Munster exit looms large for Cork as they struggle to strengthen their defence

Ciarán Joyce’s absence from backline heaps woe on Rebels ahead of key Limerick clash

The team news dropped early on Leeside yesterday, a lunchtime bulletin to confirm that Ciarán Joyce would play no part in tomorrow’s key Munster SHC round-robin game against Limerick – Cork’s third in the series.

A hamstring injury picked up after the Clare defeat did for a player that Cork can ill afford to do without.

In both years that Joyce has been part of the senior team he has been nominated for an All-Star.

When they made a third-quarter surge to lead by seven points at one stage last time out against the Banner, Joyce’s driving runs from the heart of the defence were a feature of it.

Bad news being dealt with early and decisively to get it out of the way. But it was the only listed change to the starting team from Clare.

Genuine? Cork are not given to tricking up their teams with subterfuge. In both championship games so far, they’ve started as named.

For the Clare game, the temptation may have been to hold their cards closer to their chest. There were six changes after all.

So it was a statement in itself to let the public know the extent of the response to what felt like an emergency after Walsh Park.

Now the message appears to be one of calm and faith.

Cork teams have reacted well to a swell of changes in the past. The public does too, always stirred by the flourish of youth, it seems. Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s six debutants – Dónal Óg Cusack, Neil Ronan, Mickey O’Connell, Wayne Sherlock, Timmy McCarthy and Ben O’Connor – were a catalyst for their 1999 All-Ireland triumph. Colm Spillane, Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Shane Kingston and Luke Meade had a similarly uplifting effect to win the 2017 Munster title when they came in en masse for that year’s championship.

But even in the seven years since, the advances in strength and conditioning make such swift assimilation much more challenging.

Asked after the Clare game whether the six changes made had worked, Cork manager Pat Ryan shrugged his shoulders and said, “We didn’t win. That is the bottom line.”

While acknowledging a good attitude adjustment. The problem for Cork is that there may be too many break-glass units to press in these situations, that their choice of personnel is too great with so many players around the same level and bringing much the same qualities.

Plenty of pace but too much of it channelled in the one direction. Forward.

They simply haven’t defended well enough for long enough and with sufficient numbers in either of their games to date, mirroring how they finished last year’s campaign.

For Clare’s second and third goals the last day, the absence of covering tacklers was glaring.

Uncomfortable

Reviewing the O’Donnell goal would have been difficult, especially for those who deemed chasing back not worth the effort. Even the optics seemed poor when Diarmuid Ryan popped a pass into his unmarked full-forward who had time to turn onto his right and then back to his left without the uncomfortable distraction of a red jersey upon him.

Similarly, David Fitzgerald had time to pick his spot after travelling 50 metres once he stepped inside Eoin Downey for the third goal, though Luke Meade did give chase to no avail. Still, a sense that for prevention it’s been every man for himself.

Goalkeeper Patrick Collins has come under scrutiny too for his decisions around distribution and that was the source of the first goal that O’Donnell laid on for Aidan McCarthy.

The concession of big scores have

‘Unless they get it right at the back, they can’t expect to go forward’

been a problem since their last clean sheet against Waterford on their opening day in 2023.

Since then their five opponents have averaged above 31 points, Tipperary 2-25 (31), Clare 2-22 (28) Limerick 3-25 (34), Waterford 2-25 (31), Clare 3-26 (35).

And while Cork can point to the fact that they’ve lost two of the five games by a point, two more by two and three points and a draw mixed in for a -7 score difference, it is scant consolation. They’ve been too easy to read and too easy to turn.

The defeats to Waterford and Clare leave Cork facing their most precarious position since the introduction of round-robin groups to Munster in 2018, facing exit and the unwanted sequence of a fifth successive round-robin defeat.

Only Waterford have lost more games in succession – six between 2018 and 2019.

Cork are of course the only team that has lost their opening two round-robin games and still advanced from the group, in third place in 2022.

Back then their pathway was slightly more benign with Waterford coming off a three-week break during which they reputedly committed to an intense training regime that ultimately affected their sharpness after their league victory that year. Waterford were a different team before and after that break.

And Cork also had a Tipperary team already out of the competition after three successive defeats when they met them in the last round.

This time Tipp await again in Cork’s last game but before that, Limerick will appreciate the benefit of getting provincial business wrapped up in advance tomorrow so they can buy extra time for the road ahead.

The Cork public’s appetite shows no sign of waning. As it stands, tomorrow evening is veering towards the first GAA full house at the Páirc since the redevelopment in 2017.

They’ll be emboldened by how close they went to taking out the champions a little over 12 months ago.

But even then they were hit for 3-25 that day. Unless they get it right at the back, they can’t expect to go forward.