Future remains bright for Cork
Denis Hurley assesses where Cork stand in the pecking order after defeat to Waterford in Sunday’s All Ireland senior hurling championship semi-final at Croke Park
THE problem with any conclusions drawn in the immediate wake of Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat is that they are too much lacking in context.
If, for example, Cork were to come back next year and get to the All-Ireland final, the eleven-point defeat to Waterford in Croke Park would no doubt be seen as a necessary piece of tough education against a cuter side further ahead in their development.
If, as with 2015 and 2016 after reaching the 2014 semi-final, a couple of fallow years materialise, we will look at this as a great opportunity squandered, a chance to take advantage of Tipperary and Kilkenny not being as prominent, just as 2013 was an All-Ireland there to be won.
Eleven points separated the teams on the scoreboard but, if the counties were to clash again this weekend, the bookmakers wouldn’t place an eleven-point handicap on Waterford.
With an extra man and the Cork spirit broken by goals from Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson, the Déise pushed on ruthlessly – as was their right, enjoying the feeling of a winning semi-final after falling to Kilkenny in each of the last two editions.
There is at least the consolation for Cork that exit from the championship doesn’t necessarily mean a cause for doom and gloom, as the past two years have been.
When 2017 is analysed in its entirety, it will be seen as a positive campaign in which a lot of good things were done and future stars emerged.
The fact that the All-Ireland Under 17 title was won last Sunday week and the minors are through to face Galway in the decider in two weeks’ time means that the usual addendum of “nothing coming through” can at least be shelved.
The future is far brighter than at any stage over the past decade or so.
Once again, as in 2014, the five-week gap between Munster final and All Ireland semi-final will be pinpointed as a possible reason for Cork not getting up to the pitch of the game.
It seems like an easy excuse but, since Cork beat Waterford in the 2006 All-Ireland semi-final, the Munster champions have met Munster opposition at the last-four stage on eight occasions and only triumphed once – Tipperary’s win over Limerick in 2009. Such a one-sided statistic cannot merely be put down to being a statistical anomaly.
As mentioned above, this was Waterford’s third year in-a-row coming to such a stage and in the end that carried more weight than Cork having won when the sides met in the Munster championship. Cork had got better with each game, having been underdogs each time; it was always going to be a tall order for that trend to continue upwards.
In the press conference afterwards, Waterford manager Derek McGrath felt that there had been more passion on show from his side compared to the June clash in Thurles. When we pressed him on anything else which had been different, he cited the match-ups.
Usually, Waterford put Noel
The five week gap between Munster final and All Ireland semifinal will be pinpointed as a possible reason
Connors marking Patrick Horgan, but this time the corner-back was detailed to pick up Alan Cadogan. While Horgan had one of his best games for Cork, scoring 12 points, the rest of the team only managed eight between them.
Cadogan threatened damage when he got the ball, but unfortunately that wasn’t often enough as the much-vaunted Waterford defensive system did its job. In the interests of fairness, as Cork selector Pat Hartnett said afterwards, Cadogan had been suffering from cellulitis, while Luke Meade’s broken finger sustained in the Munster final prevented him from having the kind of influence he had in the provincial championship.
For all the talk in the lead-up of the effect Tadhg de Búrca’s absence would have on Waterford, Darragh Fives proved to be a more-than-able deputy in the sweeper’s role, but the accusation could also be made that Cork made him look good with aimless balls which the number 15 won cleanly.
Of course, that’s only the first part of the job and he also made good use of the ball, barring one point attempt which went wide in the first half.
At midfield, Jamie Barron and Kevin Moran have been
the heartbeat of the Waterford team all year and both took their games to higher levels on Sunday.
They scored 2-5 between them and did well to negate the influence of Bill Cooper and Darragh Fitzgibbon in the first half, though the latter pair had begun to come into it before the sending off of Damien Cahalane.
Likewise, Mark Coleman found his hands full with Michael Walsh. Having showcased the attacking side of his game to great effect in Munster with raking crossfield passes, Coleman found himself placed on the back foot as Walsh, another who has driven Waterford on all year, used his experience to put in another influential display.
Cahalane’s red card will obviously be seen as a turning point, but it’s important to remember that Cork came back to lead by two in the wake of that before Austin Gleeson picked Christopher Joyce’s pocket to set up Jamie Barron for his first goal.
What should be of more concern was where Cahalane committed both of his yellow-card offences, a good distance from goal as Waterford’s tactic of dragging the Cork full-back line out of place went to plan.
Jake Dillon and Shane Bennett started as the inside twosome and neither scored but each created enough collateral damage to pave the way for their colleagues.
That, in essence, is what Waterford are about. When their system is spoken of, it’s the sweeper role which is given the most attention but it truly is a cohesive, overall system with everybody working to the same goal, allowing a mercurial talent like Austin Gleeson to be a peripheral presence for three quarters of the game before being its primary influencer at the business end.
Whether or not that system will be good enough to beat Galway is an entirely different question, though.