Three reasons Cork hurlers are through to Croke Park rematch with Limerick

Formlines

While Cork hadn’t been hugely impressive in beating Offaly the previous week, it was still a third straight championship win for them while Dublin were looking to get over the trauma of a 16-point loss to Kilkenny in the Leinster final.

The pre-match odds were probably weighted in Cork’s favour a bit too much but, even so, once they go ahead there was never a sense that they wouldn’t win.

And so, the formlines were strengthened – as Pat Ryan pointed out, the last time the county won four in a row was 2006.

Clean sheet

Though it was the first time across 11 matches in the Allianz Hurling League and the Munster and All-Ireland championships that Cork failed to score a goal, the fact that they didn’t allow one was arguably of more importance as Dublin’s troubles with point-scoring meant that green flags were becoming more essential the longer the game went on.

They upped the ante in the closing stages but Cork held firm.

Experience

Few survivors remained from Dublin’s last semi-final appearance – coincidentally against Cork in 2013 – while Cork were able to call upon many of those who were involved in the run to the All-Ireland final of 2021.

That campaign included a win over Dublin and Cork had also beaten Dublin in 2020. From a confidence point of view, it was an added asset going into the game and Cork made sure that it never tipped into over-confidence.