All-Ireland SHC Semi-Final Cork v Galway: August 12th, 3.30pm

TheCoolWay

What do people think of the big game at the weekend? Galway follower here, feel Cork will put up a good fight but expect us to pull clear with 10, 15 to go. All due respect but they look pretty weak this year from what I have seen...

eigrod

Cork fan here, but I think Galway will win, but won't be that easy. If Canning is in form, then Cork really don't have a powerful player to stop him. However, if Canning and one or two others don't perform, then Cork have the players to run up a big score and could edge it.

teednab-el

Is there a thread on this already?

Galway are a good team and are better on paper, I expect them to beat Cork by around 5 points. A bit early for Cork to come trough and win a big game on their first year with JBM but these games will be good for the future of the building process for this Cork team. However if, Galway dont perform Cork will make them pay. Hope it will be a good match.

porterbelly

Posted this in another thread but might as well throw it in here. In response to how Galway have collapsed over the years after good performances


I'd argue that Galway are a different animal completely this year. They're no longer just relying on natural hurlers to see them through, they now have serious physical work done. Invariably they came unstuck in the past because when they weren't allowed to play their game they had nothing to fall back on. They now have lads who are flying fit and plenty of lads with heavy shoulders who aren't afraid to use them. To see the shape the likes of Joe Canning and Iarla Tannion are in compared to last year is testament to the work they've put in.

Cork will be no pushover, they'll be well up for it, but i feel if Galway's forwards click, their pace and movement could be way too much for Cork,particularly for the likes of O'hAilpín, were Galway to station Donnellan or David Burke on him.

My only concern for Galway is that the Kilkenny game was never really in the melting pot because we always had them at arms length. If the semi is within a couple of points and nip and tuck in the last 10, Cork would have to be fancied given how they pulled it out of the fire v Waterford and are used to the tight games in the Munster championship.

Still keep coming back to Galway. Their physicality is at a new level now, they have some seriously powerful operators like Andy Smith, Tannion, Conor Cooney, Niall Burke, Niall Donoghue Canning and Donnellan, and I'll have a few quid on Galway to cover the -2 handicap

TheCoolWay

Galway are -2??

porterbelly

porterbelly wrote: »

I'd argue that Galway are a different animal completely this year. They're no longer just relying on natural hurlers to see them through, they now have serious physical work done.

The difference between this year and last is simple really..... a raft of new additions.
I don't buy into this ''Tag'' mentality. What happened over the last few years was on the basis of the lads who played, weren't up to it simple as that. There was no underlying county border hoodoo.

I read comments in the other thread where lads said ''Galway still have things to prove in relation to ''one big game, one bad game'' then they go and state that they thought Cork will win.

On what exactly?.... cause what Cork did at regular intervals until 2005?, they've shown nothing the past few years, starting to resemble our footballers though the sentiment changed after around the 7th or 8th year.

Last year counts for nothing, if you want to bet on games on the basis of older trends you'll find yourself out of pocket fairly quickly.

Don't get me wrong, they have a chance, they're there on merit. But on the basis of the championship this year we should beat them.

My only concern for Galway is that the Kilkenny game was never really in the melting pot because we always had them at arms length. If the semi is within a couple of points and nip and tuck in the last 10, Cork would have to be fancied given how they pulled it out of the fire v Waterford and are used to the tight games in the Munster championship.

You can look at that two ways. You choose the somewhat negative one. I'll give you the other side of it.
''Kilkenny just couldn't close the gap, whenever they got under the 3 goal mark we pushed on again and kept the 8-9 point lead''.

What would you rather, a team that rallied late to snatch a victory or one whos had massive leads early in each of their names without being troubled?. I'll take the latter any day, don't forget Maurice missed a handful of free's again the last day, Canning won't do likewise and W'ford have always struggled as a goal threat.

porterbelly

People from outside Galway don't appreciate the massive change that has been made in terms of training and preparation since Anthony Cunningham took charge. In the past the team might train twice a week and go through the motions, a complete waste of time for modern day inter county GAA. It's all about high intensity training, laying the ground work early in the season and topping that up during the championship months. Galway were codding themselves in the past with the complete lack of preparation, you have to be putting in the 5/6 nights a week, be it collectively or individually and effectively devote your life for the few months if you want a Liam McCarthy. Galway seemed to have finally copped on in this department. In the past you'd see and hear of players being out on the lash throughout the season, not a peep this season.

This is the biggest reason I feel Galway have a great chance this year. Yes, the new players have had a good impact but I believe if we got our act together in years gone by we would have seen a lot more semis and finals. It's great to see Cunningham give the young lads a chance, and what really stands put about them is they're big men, well able for the cut and thrust of championship hurling. Johnny Coen is 21 and had a massive game v KK, most memorably emptying Richie Power with a shoulder at one stage in the first half. Niall Donohue is 21 and has the physicality and ability to be one of the top full backs in the country in a couple of years, currently serving his apprenticeship in the corner and on the wing. Niall Burke is 21 and had a huge league campaign, give him a yard and he'll stick it over. Conor Cooney is 19, scored 2-1 v Offaly, a massive young lad well able for tough stuff and will be a huge player for Galway in time in the half forward line, top scorer in the Galway championship. David Burke, 21, the pick of the bunch, unbelievably natural hurler, gave Tommy Walsh nightmares v KK.

The future for Galway is very very bright, primarily because of the sea change in attitude and training and preparation. Whether it will be enough to win a Liam this year who knows, but certainly over the next few years if the standards remain the same, we should have Liam back where he belongs!

eigrod

porterbelly wrote: »

This is the biggest reason I feel Galway have a great chance this year.

For Galway to win the AI they will have to have beaten Kilkenny (1st part of the job done), Cork and Kilkenny (again) or Tipperary. That's a huge task and if they do it, it will probably the most hard earned hurling All Ireland any team has ever won.

Not sure any team has ever beaten the "big 3" on their way to winning an All Ireland before.

Kojak

eigrod wrote: »

Not sure any team has ever beaten the "big 3" on their way to winning an All Ireland before.

AFAIK Clare done it in 1997

gammygils

Galway are missing Cyril Donnellan. He's a big loss. Scored 5 from play against KK.

O.A.P

gammygils wrote: »

Galway are missing Cyril Donnellan. He's a big loss. Scored 5 from play against KK.

Is that for sure? I thought there was a chance he would play.

I hate to watch Galway play Cork in hurling,(my poor hart) we have lost more than we have won over the years but we always belive it is ours to loose.
I dont see the next day any different, 50-50 I think.

Diabhal Beag

There's a decent chance Donnellan will start on Sunday or at least feature.

As for Galway's chances I think this is the match that will prove whether they've banished the inconsistent tag under Cunningham. They won't demolish Cork like they did in the first half of the KK match and it's a different Cork side confidence-wise than the side Galway hammered in Limerick.

I'm massively looking forward to seeing how Tannian does in midfield on Sunday. He's made the position his own this year.

randd1

If Galway play to the level they showed against Kilkenny, especially if they create the space up front and defend with the same intensity and physicality, then you'd have to assume they will beat Cork.

If Cork play to the level they showed against Tipp, and get a run on Galway, they could cause the Galway defense serious problems as they have the pace and movement to really hurt Galway.

Galway look to be different animal to the chokers of the last few years. I always said if Galway got someone in place to sort out whatever was in their heads that stopped them from delivering in the big games, everyone would be in trouble. Cunningham fits the bill here. I think he has Galway in a perfect position, I think if they play to their form then Galway will win. But Cork are Cork, they have a natural confidence and when they get to Croke Park can be hard to stop.

Galway by 4-6 points.

eigrod

Kojak wrote: »

AFAIK Clare done it in 1997

You're quite correct. And indeed they beat Tipp twice. Fantastic achievement.

aidan24326

TheCoolWay wrote: »

What do people think of the big game at the weekend? Galway follower here, feel Cork will put up a good fight but expect us to pull clear with 10, 15 to go. All due respect but they look pretty weak this year from what I have seen...

Please don't even say it! Cork in championship in Croke Park are always dangerous, you can never ever take them for granted. This game could well be very close and we know how great Galway are at winning tight games. So I wouldn't be counting a single chicken just yet.

That said Galway deserve to be favourites. We have the better team on paper and the forwards to do serious damage IF they show up on the day and play like we know they can. For me this is the most important game for a Galway hurling team in many years because it's such a big chance to banish the idea that they can't put two performances back to back in big games.

The chokers tag still lingers and that won't go away unless they go out and produce a performance against Cork. I think they will produce a good performance but I wouldn't bet my life on it. Old doubts remain and I really hope they can put that to bed on Sunday.

Mountainlad

gilberto_eire wrote: »

The difference between this year and last is simple really..... a raft of new additions.
I don't buy into this ''Tag'' mentality. What happened over the last few years was on the basis of the lads who played, weren't up to it simple as that. There was no underlying county border hoodoo.

I read comments in the other thread where lads said ''Galway still have things to prove in relation to ''one big game, one bad game'' then they go and state that they thought Cork will win.

On what exactly?.... cause what Cork did at regular intervals until 2005?, they've shown nothing the past few years, starting to resemble our footballers though the sentiment changed after around the 7th or 8th year.

Last year counts for nothing, if you want to bet on games on the basis of older trends you'll find yourself out of pocket fairly quickly.

Don't get me wrong, they have a chance, they're there on merit. But on the basis of the championship this year we should beat them.



You can look at that two ways. You choose the somewhat negative one. I'll give you the other side of it.
''Kilkenny just couldn't close the gap, whenever they got under the 3 goal mark we pushed on again and kept the 8-9 point lead''.

What would you rather, a team that rallied late to snatch a victory or one whos had massive leads early in each of their names without being troubled?. I'll take the latter any day, don't forget Maurice missed a handful of free's again the last day, Canning won't do likewise and W'ford have always struggled as a goal threat.

Yeah, but if you bet on Galway you'd be out of pocket pretty quickly too

To be fair to Cork, they are nothing like the Galway footballers, who are just sh*te. They've shown plenty of form this year, and one thing I think you should be assured of before the all-ireland semi is that Galway won't produce a performance to match that of the Kilkenny game.

They don't have to, but Cork will put it up to them. Getting that tough game against Waterford and the return of Lehane will benefit Cork and they will make a game of this for a good part of the match at least.

I would favour Galway, but to be fair Gilberto, as a Galway fan that wrote off Waterford last year, I'd have to say the lack of caution from you is hard to credit really. Most other Galway supporters know that while there is cause for hope, they will have to perform to win this game.

Orizio

Have to agree with the lads from the Wesht here, can't see past Galway by 4-6 points.

aidan24326

Orizio wrote: »

Have to agree with the lads from the Wesht here, can't see past Galway by 4-6 points.

But you can appreciate why any sensible Galway supporter will be wary. Our hurlers have let us down so many times in the past that no Galway person could be overly confident about this one.

A reproduction of the Kilkenny game won't be possible nor will it be necessary but Galway will still need to play well as this Cork team are not going to roll over and I reckon they'll be happy they're playing Galway at this stage rather than KK or Tipp. We know what Cork will bring to the table but as ever we don't know which Galway team will show up.

Orizio

aidan24326 wrote: »

But you can appreciate why any sensible Galway supporter will be wary. Our hurlers have let us down so many times in the past that no Galway person could be overly confident about this one.

Yes but I'm inclined this year is different, with a far superior and very astute management team, the best crop of young players in the country and the most talented hurler in the country properly fit...finally.

And for Cork, there are as many variables, no obvious person to mark Canning, our half-back line is held together with sticky tape, center-forward is the slowest player left in the competition, midfielders have been inconsistent bar Cronin, Niall McCarthy has been injured all year, inside forwards aren't getting enough ball and neither of the corners offer a goal threat. Really the plan will be to keep it tight for 55 minutes then let the subs win it for us but really, with Glynn and Moloney to come on, Galway have as much of an impact as we do.

Mountainlad

Mountainlad wrote: »

Yeah, but if you bet on Galway you'd be out of pocket pretty quickly too

To be fair to Cork, they are nothing like the Galway footballers, who are just sh*te. They've shown plenty of form this year, and one thing I think you should be assured of before the all-ireland semi is that Galway won't produce a performance to match that of the Kilkenny game.

They don't have to, but Cork will put it up to them. Getting that tough game against Waterford and the return of Lehane will benefit Cork and they will make a game of this for a good part of the match at least.

I would favour Galway, but to be fair Gilberto, as a Galway fan that wrote off Waterford last year, I'd have to say the lack of caution from you is hard to credit really. Most other Galway supporters know that while there is cause for hope, they will have to perform to win this game.

No really. I've made money on us this year, most notably backing us at 14/1 to win HT/FT against Kilkenny.
I did fancy us last year against Waterford, but let's be realistic, most of the pundits did as well.

If last year counts for anything then, we gave Cork a good beating in Limerick. I thought neither them or Waterford would provide the same results as last year though since we have a number of new additions. But I think we're stronger this year overall.

They are in the sense that people are calling on tradition to win them this game(I did say for 6 or 7 years after 2001, so circa 2007-2008, we were always still in the top 4-8 for an All-Ireland.
All they had this year was a good league(same as our footballers actually), I wouldn't call their Munster effort a plus by any means.

I'd tend to disagree on the Leinster final performance.
On the basis of they haven't had the opportunity to prove it right or wrong. That's not to say I'm saying we will, I'm saying I wouldn't rule it out just yet.
We did put up a similar performance in the Dublin replay, and disposed of Offaly within ten minutes so there were signs of it before the final.

I'm not saying we'll walk this game ten times out of ten, I know Cork have a chance. My only point was on current form there's no real grounds to favour Cork.
Anything can happen on the day but I've seen nothing from them to suggest they're a team we'd rather avoid.

Mountainlad

gilberto_eire wrote: »

No really. I've made money on us this year, most notably backing us at 14/1 to win HT/FT against Kilkenny.
I did fancy us last year against Waterford, but let's be realistic, most of the pundits did as well.

If last year counts for anything then, we gave Cork a good beating in Limerick. I thought neither them or Waterford would provide the same results as last year though since we have a number of new additions. But I think we're stronger this year overall.

They are in the sense that people are calling on tradition to win them this game(I did say for 6 or 7 years after 2001, so circa 2007-2008, we were always still in the top 4-8 for an All-Ireland.
All they had this year was a good league(same as our footballers actually), I wouldn't call their Munster effort a plus by any means.

I'd tend to disagree on the Leinster final performance.
On the basis of they haven't had the opportunity to prove it right or wrong. That's not to say I'm saying we will, I'm saying I wouldn't rule it out just yet.
We did put up a similar performance in the Dublin replay, and disposed of Offaly within ten minutes so there were signs of it before the final.

I'm not saying we'll walk this game ten times out of ten, I know Cork have a chance. My only point was on current form there's no real grounds to favour Cork.
Anything can happen on the day but I've seen nothing from them to suggest they're a team we'd rather avoid.

If your talking about them being over hyped, you could have just said they were like ye're hurlers over the last number of years.

Most pundits did, I agree, and I don't have a problem with that, it's just you should be wary that people were expecting Galway to hammer Waterford or win comfortably on account of Galway hammering Cork and Clare, and Waterford conceding 7 goals against Tipp. The similarities are there.

Form counts for nothing in a knockout game, and ye've only played one very good game against Kilkenny, but like Kilkenny were poor. I know ye'd probably have beaten anybody else, but that wasn't the Kilkenny that won the All-Irleand last year.

I do think Galway will win, but I reckon it's gonna be close.

Mr. Boo

As was said earlier, past form is no measure of this Galway team. They will approach this game the same way they did the Leinster final. They won't take Cork for granted.

I'm looking for ward to a good game. Like the other Galway people here I am apprehensive, and I think Cork will play better than they did the last day. But I want to adopt the same attitude as this Galway team. Fear noone and give it everything you have got.

I think we should edge it.

Nonoperational

I'm about as optimistic a Cork fan as you can get but I feel our game this year was the Waterford game. Waterford have a great record in the championship in the past few years and we haven't beaten them in a while. For Cork to make progress they had to win that and (one way or another) they did.

A result against Galway would be dream territory for me and I just can't see it this year. I would say though that as much of an improvement as Galway had in training etc this year, Cork have also been given quite a boost this year too.

Galway by 6-8 for me but hopefully Cork will give it everything they have and a few of the "big names" will step up.

porterbelly

Donnellan resumed full training tonight, he will start on Sunday

He has been able to do physical work but resumes contact tonight. He's a tough man, he'll be fine

kildare9

Surely every neutral in the country will be shouting for Galway in this one? Sick of seeing Cork, Kilkenny and Tipp winning everything. It would be good for the sport to see Galway win it out this year.

Kojak

porterbelly wrote: »

Donnellan resumed full training tonight, he will start on Sunday

He has been able to do physical work but resumes contact tonight. He's a tough man, he'll be fine

Would rather that Cunningham not use him from the start (if he is not fully fit) - should be held in reserve. If he is needed, then yes throw him in, but if Galway are winning well (unlikely) or his replacement (possibly Johnathon Glynn) is playing well, then don't bother using him. He could be re-injured and then could do him more long term damage.

MfMan

Kojak wrote: »

Would rather that Cunningham not use him from the start (if he is not fully fit) - should be held in reserve. If he is needed, then yes throw him in, but if Galway are winning well (unlikely) or his replacement (possibly Johnathon Glynn) is playing well, then don't bother using him. He could be re-injured and then could do him more long term damage.

True, there is enough on the bench not to have to start a player just recovered from injury. Donnellan has been one of the mainstays of the Galway forwards this year and his display v KK was particularly impressive. However, I don't think he's of great value being sprung as an impact sub, better off starting him and letting him work his way into the game and replacing him if / when he's spun out. Don't think Glynn would be his best replacement either, still a bit raw and there may be enough of that there already with Niall Burke and Conor Cooney starting.

aidan24326

If Donnellan is back taking a full part in training then I'd start him. He's not a player to hold in reserve as an impact sub. I'm sure they won't risk him if there's any doubts.

porterbelly

Donnellan is a key player, if he's fit, he'll start. No doubt about that

He's a naturally fit player and would have been able to keep up his fitness given the nature of his injury so I wouldn't be worried

Plenty of lads chomping at the bit on the line for action. Glynn has been very impressive when he's been introduced, he's great in the air, pace and a good engine. While on paper we have a very experienced bench, plenty of these lads are used to big days out from minor and u21 finals.

Orizio

gpf101 wrote: »

I'm about as optimistic a Cork fan as you can get but I feel our game this year was the Waterford game. Waterford have a great record in the championship in the past few years and we haven't beaten them in a while. For Cork to make progress they had to win that and (one way or another) they did.

A result against Galway would be dream territory for me and I just can't see it this year. I would say though that as much of an improvement as Galway had in training etc this year, Cork have also been given quite a boost this year too.

Galway by 6-8 for me but hopefully Cork will give it everything they have and a few of the "big names" will step up.

I'd say that'll be the margin alright. I'd say they'll go into the last ten 8-9 points ahead and our bench will get us back into a little. Honestly, I wouldn't shock me if this was like our last three matches against Kilkenny - effectively over after 15 minutes.

Diabhal Beag

I don't like how humble these Cork posters are. Reminiscent of a certain Provincial final this year.