Tony Considine says Cork lack leaders: 'The Munster Championship is no place for hiding'

Cork's Shane Kingston in action against Jamie Barron and Kevin Moran of Waterford. "Apart from Mark Coleman and Shane Kingston, and to a lesser extent Patrick Horgan, leadership was non-existent," wrote Considine. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Cork lacked leadership on the field and on the line against Waterford, according to former Clare selector Tony Considine. 

In his column in , Considine wrote: "They lacked leaders, apart from Mark Coleman and Shane Kingston, and to a lesser extent Patrick Horgan, leadership was non-existent. Hurling for five or 10 minutes in any game is no good.

"Leadership comes when your team really needs you, when things are going against you, it is then you have to do something about it. Cork did not have enough players doing that.

"They have some very good hurlers when things are going well, but when it is going the other way, some of them seem to go into hiding.

"The Munster Championship is no place for hiding, in fact inter-county hurling doesn't have room for passengers.

"They also seem to play a lot of individual hurling at times, when the collective approach would be much better.

"I'm sure a lot of Cork supporters looking at this game, and there are many, would be very disappointed with some of the very lazy frees that Cork were giving away. I would also say that they would be disappointed with leadership from the management. Kieran Kingston and his selectors will have to make some hard calls this week.

"It's not good enough pulling the jersey over your head anymore, you have to be well able to fill that jersey when you are playing for a county like Cork.

"Unfortunately, some of these players did not do that on Saturday. The selectors must remind them of that at every opportunity.

"Also, the management have to look at themselves and look at the reasons why these players are not doing that."