Cork hurlers need fresh approach to take down Limerick in Croke Park

CORK face the ultimate hurling litmus test on Sunday when they face the five-in-a-row chasing Limerick at a packed Croke Park for a place in this year’s All Ireland hurling final. 

It will take Cork’s best performance of the year to emerge on the winning side. Years of watching sport, and sheer logic, would tell us that it is extremely difficult to beat a team of the calibre of Limerick twice.

Pat Ryan’s side famously managed to scalp John Kiely’s men by the ridiculous scoreline of 3-28 to 3-26 in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but that was a do-or-die game for Cork, whereas it wasn’t for Limerick. 

On Sunday the stakes will be raised considerably. Both teams will be all in, and someone is going to get cleaned out.

Cork are likely to try and bombard Limerick with long puck-outs again, considering that the approach worked so well in the Munster championship clash. Both first-half goals from Seamus Harnedy and Shane Barrett came from such long deliveries, and it seemed like the first time in forever that the Limerick half-back line was under pressure in the air.

The Limerick management have had a long time to digest this development, so no doubt they will have plans in place to ensure that Cork do not have as much joy this time around.

The obvious way of doing this would be to drop more bodies deeper, but if they do this it might have the knock-on effect of giving Cork more room to get players loose to pick up medium-range puck-outs. This is something we have been stating for years, a short or medium puck-out strategy only really works if you have a long option that keeps the opposition honest and prevents them from pushing up.

Another aspect of Cork’s play that Limerick will probably be planning for is how to deal with the buzzing Cork centre-forward Shane Barrett, who has been central to so much of Cork’s attacking play. The Blarney man is full of energy and will not stop running while on the pitch, and Limerick captain Declan Hannon will not enjoy being pulled all over Croke Park.

Ultimately, Cork must try all the tactics that worked so well in the round-robin game, but they must also bring something new to the table, as we can expect that Limerick will have ample plans in place to neutralise what worked that day, such as making sure that they withdraw players back to protect Diarmaid Byrnes and Hannon.

A lot has been made of the fact that Cork have failed to reach the heights of their wins over Limerick and Tipperary when beating Offaly and Dublin.

One of the main reasons for these ‘flat’ performances was the fact that Cork have struggled to get the ball into the hands of Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes up front, with Connolly only having two possessions in the entire match against Dublin while Hayes only managed the one more. 

If Cork could get both those players into double digits in terms of the amount of times they get the ball into their hands, then they would have a great chance of dethroning Limerick.

You would also expect that if Cork are to prevail there would have to be huge contributions off the bench from the likes of Shane Kingston and Robbie O’Flynn. If the game is in the melting pot when they enter the pitch then Cork have every chance.

Of course, the illness that has recently swept through the Cork panel severely impacted on those displays against Offaly and Dublin. All Cork fans will be hoping that everyone is at 100% now, as this is needed of Cork are going to win on Sunday.

BATTLEGROUND

Luke Meade partnered Darragh Fitzgibbon in the Cork midfield against Dublin, but you would think that Cork will need much more physicality to combat the likes of Will O’Donoghue and Cathal O’Neill on Sunday, as the middle third is going to be a war zone.

Ethan Twomey hasn’t played since being concussed against Tipp so it would be a huge ask for him to step back in, but Cork looked more balanced with the Barrs man in there.

Cork are within touching distance of the promised land, but they could not have a bigger obstacle to deal with to reach that goal. Whichever way it goes, Sunday could well be one for the ages.