Win to lift gloom

the sole aim of having everything right for the opening game in the championship against Tipperary.

What transpired in Thurles seven weeks ago, however, brought it forcibly home to Kingston and his co-mentors that it’s going an extremely difficult task to get things moving in the right direction again, as Tipp were by far the more accomplished side as they cruised to a nine-point victory in what was never a true contest.

Afterwards selector Pat Ryan admitted there were practically no positives to be taken from the game from a Cork perspective, stating that they’d struggle to beat any team in the qualifiers judging from the way they performed against Tipp.

“It’s hard to be optimistic about what the rest of the season has in store for us after this, but we’ll go back to the drawing board now, and maybe bringing in a few different players is what’s needed to freshen things up a bit.

“Having said that, we feel the players we had with us today are the best in the county, and we have to believe they are capable of improving of this display.”

The Rebels’ first shot at redemption arrives next Saturday night when they square up to a Dublin side that is on a similarly downward curve, having failed to collect a championship scalp of note since Ger Cunningham, who served as a Cork selector with Kieran Kingston under JBM in 2014, took the helm last year.

Thrashed to the tune of 1-25 to 0-16 in the Leinster semi-final a few weeks ago, the Dubs won’t find it easy to recover from that demoralising experience, but, for obvious reasons, they will feel they’ll be taking a drop in class against Cork.

They enjoyed a comprehensive league win over Cork at Croke Park this season, but they won’t be reading a whole lot into that in terms of how things are going to unfold in the winner-take-all showdown in Pairc Uí Rinn.

Last season, Cork were equally emphatic victors over Dublin in a league game at Croker, but when the teams renewed rivalry in the semi-final at Nowlan Park, there was just a point between them at the finish of a contest in which the Dubs - 12 points up at one stage and five to the good with as many minutes to go – were pipped at the post.

The reality is that Cork and Dublin are more or less at the same level at the moment, and, assuming they both bring their A-game to the table, it’s on the cards that this All-Ireland qualifier will, as was the case in their two previous collisions in a do-or-die fixture, again go down to the wire.

Following the woeful display against Tipp, there’s a lot of speculation as to what Cork’s starting fifteen is likely to be, but, as Pat Ryan intimated in the immediate aftermath of the horror-show in Semple Stadium, there is going to be no knee-jerk reaction on the part of the selectors, so it will be a surprise if the team is overhauled to any major extent.

Cork’s defensive shortcomings have been well-documented at this stage, but there is no ready-made solution to the problem, and the expectation is that Dublin will be capable of putting a sizeable tally on the board on Saturday night.

It’s quite conceivable, however, that Cork will be able to better it if their marquee attackers Seamus Harnedy, Conor Lehane and Patrick Horgan are firing on all cylinders and Alan Cadogan replicates the form that made him the team’s stand-out performer in the Tipp game by some distance.

Irrespective of the outcome, the winners will remain long-shots to go all the way, but a Cork victory would at least help to dispel the clouds that, notwithstanding the win over Clare in the qualifiers last year, have darkened unabated on Leeside since the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Tipp. THERE could be no questioning Cork’s commitment, but it wasn’t nearly enough to offset Limerick’s quality in the Munster Under 21 hurling quarter-final at Pairc Uí Rinn on Tuesday night.

With ten of the team that lifted the All-Ireland title last year on board, the Shannonsiders entered the fray as warm favourites, and the early indications were that they were ready to brush aside Cork’s challenge at their ease.

They forged 1-7 to 0-1 ahead inside ten minutes, their goal coming from Ronan Lynch,, but they appeared to rest on their laurels in the second quarter, with the result that their lead had been trimmed to two points before senior star Cian Lynch completed their tally to make it 1-12 to 0-12 at the interval.

Credit to Cork for refusing to drop their heads following a potentially disastrous start, and the input from such as Mark Coleman and Conor Twomey in the half-back line, and Shane Kingston and particularly Pa O’Callaghan up front gave them reasonable grounds for hope as they headed out for the second half.

O’Callaghan picked off three excellent points from play, Kingston was unerring from placed balls, while Twomey, Anthony Spillane and midfielders Niall Cashman and David Noonan were others to get on the scoresheet during Cork’s resurgence.

The notion that Cork had prospered primarily because of Limerick’s complacency was more or less confirmed in the early stages of the second half, however, when the visitors smoothly raised the tempo to post five points on the bounce, which put them firmly back in the driving seat by the 40th minute.

When substitute Oisin O’Reilly fired in a goal to make it 2-18 to 0-13 with ten minutes remaining, Limerick, seemingly playing well within themselves, looked set to coast home.

Again Cork refused to throw in the towel, but Limerick, oozing class and confidence, remained