Plenty to ponder for Jimmy Barry-Murphy as Cork forwards struggle for possession

Consistency, or lack of it, must be the biggest concern for supporters of the Cork senior hurling team at present.

To find a similar lack of performance and work-rate as displayed by Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s men in Thurles on Sunday, all one has to do is look back at Cork’s opening league game when they failed to match Kilkenny’s endeavour.

The statistics from the league final show Cork were simply beaten to the punch on far too many occasions by a Waterford side that were ravenous for success. Derek McGrath’s men made 67 tackles, compared to 48 by Cork. There were 21 turnovers against Cork players in possession.