backs as well \u2013 Denis Fitzgerald set up two goals against Limerick, so that’s all part of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that’s just hurling; you see that as part of the game now, it’s just so fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The possible outcomes were many and varied ahead of Cork\u2019s Fulfil Munster U20HC clash with Clare on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1965,1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-425276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425276","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=425276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}