Bench bullets: Does Cork's second wave pack a bigger punch than Tipp's?

Cork have depth and Cork have options. You didn’t need to be going through the turnstiles at Páirc Uí Chaoimh or enduring the Buttevant tailbacks en route to the Gaelic Grounds to be aware of such.

Wed, 16 Jul, 2025 - 04:25

Eoghan Cormican

Patrick Horgan wasn’t shy in telling us last spring that Cork have two for every position. The same player wasn’t behind the door earlier this year when declaring that the current panel is the strongest across his 18 seasons in red.

His fellow inside assassin, Alan Connolly, announced on the eve of Munster Championship that the internal training games are the best he’s seen across his six seasons in red.

And yet when the numbers are collated and tallied, bench contributions from the blue corner are equal to what the much-vaunted red reserves have chipped in with on the run to Croker.

In the interest of fairness, we’ve discounted Tipperary’s preliminary quarter-final pumping of Laois seeing as the latter are not a Liam MacCarthy outfit. That leaves six games on either side to study and draw summations.

The Cork total comes to 0-21, Tipperary level on 3-12.

The three goals from the Premier bench are the exclusive property of All-Ireland U20 winner Oisín O’Donoghue. Not part of the matchday 26 for either of their opening two games in Munster, his debut arrived 47 minutes into the potentially season-ending fixture away to Clare. It was he who won the 70th minute free that enabled the visitors go three in front.

It was fellow replacement Seán Kenneally who subsequently landed the insurance white flag. O’Donoghue wasn’t 30 seconds on the field at Thurles a week later when he stroked in the match-clinching goal.

Across 88 minutes and seven touches, this kid of Cashel King Cormacs has contributed 3-1, won a converted free, assisted a white flag and forced the turnover for another.

Their other chief calling card off the bench has a couple of years on O’Donoghue. The hurling intelligence of Noel McGrath is sent into action in the third quarter to see and exploit what tiring minds cannot.

Introduced seven minutes into the second half on the opening Munster Sunday, his first possession of 13 saw him angle over a near-impossible point from close to the Ryan Stand sideline.

From there, he assisted a Séamus Kennedy point, had a secondary assist for a Darragh McCarthy point, and issued the first pass in a glittering sequence for the second goal of brother John.

“Noel is going a long, long time so he knows when it’s time to play for a free (as he did late on against Kilkenny) or when it’s time to puck a ball into the corner and slow it down. He just brings a monumental amount,” notes Irish Examiner columnist Seánie McGrath.

“Seeing their underage players playing well, Sam O’Farrell, Darragh McCarthy and, of course, O’Donoghue, there’s something that can do to a camp and it can add an energy to the crowd as well that the players feed off, so that’s why I’d be very, very wary.”

Cork bench contributions are more balanced. Nine different scorers. Obvious observations are the re-emergence of Conor Lehane and Tommy O’Connell’s late-season lift up the pecking order. The other observation is that no Cork sub wasted the 20 additional minutes afforded to them in the Munster final.

O’Connell had an assist, a point, and a free won; Robbie O’Flynn and Brian Roche both assisted a white flag; Lehane was fouled for a converted free, won a puckout, and twice found the target; Shane Kingston thrice found the target.

Seánie McGrath felt the timing of Cork substitutions was off in last year’s final defeat to Clare. The onus is on the sideline to avoid such a repeat.

“Twelve months on, does Pat need to be a bit sharper, not early substitutions or anything like that, but if they’re flagging after 50-odd minutes, maybe some of the sharpshooters on the line need to come in a little bit earlier.

“Tommy O’Connell hasn’t got much game-time this year, but he nearly propelled Cork to victory when he came on in last year’s final, so while we know we have sharpshooters in reserve that can get deciding scores, they also have fellas like Tommy and Damien Cahalane, that if we are struggling in defence, who have shown they can do it on the big stage.”