Patrick Horgan: Limerick and Cork have good reasons to go hard and go smart

TUSSLE: Limerick’s Mike Casey and Brian Hayes of Cork grapple for possession in last year's Munster SHC final at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Pic: James Crombie, Inpho

Three-quarters of an hour after the Kilkenny-Cork game finished last Sunday in Nowlan Park, there were Cork players still out on the field signing autographs and taking selfies for the travelling supporters. That’s some going for an away game.

And that registers with the players. They love having that huge following, and they certainly don’t take it for granted.

In the last year or two I’ve seen that described as hype, almost as if it’s a negative. I thought the whole point was to have big crowds following hurling and creating a fantastic atmosphere - to have a full stadium, music blasting, people getting into the game and supporting their team. Where’s the downside in that?

Limerick have great support as well, and I’ve seen their players give their time after games to the supporters. Kilkenny were the same when they were on top.

In a game situation that huge support is a help to a team, no question. Coming down the home straight it raises the energy and benefits Cork. That boost isn’t necessarily at the expense of the opposition, by the way. It wouldn’t affect an experienced side like Limerick because of the belief they have in their playing system.

This Saturday evening in the Gaelic Grounds is a big one not just for the points, but because it’s getting towards the time when Cork and Limerick will both want to get their championship teams on the field.

It's a chance for both teams to stress-test their playing systems. For that reason I think whoever is available for Cork needs to be played, and the same for Limerick. It looks like both will progress to the league final, and you can’t go into a league final without proof that the system is working.

Cork are facing Offaly in the last game, and as well as they’re doing, Cork will expect to win that with something to spare. When Limerick played them last weekend it was clear they were a little bit flat, though John Kiely did say afterwards they’d put in a block of hard training.

I don’t subscribe to these notions that teams don’t want to show their hand in games at this time of year. You go as hard as you can in every game. The thinking behind ‘you don’t want to give away too much’ doesn’t really stand up if you examine it.

Barry Walsh has given Ben O'Connor a selection headache. Pic: Inpho

These players all know each other: they play against each other a few times a year. Positions may change, and as the play becomes fluid players pop up in different parts of the field, but both teams play to their system.

Stopping Limerick’s system is a challenge because they play it so well. You push onto their half-forwards? That line can still win ball in tight spaces, the hands are good, the passes stick - and their full-forward line has worked a one-on-one or two-on-two - now you’re in trouble.

It’ll be interesting to see how referee Seán Stack handles the game because if you’re physical enough in the middle third and don’t give Limerick the opportunity to get going with their triangles, and to connect with the inside line, you have some chance. If you don’t, and the players outside get their heads up to see what’s on inside, then it becomes a lot harder.

Cork’s approach will be interesting, because it’ll show how they want to counteract Limerick. If they play three up, for instance, they’ll be trying to isolate the Limerick defenders rather than allowing them to back each other up and overlap.

There are places up for grabs on both teams still. Cork have a few defenders putting their hands up, while last week Barry Walsh gave Ben O’Connor something to think about up front. Darragh O’Donovan will be a big loss for Limerick - he’s a key man in terms of linking the play, feeding the forwards, getting that hard work done in midfield.

So I’m expecting a real contest in Limerick, not shadow boxing, whatever that is. If you think about it, the shadow boxing argument would mean players saying, ‘when we play this game we won’t do what we’ve been practicing and preparing for months’. That makes no sense.

I’ve also heard a bit of the ‘only one thing matters to Cork, or Limerick, this year’ argument, and that baffles me as well.

People seem very keen to make hurling all about one day and one game, the All-Ireland final. This weekend you’ve got two great teams, a keen rivalry, a full stadium, or near enough to it. Enjoy the game for what it is. That’s why the lads are training for six, seven, eight months - to run out onto the field and look around at the crowd, take in the noise, and think, ‘this is great - this is why I’ve done all the work, and I’m going to enjoy it.’ 

When he was managing Cork Pat Ryan often said to us, ‘you’re going to work, that’s serious, but you come to training, to hurl, and that’s supposed to be fun’. And he was right. You don’t start off playing under-nine with your club to be thinking after a street league game, ‘well, we’re on to the next match now’. You play because you enjoy it, and sometimes a player can lose track of that.

On that note, there’s been a bit of discussion of Alan Connolly’s comments after the Kilkenny game last week, when he said the team wanted to “win the league, win Munster and win the All-Ireland, that’s our goal.” I thought that was great. That’s how every team thinks. I guarantee that even teams which have no hope at all of winning the All-Ireland are still in their meetings saying, ‘this is our aim, to win the All-Ireland’.

There’s a bit of a catch-22 here in that if Alan had just said, ‘we’re only thinking about the next game now’ last Sunday people would be saying it was typical - a player saying nothing, or being too serious altogether.

Then he expresses something that every other team and player thinks, or should think, and people are saying Cork are cocky, or he should have kept quiet. You can’t win.