They've poked the bear, now Cork must stay on the throttle

Cork were really impressive in their opening three league games last year before ending the campaign with a whimper

Sat, 05 Mar, 2022 - 07:35

I’M off on the train later (haven’t really used the train at all in last 10 years) en route to Dublin. I’m getting dropped to Limerick Junction to get on the Cork train to Heuston Station. It is a roundabout way of getting to the capital, but it’s less hassle than making your way from west Clare to Ennis, via Colbert Station and on to the Limerick-Tipperary border.

I’m covering the Dublin-Kilkenny game for RTÉ and am really looking forward to it. I won’t get to see the Cork-Galway game live, but I’ll make sure to see it before bating back down the road — sorry, the tracks — and making for home.

On our podcast on Monday morning, Mark Landers spoke about the Clare-Cork league semi-final meeting in 1998, when Cork gave us a whipping, before we returned the compliment in the Munster semi-final 10 weeks later. Mark mentioned how Cork may have similarly poked the bear last week when beating Limerick, but I never think it is any harm to get into the opposition’s subconscious, irrespective of however they want to twist the narrative to suit themselves.

Last week was an important statement and I think it’s vital now that Cork don’t take the foot off the throttle this evening. Cork were really impressive in their opening three league games last year before ending the campaign with a whimper, losing heavily to Limerick and Galway in their last two matches.

Every side is focused on being right for the summer, but teams can sometimes try and hold too much back for the championship by overthinking what’s just there in front of them earlier in the season.

Derek McGrath mentioned that in the podcast because he felt that he was maybe too clever as Waterford manager with the league in 2018 after reaching the All-Ireland final the previous year. He spoke about how a team can lose confidence very quickly by taking the foot off the gas, especially when there may be no need with confidence already high from the team motoring nicely during the spring.

Galway may feel they got that balance all wrong last weekend against Wexford, especially when handing the initiative to the team they have to travel to play in the opening round of the round robin in Leinster. That result has put real pressure on Galway now if they have serious ambitions of reaching the league semi-
finals. Galway are on four points, Cork and Wexford are on six. If Cork win and Wexford beat Offaly as expected, Galway’s last game against Clare will be a dead rubber where they might learn nothing.

In that context, this is a really big game this evening because Galway need to make a stand like Cork did last week. With Cork going so well, I expect there to be the biggest attendance for a Cork home league game in years.

The Cork public will be expecting another big performance and I think Cork will deliver it to ensure they have one foot in the league semi-finals by tonight.

DUBLIN will also effectively seal their spot in the last four with a win against Kilkenny this evening in Parnell Park. They have certainly been the most impressive team in Group B, while I’d always fancy the Dubs in Parnell, no matter who they play there.

The Dubs were really impressive for 60 minutes against Tipperary before withstanding a late Tipp surge to hang on for a one-point win. Kilkenny know that they will need a big performance to secure the two points required to keep their semi-final hopes as real as Brian Cody always wants them to be.

Cody will be glad to have the Ballyhale contingent back but he also knew that he needed to find a few players during their opening three games. Tom Phelan, who got 2-1 last weekend against Laois, will get another chance now to prove he can cut it at this level. His two goals were top drawer finishes against Laois, but this will be a whole new test. I fancy the Dubs to shade it.

I’m looking forward to heading to Cusack Park tomorrow for the clash with the old enemy. Clare haven’t exactly been burning it up this spring but Limerick coming to town is always enough to get the locals riled up.

There will be more interest than normal too because we all want to see Tony Kelly weave his magic after returning from injury, while Peter Duggan is also back for the first time since 2019. It seems too like John Conlon has been restored to centre-back so this is the ideal yardstick to see if that move can work again in what has been a troublesome position to fill since the start of the year.

After three defeats, Limerick will be looking for more than just settling old scores because they’ll certainly want to have one win in the bag before they face into Offaly in their last game. I expect Limerick to be at full strength, minus Seamus Flanagan. Cian Lynch struggled to get going the last day so they’ll be anxious to get him pulling the strings again.

No disrespect to Offaly, but with Limerick’s next game against a top team being their first round-robin championship match against Cork, John Kiely will be anxious to steady the nerves with a win here. I think they’ll just about get it.

There has been a lot of talk about Waterford to date this year. Derek was very positive about their chances on the podcast. Anytime I’m talking to John Mullane, Mul is always fierce upbeat about their prospects this season.

Let’s face it though, Waterford were lucky to scramble a draw against the Dubs while they got out of jail with their lives against Antrim last weekend. Parnell Park and Corrigan Park aren’t easy places to go to but Waterford haven’t delivered that statement performance yet to say that they’re as good as everyone — especially their own — think they are.

Tipperary will certainly have their own motivation too, especially after Liam Cahill’s decision to turn down the Tipp job to stay with Waterford. You’d have to respect Liam’s decision, but you can still imagine how some of the Tipp senior players may be twisting that narrative, irrespective of how they viewed the call. ‘Hi, we’ll show this guy that he made the wrong decision.’

There is a lot riding on this match, but both managers are coming at this from different directions. Cahill is in his third year, whereas Colm Bonnar is still getting to know his players and his need for the extra couple of league games is more pressing than Liam’s. It has the making of a cracking game and I fancy Waterford.

Offaly looked destined for a relegation play-off before the league even started whereas the other spot was always likely to come down to tomorrow’s Round 4 clash between Antrim and Laois. Antrim have a 45 points better scoring difference so a draw is no good to Laois. On current form, Antrim deserve to win. They should, but despite the hammerings they’ve taken, Laois know full well that this is the only game that counts if they want to avoid a relegation play-off.

It’s no surprise that it’s live on TG4, with Clare-Limerick being a deferred showing. I’m glad, not just because I’ll be in Cusack Park, but because
Antrim and Laois deserve that live TV audience in what is probably the most important match of the weekend.