Opportunity knocks for Rebels
I know you’d need an extra two weekends, and the league could start a week earlier to take care of half of that, but this business of just the top two teams qualifying straight off for the final can mean that interest in the league is over with a couple of rounds to go.
My other suggestion would be to play the Fitzgibbon Cup before Christmas, get that out of the way so counties would have a clear run when the new year starts.
Anyway, enough of that, on to this weekend.
There are a lot of good games tomorrow, including probably the pivotal game in Division Two, between Clare and Wexford, but I’m going to focus here on one match — Cork against Kilkenny, in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Remember last year?
I was in Nowlan Park last year for that one. Cork had come back from the strike, had already beaten Limerick and Clare in consecutive games to secure their top flight status. Now, even with all the problems they’d had over the previous months, a glorious opportunity — a win over the reigning All-Ireland champions would strike a huge psychological blow for Cork, for the championship later on. We all know what happened, the mauling Cork got — Kilkenny couldn’t beat them by enough. I don’t think they were even satisfied with the 27-point win in the end. Certainly the crowd weren’t satisfied; Kilkenny received a huge round of applause as they went in at half-time, got another ovation at the end — this one was really stitched home.
Tomorrow, Cork have a chance to get a measure for revenge for that; additionally, with Kilkenny having lost to Tipperary last week, it could also end the visitor’s interest in the league this season.
The big thing here — will the crowd be as big in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as in Nowlan Park last year, will Cork hurling fans return the compliment?
There were over 15,000 in Kilkenny HQ, and they came for blood — will the Cork crowd be as big tomorrow, will they be as loud? And that’s what this game needs, a huge crowd to create an atmosphere.
We saw it last Sunday in Thurles, with over 20,000 present, and that was a major factor in Tipperary finally getting the better of Kilkenny as they were roared home by their fans in the final few minutes. Will we hear the same in Cork? If we don’t, especially given the fine weather we’re getting, it reflects very poorly on the Cork hurling supporters. Remember, there are a few interesting little subplots also, not least the perceived slight of Kilkenny by Donal Óg in his book. It should bring the crowds flocking to the park.
To the hurling, and this game is a bit like the Tipperary match last week, in that most of the pressure is on the home team. Kilkenny are depleted, still without several frontline players, but any team that has the likes of Jackie Tyrell, Brian Hogan, JJ Delaney, Tommy Walsh, with All Star goalkeeper PJ Ryan behind them, can’t be called weak.
Admittedly all of those are in defence, but good defence can win you big matches, and Kilkenny almost beat Tipperary last week. The weak link for Kilkenny is their forwards, who were poor in Semple Stadium last week, with the glaring exception of Michael Rice and John Mulhall.
However most of the pressure here is on Cork; they are far nearer full strength than Kilkenny, they’re at home, they probably have more collective work done, given that the champions were on their team holiday in early January — this is a game they must target.
The Cork fans don’t really know yet what this new team, under Denis Walsh, is really like. There are so many questions. Will Cork play the twin towers at any stage? If so, where will they play them? Michael Cussen and Aisake Ó hAilpín are both 6’7”, giants of men — if Cussen comes on, where will he be played? Both of them inside? One in the half-forward line, one at full-forward? Perhaps both of them in the half-forward line, to win ball in the air (you’d have to think, if they play on the wings, then Tommy and JJ will need ladders to get anywhere near them). Or will they just swap them? My own feeling is if Cork are struggling for possession in the half-forward line, we could see Cussen introduced there. Regardless, that’s a very strong Cork team — I’d hate to be trying to catch either of those midfielders! And what a bench Cork have — Seán Óg, Jerry O’Connor, Michael Cussen, that’s power.
This has all the makings of a fantastic game. A winner? It would be a very new experience for this Kilkenny team to lose against Tipperary and Cork in a matter of a week, but I think it’s going to happen here.
