Cork need concentration not perfection ahead of Clare clash
CONCENTRATION: Michael Kiely of Waterford is tackled by Sean O'Donoghue of Cork during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 1 match between Waterford and Cork at Walsh Park in Waterford. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Cork accept there is a problem. Cork know what the problem is. Cork have not been able to fix the problem. And so the problem keeps hurting them.
SuperValu Páirc UĂ Chaoimh, February 25. Pat Ryan occupies a swivel chair at the top of the media room underneath the South Stand.Â
He is digesting Cork’s first win of the League. A badly needed win at that.
“We'll look at that 20 minutes after half-time, and we'll know if we can put that together for 70 minutes, we'll be a very good team going forward this year,” Ryan said of a third quarter where his side outgunned the Déise 1-7 to 0-1.
What followed the third quarter perfectly captured Cork’s in-game concentration lapses. They oscillated from one extreme to the other.
They switched off to such an extent that Waterford whittled a 10-point gap back to two.
It was the latest example to emphasise the point that what Cork should be searching for is not 70 minutes of perfection, rather 70 minutes where they succeed in holding focus and not allowing themselves to suffer yet another damaging lull.
And if the fall-off does occur, at least manage it a great deal smarter than they have.
Cork are too often chasing and playing catch-up. They are not often enough calling the shots.
Corner-back Sean O’Donoghue neatly summed up the problem at last month’s Munster Championship launch in Cahir.
“When we’re going well and we’re scoring a lot, we’re still conceding a small bit. But then when we’re not going well, we’re not really scoring and we’re conceding a lot.
"There was a bit of a trend there that we’re trying to kill out. We have to keep nailing that concentration,” said the Cork captain.
The trend was not put to bed at Walsh Park. Instead, the trend resurfaced right from the throw-in.
This Sunday needs to be different, has to be different. Cork’s 2024 championship interest can’t afford another entry to the below list.
2024 Munster SHC Round 1: Waterford 2-25 Cork 1-25 Waterford hit their guests for 1-4 without reply to lead by six on 10 minutes. That lead had grown to seven on 21 minutes. Cork spent the next 22 minutes attempting to undo the damage. They succeeded in getting back level, once, but never led.
A malfunctioning radar was their issue early doors. The visitors didn’t score from play until the 12th minute. In the opening quarter, Joyce, Harnedy, Lehane, on four separate occasions, Barrett, and Horgan were either off target or short.
“I get the sense that this maybe wasn’t the best possible game for them to start with, in that if they were playing Limerick in the first round, I guarantee you they’d be coming out with a completely different mindset,” said Richie Hogan on GAAGO of Cork’s non-start.
“Lethargic, poor shot selection, and poor shot execution. They’re all guilty of it.” 2024 Allianz League Round 3: Cork 1-21 Waterford 1-19 Cork led 1-18 to 1-8 after 52 minutes. Managed only one point in the ensuing 15 minutes. Conceded eight white flags in the same period. A Waterford three-in-a-row in injury-time to cut the gap to two had Cork hanging on.
Another outing where Cork immediately shifted themselves onto the backfoot. Another outing of playing catch up. Eight behind on 20 minutes, 0-13 to 0-4 off the pace by the 26th minute.
Inside the opening 13 minutes, Cork posted four wides and dropped a similar number short. They were loose with their own puck-outs too.
“We were too slow and ponderous against a very good Kilkenny team that worked their socks off in the first 25 minutes,” said Pat Ryan afterward.
Clare turned to face the elements at Cusack Park only one in front, 0-14 to 2-7. But instead of Cork driving on from this position of strength upon the restart, they found themselves 0-21 to 2-8 in arrears on 54 minutes.
In a ten-minute spell either side of half-time, a pair of Tony Kelly goals were part of a 2-3 Banner pile-on, compared to Cork’s solitary white flag, that swung proceedings from level pegging to an eight-point Clare advantage.
A rare example where Cork ceded ground but still managed to come out on the right side. Wexford hit the first six points, whereas Cork didn’t hit a score from play until the 25th minute.
“Why are we not going after the game from day one,” Ryan asked post-match. “Teams are setting the tempo for us and then we sort of come back at them. You won’t get away with that in championship.”Â
: Six on the spin from Limerick in the six minutes before half-time handed the Treaty a double-scores 0-16 to 0-8 interval advantage.
“We didn’t work hard enough for that six minutes. We were probably waiting for the whistle to go at half-time and you can’t do that at this level,” mused the Cork boss.
Cork entered the game off the back of an 11-point Limerick battering. The criticism that flowed from that result, said then manager Kieran Kingston, affected the players and contributed to a “nervousness” in how they started here.
They started abjectly. Trailed 0-10 to 0-3 after 17 minutes and 0-15 to 0-4 by the 28th minute. Failure to fix this long-running problem against Clare on Sunday won’t simply hurt Cork, it’ll see them handed their exit papers.
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