Shuffling Rebel pack pays off for boss Walsh

CORK manager Denis Walsh admits he doesn’t know his starting team for the Munster championship opener against Tipperary on May 30.

Walsh’s side edged out the Premier County in their league clash on Sunday, a victory which sets up a NHL final meeting with Galway on May 2.

Ironically, Cork are due to face the Tribesman in the group stages (April 18) but the game has been rendered meaningless by results at the weekend.

Experimentation has been a hallmark of Walsh’s management this year with multiple changes from game to game regardless of opposition.

Few are complaining.

Cork have maintained an unbeaten record in this, his first full season at the helm and they top the table on 11 points from their six games (they drew with Waterford). However, with only two competitive games to go before that provincial showdown with Tipperary, Walsh is still unsure of his likely line up. Not that he is complaining.

“No, not yet, absolutely not. You have to be realistic — it’s my first (full) season in. The management and myself took a gamble in rotating all the players, that could easily have backfired and ye wouldn’t all be here talking nicely to me! When you have so many players putting their hands up, it’s very difficult.

“I have a reasonable idea as to what we want but there are guys that came in and did the business, so look, I’m sticking with my 11 certainties!”

Even with their half-dozen changes (and more) from game to game, Cork have still managed to put up several fine, cohesive performances with everyone gelling in well regardless of combinations.

The win over Kilkenny a few weeks ago was big, but the Cats are yet some way short of full steam, and had a man sent off before the break. Last Sunday, against Tipperary, was different. Where Cork have been chopping and changing during the league, Tipp have been building steadily. Manager Liam Sheedy and his selectors picked their strongest available hand for the Páirc Uí Chaoimh encounter, the venue for the championship meeting in just under eight weeks. In the circumstances then, and especially the way they came back from falling four points behind after a whirlwind restart by the visitors and with the wind against them, this was a huge win for Cork.

Walsh agrees. “No disrespect to the other teams, but we felt going into this game that it was a step-up in intensity and sharpness, and that’s how it turned out. You either respond like we responded after 10 minutes of the second half or you don’t. It takes everything you have to have courage and commitment and no little skill to respond. But fair play to Tipperary too, they turned on the gas after half-time and we were struggling.

Maybe in that 10 minutes after half-time if you’re not in the game you have to try and kill it rather than conceding 1-4 (it was actually 1-5, as Cork went from four points up to four points behind).” Cork on the high road then, heading off to Portugal this week for some serious preparation. Tipperary, meanwhile, will reorganise, according to Liam Sheedy, who took Sunday’s setback on the chin.

“We were very lucky to be only four points down at half-time,” he admitted — “Cork had done the bulk of the hurling but we had some heroic defending to keep it to four points at half-time. We felt we were still in the game at that stage with a strong breeze, and in fairness the lads responded. We had some great chances early in the second half which we didn’t take and that probably cost us. In fairness the lads have had six games in a row and we probably saw a bit of tiredness in the last 10 minutes, lads were out on their feet. It was a frantic pace, played in very sporting fashion, with only one point in it at the end — unfortunately for us we were at the wrong end of it. That ends our chances in the league, and we’re disappointed with that. You can train all you like Tuesday and Thursday but this is where you get a chance to try lads out and understand what your panel is made of and what your team is made of — what better chance than to come down to Cork and play them in an important league game.”

Unlike his Cork counterpart, however, Liam has a good idea of his best 15: “We’re very close. We have a fair idea what the line-up will look like but this isn’t a closed shop by any means, the championship team will probably show changes from last year and that’s the beauty of it.

“Some guys are stepping up to the mark — I thought Mikey Cahill did very well today, Brendan Maher again in midfield before his injury. We’re still building, still a few more to come back from injury. We’ll sit down at the end of the league and review stuff.”