Cork hurlers can’t afford to be complacent in Offaly but tougher tests lie ahead

WITH just eight teams remaining in the hunt for the Liam MacCarthy Cup it seems strange to preview a tie where Cork are 1/100 to win away from home against one of the other remaining sides.

Yet that is the lay of the land as the Rebels travel to face Offaly in Tullamore on Saturday in an All-Ireland Preliminary quarter-final clash.

Those odds seem amiss, and downright insulting if you are an Offaly hurling supporter, but ultimately it is difficult to make a case for a victory for the Joe McDonagh winners over a team who are the only side to have scalped the five-in-a-row chasing Limerick in this year’s championship.

It should be a stepping stone to the more arduous tests ahead in the coming weeks, but Cork will travel to Tullamore fully aware that they must be fully tuned in and have to be totally professional in getting the job done to set up a clash with Dublin on Saturday week in Thurles.

At the start of the year most Cork fans were probably struggling to pinpoint the likely Cork starting line-up for the championship, and going by the changes that have been made since the opening round defeat to Waterford in Walsh Park, it would seem that the Cork selectors were not entirely sure either.

However, that is no longer the case, and you get the feeling that Cork are very close to having their best balanced possible side on the pitch now.

Damien Cahalane, Seamus Harnedy and Ethan Twomey are unavailable this weekend but hopefully will be fit for the quarter-final against Dublin. The likes of Robbie O’Flynn, Ciarán Joyce, who starts at midfield in Tullamore, and Brian Roche have been added back into the mix. 

O’Flynn and Roche might be used off of the pine while Joyce and Conor Lehane are the changes for the Cork side that beat Tipp. 

POWER

Offaly scored 11 goals in their five Joe McDonagh Cup games this year, and there is no doubt that they possess real quality in attack. There is just the general perception that they are lacking in physicality to really challenge the big guns – at least not yet.

Adam Screeney is the kind of hurler that makes you excited to watch the game, and his teammates Brian Duignan, Eoghan Cahill and Charlie Mitchell all would remind you of the great Offaly stickmen of yesteryear.

In saying that, the Cork defence had the measure of the Offaly attack when the two sides met in Round 4 of the league. 

They limited Offaly to just 0-16 that day with only five of those scores coming from open play. 

The likes of Niall O’Leary, Tim O’Mahony and Rob Downey put down markers that day in the Cork red, and it is no surprise that they are mainstays of the Cork defence now. 

It is unlikely that they will be in any mood to surrender those hard-earned jerseys by playing second fiddle to the homeside on Saturday.

At the other end, Cork landed 5-20 from play in the 0-16 to 5-28 rout, with Alan Connolly, with a hat-trick, Brian Hayes, with 1-1, and Shane Barrett, with a brace of points, giving us a demo of what they would be capable of come the Munster championship. 

A lot of seeds were laid that day, even if might have felt like nothing more than a glorified training session at the time.

Saturday presents a chance to get the train rumbling again after four inactive weeks since the win over Tipp. 

There are three possible knockout ties in the next four weeks. Win them all and Cork will be back in an All-Ireland final. 

Those four weeks are likely to pass in a flash, so Pat Ryan’s side must make sure they hit top form fairly quickly again, which means that regardless of the scoreline on Saturday a lot will be expected in terms of the performance.