THE NUMBERS GAME..
CORK LIMERICK TV TIMES: Live on RTE (from 2.45pm) & Sky Sports (2.30pm) Cork senior debut MUCH of the talk from the Cork camp surrounds making up for last year’s All-ireland semi-final, though Patrick Horgan can draw from a much deeper reservoir.
Tomorrow, the 30-year-old will line out in his seventh semi-final. Of the previous six, he’s been victorious just once.
The first two, in 2008 and ‘10, were against the greatest Kilkenny team in its pomp and Cork were swept away, losing by nine and then 12 points.
All of the rest were winnable, in their own way.
In 2012, Galway were firsttime Leinster champions but had just too much.
That experience stood to Cork the following year when they edged out 14-man Dublin with Horgan netting the gamebreaking goal, though they fell short against Clare in the final after a replay.
They came into their last two semi-finals as Munster champions, in 2014 and last year, but were ultimately well beaten by teams who had fallen at the first hurdle in the province that year, Tipperary and Waterford respectively.
“We couldn’t get going that day [in 2014],” recalls Horgan. “But yet, we were only losing by a point at half-time. Something mad. We didn’t puck a ball in that game either.
“Last year, we could have done a lot better. That was a fierce drop in performance for us. We are miles ahead of that. We just never showed it that day. Hopefully, we can put that straight.”
Horgan’s performances in semi-finals have varied but, if others fell short last year, the finger couldn’t be pointed at him as he hit 0-12, five from play, in one of his finest displays for the county.
It sealed his second All- Star, just months after he spent a couple of League games warming the bench.
“I give Kieran [Kingston] an ould text every now and then saying, ‘Thanks for that’,” he smiles. “I always have confidence in myself, whether someone else has it in me, I don’t know.
“Looking back on it, it seems like years ago. It is just weird. I’d laugh about it now with Kieran.
“I always tell him, ‘Remember the time you dropped me, nice one’. I get no reply.
“Obviously if you were going well enough at the time, you’d be playing. Obviously, I was doing something wrong. I just had to go out and train a bit harder. I always have the mind of trying to be better. Since I’ve started, it has never been enough. I enjoy trying to be the best I can be hurling-wise.” It’s been well documented that Cork are enduring one of their longest ever All-ireland droughts having not hoisted the Liam Maccarthy Cup since 2005 though Horgan insists that doesn’t weigh on the current team.
“The players there now don’t really care about that. I know it is a big thing for others, but when you’re playing, none of that really matters.
“It is great to look back on in a couple of years and say, ‘Yeah, we did that’, but for fellas there now, history doesn’t mean much. Winning in 2004 and 2005 doesn’t mean much to us.
“Winning in the 60s don’t matter to us. We just have to get the best out of what we can get.
“Hopefully, we can win one. To win one would be unbelievable. It [history] means nothing as regards the Limerick game.
“If we can just put all our focus into that game and get the best result we can, get to the final and then, hopefully, start thinking about All-irelands and Cork are winning this and Cork are winning that.
“As of now, we’ve never won anything.”