All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (Liam McCarthy Cup) 2021

Would be interested to know if Cork club hurling is reflected in the county team, are games very open, loose marking etc?

There has been a trend among Gaelic Football teams to shed bulk in the last 5 years, the distance players are covering in the modern game doesn't lend itself to carrying excess bulk and its more lean muscle as opposed to the bodybuilder type frame.

Hurling teams seem to be going for the bulk as the ball travels farther and players wouldn't have to cover the same distances in games and the extra heft would be an advantage in rucks etc. I'm only speculating here as I'm no hurling expert.

That's a serious show by limerick yesterday. Men against boys and at a canter to. Game lacked any intensity and limerick just ate Cork alive. They are building an empire. Dare I say it, probably kk are the only county that would have at least put it to them

The amount of thrown balls yesterday was unbelievable. Very easy to spot on the tv but obviously less so if you’re the referee. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw a player pulled up for throwing a ball but Limerick are constantly at it, they work the ball so quickly it’s difficult to spot but the Tipp game, the semi against Waterford and yesterday Christ almighty I’d say there was 50 thrown balls over the three games.

My simple idea is that if you receive a handpass you can't give one. It doesn't remove handpassed completely, but it removes the option to over depend on them. The only downside is it increases mental load on players in the heat of the moment. I'm sure players would be able to adapt.

On the match, I was at it, surrounded by Limerick fans ( I got my ticket from a Limerick man). If I had to take a beating like that again, Limerick are a sound bunch in general. I can imagine far worse! Before the game I was saying that we have no hope starting a 35 year old at wing back, and the opposing fans agreed that Cads was a big weakness.

Until Cork start dominating defense like our Minors and U20's do, we are going nowhere. We need big men who can win their own ball and hurl - it's clear as day that you can't invent a tactic or gameplan to beat Limerick if you're not able to go man to man with them in the first place.

Congrats Limerick and best of luck with the 3 in a row.

Based on what? Being the h ammered number 2 team after Cork? No medals for number 2 unfortunately.

I do think the current situation is very like Kilkenny a few years ago, they are just way ahead of the competition, there's no one that can even give them a competitive game if they're tuned in.

The hope is that they won't always be as tuned in. They left the All Ireland behind in 2019 through a terrible start in the semi final. Also the Munster final was nearly gone this year and probably would have been had Gillane been dismissed.

You'd feel for Cork yesterday, I think Limerick could do that to any of the other top teams, it was just Cork's bad luck they were in their path. There's a lot Cork can learn from it though, they need to bring through a few hardy fellas throughout the field I think. Plus they need to be able to be more direct, when Limerick pushed up on the puck outs they were at sea a bit.

It's a long way off of course, and things can go wrong for Limerick, but really the core of that team should be good enough to win at least two more All Irelands.

I'm not sure if it was mentioned on The Sunday Game last night, but looking through all previous finals yesterday's Limerick scoring total was the highest ever in a final - including 80 minute finals. Their total at half-time would have been enough in itself to win many finals (including their win in 2018). Indeed, if Limerick hadn't scored a single point in the second half they would have still won the match.

There was great skill on display yesterday, but something has been lost in the regularity of long range points being popped over. I have to say the contest between Mayo and Dublin was much more enthralling, every score felt as if it counted, there was never a sense of it just being a routine occurrence.

I'm just waiting for a team to knock 40 points over the bar some day, the way the game is going it's only a matter of time before it happens...

I notice you conveniently forget that Tipperary beat Limerick in the Championship in 2019 in a game that Limerick needed to win to guarantee a Munster final appearance. Had Cork beaten Clare then Limerick would not have been in the Munster Final.

This narrative surrounding 2019 is absolute bullsh*t - that Limerick should have won the All Ireland when they lost 3 games in the Championship that year. Yes, 3 times they were beaten in a Championship and people go on as if they should have won it. Absolute rubbish.

Absolutely no surprise to see Cork get a hiding yesterday - they did extremely well to get to the final, well beyond their ability. They did as all Cork teams have done on the big occasion for the last 15 years and bottled it completely. Physically dominated and manhandled. No bottle, no fight, no heart. I could have written that about a dozen or more big Cork games over the last 15 years. Including at underage level when many of those players were beaten by Cahill's Tipperary in a final they were odds-on favourites for.

Cork will not be in another final next year. They had some good underage teams that were repeatedly beaten by Tipperary coming through now, but they are coming through to join up with many average senior players. They have had good underage success in the past week and last year so if those players and players from the 2018/2019 underage teams can come together under good management then they may be realistic contenders in 2023/2024. Most importantly, those underage players in the last week seemed to play with a bit more steel than you would associate with modern Cork. That will have to be kept but underage success means nothing in terms of senior level until it is successfully brought through. It does seem like there is just too much underage success at the moment in Cork for them not to be a threat in the coming years but they certainly aren't anywhere even remotely close yet and I expect Cork fans to have to wait a few years to win another AI. Losing in the manner they did yesterday also raises question marks over management that didn't exist at 3pm yesterday. It is not easy to recover mentally from such a humiliation.

As for the rest - it all depends on Cahill. If Tipperary get him back (and it seems likely right now) then with the experience and ability of the remaining older heads and bringing through the younger lads who Cahill won a minor, an u21 and an u20 with then in 2023 they might be able to have a realistic go of taking down Limerick. Without Cahill there isn't a hope really - if somebody from Sheedy's backroom team like Egan takes over then you can write Tipperary off until Cahill takes over. I don't mean any disrespect to Egan by saying that, but fresh ideas and a fresh approach are badly needed now. If Cahill isn't taking over now, that might be enough squandered time to waste the potential of the underage teams Cahill won with. Underage success means nothing in the context of senior until those lads are brought through.

Clare look like they are progressing under Lohan but it doesn't look like that progression is ever going to lead to a realistic challenge to Limerick.

Waterford looked both very poor and very good this year at times - but have they reached their ceiling? And if they lose Cahill then who do they bring in?

Galway may end up in an All Ireland final next year despite the mess there at the moment purely due to Leinster looking to be far, far easier to get out of than Munster if the round robin returns. There isn't much between the 4 teams after Limerick in Munster and every game is going to have to be played at a ferocious pace to get out of Munster. However if you put any of the 5 Munster teams into Leinster next year I rate them to qualify. So because of that, Galway will probably be best placed to take on Limerick next year and I don't expect it to be the capitulation of Cork, it'll probably look closer to the games Limerick had v Waterford this year and last with a few extra goals involved.

I can't give Kilkenny any chance for next year after they blew it against a Cork team they should have been beating. Wexford may improve after a change in management and new ideas but there is a lot of miles on the clock there too.

TLDR - Nobody will challenge Limerick next season. Tipperary best placed in 2023 if Cahill comes back as looks likely - and brings through his underage teams. Cork will probably need until 2024 to realistically see the fruits of the underage teams last year and this year, along with the current crop who are breaking through - the losing underage sides of 18/19 - to challenge.

Did they? Certainly not if you were paying any attention.

Tipperary should have been in the 2008 final and it certainly would have been a better game. Unbeaten league winners (having beaten Kilkenny in the League Semi Final), Munster final winners and were a young team caught cold by a 5 week break - allowing Waterford to build up a massive lead in the Semi which Tipperary struggled to reel back. I was there that day in 2008 and I knew immediately that Waterford were going to get a hammering in the final.

There was quite obviously another team on the horizon then - there certainly isn't now.

Kilkenny did wiln 3 of the next 4 All Irelands upto 2012 (5 of next 7 upto 2015) Looking at their age profile this Limerick team could be around for the best part of 5 years, they are likely to win at least 2 or 3 more All Ireland's, all their main rivals are at some stage of transition or have question marks over management. Tipp & Wexford looking for new managers, Waterford could lose Cahill to Tipp which would set them back a bit, question marks over management at Galway, Clare and even Cody at Kilkenny, Cork will need a few additions from their U20 teams which will take time. If Cahill goes to Tipp they could emerge as the main challengers with a mix of the U20 teams and experienced lads from 2016/19. If Clare hold onto Lohan and can find 1 or 2 lads to take some of the burden off Kelly they could mount a challenge too.

Right now Limerick have the best team and management set up and well ahead of everyone else, but, all it takes is injuries to key players, a drop in level or hunger and for opposition to raise theirs for the gap to close. Hard to see any team close the gap fully in one year, but, realistically teams have to use the next year to try to close the gap, (but, should also be ready if they get Limerick on a bad day next year) and then mount a serious challenge in 2023.

Cork have won 2 of their last 8 All Ireland Semi Finals, including managing to find defeat in ways that did not seem possible.

Yesterday was the worst capitulation from a team in an All Ireland final since Waterford in 2008, and that Waterford team was a side nearing the end of it's cycle. It was the biggest score ever conceeded by a team in an All Ireland final. Cork players completely gave up as early as the 20th minute. No fight, they stopped working, running, closing down. They gave up.

Many of these Cork players capitulated the same way vs Tipperary in 2018 in the U21. There were priced at 1/5 with the bookies to win that game - Limerick were 1/3 to beat Cork yesterday which gives you an idea how how favoured Cork were in that game in 2018 - and they bottled it.

Every team makes sacrifices - it's part and parcel of the game. Cork aren't unique in making sacrifices. Club players (including myself) make sacrifices. All of that means f all when you decide you're beaten 20 minutes into an All Ireland Final. Even if you're outmatched, you still make a game of it, make it hard for the other team. You still put in effort and work. They were awful yesterday.