![\"Ciar\u00e1n](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5091981_1_articleinlinemobile_3417050.jpg\" "\\"Ciar\u00e1n")
Ciar\u00e1n Joyce of Cork in action during the Allianz HL Division 1A final against Limerick in April. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nWhile there may be a school of thought that says the Munster SHC final is best avoided, it\u2019s not one to which Cork manager Ben O\u2019Connor is subscribing.<\/p>\n
The Rebels face Clare at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh on Sunday with both counties and Limerick already assuring of progressing to the All-Ireland series but with the final pairing yet to be decided.<\/p>\n
All three outcomes are possible, but there is a view that going off-Broadway via an All-Ireland quarter-final against the beaten Leinster finalists would be a clever route.<\/p>\n
However, with three wins from three under his belt as Cork manager, O\u2019Connor would like to complete the set, especially as the Rebels have not beaten Clare in the championship since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s strange that you have to win four matches to be guaranteed to get to a Munster final,\u201d he says, \u201cbut, look, that\u2019s we\u2019re going to try do at the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t want to be knocked out of the Munster on Sunday and be looking for a challenge match before you go in to play an All-Ireland quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d look at the Munster final as being a good prep match for moving on to the All-Ireland series and we didn’t say anything else at the start of the year, only that we wanted to win every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is another game that we want to win. Our record against Clare hasn’t been great, we haven’t beaten them the last five times we’ve played them, I think, so, we want to turn around that as well, especially because it\u2019s on above in our own patch.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the support we’ve been getting and we can be guaranteed that there’s going to be 75 percent of the crowd on Sunday will be supporting Cork. As usual, our boys like to thank the supporters for coming, so they’ll hopefully put on a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ciar\u00e1n Joyce of Cork in action during the Allianz HL Division 1A final against Limerick in April. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Since the win over Waterford last Saturday week, captain Darragh Fitzgibbon and Robbie O\u2019Flynn have joined the Cork injured list, along with Ciar\u00e1n Joyce, Robert Downey and D\u00e1ire O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n
While four of that group should be back in contention for the All-Ireland series if not before it, Joyce\u2019s season is over.<\/p>\n
He remains a valued part of the group, though. After the victory in Azzurri Walsh Park, man of the match Brian Hayes name-checked the Castlemartyr man and O\u2019Connor is delighted to still have him around, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian said it there,\u201d he said, \u201cthe boys know what Joycie has put in since he has come on to the Cork panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don’t want to let him down now either and, look, we’re not going to cut Joycie loose because we haven’t got the use of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’ll be around Sunday with us as well and he’ll be around any night that he can make training. He’ll be above above training and he’ll be helping out in any way he can. That’s the kind of a group that we have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fellas like to see Joycie around and Joycie likes to be inside and messing around with the boys as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a buzz when he\u2019s around and the lads are able to have a laugh and a joke with him. It’s good for him then to see that the boys aren’t forgetting about him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While there may be a school of thought that says the Munster SHC final is best avoided, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1965,1964,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-464525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464525","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=464525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}