{"id":443075,"date":"2026-05-11T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443075\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T10:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:45:09","slug":"cork-get-expected-win-but-in-unexpected-circumstances-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443075\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork get expected win but in unexpected circumstances \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday summed up Waterford<\/a>. Everyone expected Cork<\/a> to win but most people also expected the match to go down to the wire, as both of Waterford\u2019s other matches did. Sure enough, that is what happened \u2013 Cork winning 1-26 to 0-25<\/a> \u2013 but in this case, in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n

In the first half, they lost three players to injury, including Stephen Bennett, an early front-runner for Hurler of the Year whose scoring exploits have been the foundation of Waterford\u2019s competitiveness. Also gone were corner back Ian Kenny and wing back Iarlaith Daly, who had been playing really well.<\/p>\n

Throw in two black cards \u2013 one questionable, in my view \u2013 and that\u2019s a lot of adversity for a team with not great panel depth. Mark Fitzgerald\u2019s sinbinning wasn\u2019t contentious and, not for the first time, Billy Nolan came to Waterford\u2019s rescue and saved Alan Connolly\u2019s penalty.<\/p>\n

Jack Fagan was unlucky in that I felt there were covering defenders. Mark Coleman made no mistake and that was the decisive score.<\/p>\n

You have to hand it to Peter Queally and the spirit he\u2019s created that the rest of it played out every bit as expected: it did go to the wire and Waterford were still in touch in injury-time.<\/p>\n

For all that endeavour, the county is facing another early exit from the championship.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Alan Connolly. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cork composure piles yet more agony on WaterfordOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Cork came with a simple objective: get the points and guarantee progress to the All-Ireland stages. It never really looked like they weren\u2019t going to achieve that even though the match was tightly balanced with backs to the wall for both teams at various stages.<\/p>\n

Waterford went close at times, leading for much of the second half, and Patrick Collins made a good save from Peter Hogan in the tense final minutes but you felt if Dessie Hutchinson got the chance, there would probably have been no saving it.<\/p>\n

Brian Hayes was outstanding in the first half for Cork. He scored six points in the first half and into that tricky wind in Walsh Park. He was the key player and Cork\u2019s full-forward line is playing very well.<\/p>\n

William Buckley was always dangerous and if not quite as productive as he was against Tipperary in the first round, he wasn\u2019t far off it and is a huge addition.<\/p>\n

Connolly and Hayes weren\u2019t at their best in Thurles but they are now functioning at a higher level. Paddy Leavey did a decent job of limiting Hayes in the second half \u2013 or at least did better than any of his team-mates assigned the task \u2013 but the damage had been done and Hayes continued to be a threat.<\/p>\n

Darragh Fitzgibbon and Shane Barrett came into the match more in the second half and Ben O\u2019Connor will have been pleased to win while not operating at their best. His reconfigured defence held up. Tim O\u2019Mahony was fine at centre back but I thought he wasn\u2019t in the game as much as you\u2019d expect him to be at midfield.<\/p>\n

\"Waterford'sWaterford’s Ian Kenny and Cork’s Brian Hayes. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

The full-back line held up, Niall O\u2019Leary doing pretty well, but it wasn\u2019t the anticipated test with Bennett gone by half-time \u2013 he had been well marshalled up until then but didn\u2019t look 100 per cent. Then again, his performances to date have been particularly telling in the second half.<\/p>\n

There was one ground-breaking aspect to the match \u2013 for me anyway. I believe Paddy Leavey is a pioneer of this although Mark Coleman executed it as well. It\u2019s a pickup off the hurley. There\u2019s no separation between the ground, the hurley and the ball. You simply pick the ball off the hurley. There\u2019s no rule against it because it\u2019s not directly off the ground.<\/p>\n

In Leinster, there was some excitement on Sunday after an uneventful Saturday. Offaly<\/a> confirmed their status as a rising force in the game with a hard-fought draw with champions Kilkenny<\/a>, ending 0-24 to 1-21. The final score to equalise by Eoghan Cahill was a contested 65 but it was the first time since the All-Ireland final in 1998 that they didn\u2019t lose the fixture.<\/p>\n

If it confirms Offaly\u2019s improvement, it is equally commentary on Kilkenny<\/a>\u2019s struggle for form and sets up a very interesting battle for who is to accompany Galway out of Leinster.<\/p>\n

Kildare<\/a> gave the same Galway<\/a> a rattle in the first half and although it was commendable by Kildare, I imagine Miche\u00e1l Donoghue will be asking questions about how his provincial front runners ended up 1-5 to 1-15 behind at half-time.<\/p>\n

Slow start or complacency \u2013 neither is particularly acceptable.<\/p>\n

Wexford have probably lost out on their chance to progress after a poor enough match ended in defeat by Dublin<\/a>. They probably weren\u2019t contenders after failing to raise a gallop against Kilkenny but again, their touch wasn\u2019t great and it wasn\u2019t a good sign for Dublin that they let an authoritative lead slip away in the last 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0If you think hurling referees are influenced by the scoreboard, you are rightOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday summed up Waterford. Everyone expected Cork to win but most people also expected the match to go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7026,1964,92418,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-443075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-waterford-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-hurling-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443075","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=443075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}