These Rebels will rally but it won’t be easy
IT was a great week for Cork hurling up until yesterday afternoon.
At the top level, they’re a long way off it at the moment.
Just because you have minor and under-20 titles, it doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to happen for you.
They’ve generally been good on the tactical side of things this year but they were a little slack in some respects yesterday, particularly when leaving their full-back line exposed.
For the first time this year, Mark Coleman didn’t sit and protect the Cork inside line and marked Cian Lynch instead, which I felt was a mistake.
Yes, they needed to follow the Limerick halfforward line but not at the expense of leaving their own full-back line vulnerable.
With no one sitting, there was so much space and Robert Downey had no answer to Seamus Flanagan (inset) in the first half.
Limerick’s second goal underlined just how unselfish they are as a team are – Flanagan could easily have flashed the ball over the bar, as so many would, but he picked out Aaron Gillane instead.
At the other end, Cork rained any amount of high ball in on their two inside forwards and, predictably, they all came straight back out.
Patrick Horgan was dangerous when he got it in space but when it went in high it was a waste of time.
I did say before the final that I worried about how tight their defence could be and they were vulnerable at the back throughout.
But Kieran Kingston is a top manager. He’ll be the first to learn.
He’ll make changes, I’m sure. He did it last year, he’ll do it again and Cork will come back fighting.
But it’s going to take them another few years to get there.