The engima that is Cork hurling

Micheál Donoghue.

I think Cork are a good outside bet for the All Ireland this year. They ll improve hugely as the season goes on. They are capable of beating every single team out there including Limerick on a given day . Yeah I think they ll give it a good rattle .

Not disagreeing with Corks one dimensional game but Clare almost threw the game away hitting ball after ball on top of Duggan. For a proven ball winner, he didn't win much of it. Cork swamped him and turned him over repeatedly. Its nice to have the option but going long on top of any player repeatedly gives the opposition an advantage in every regard. One of Limericks greatest strengths is their ability to vary where the ball is going and to who. Mike Casey is as likely to get it as Kyle Hayes or even Gillane. Cork don't have that and very few other counties do either. I don't think its down to personnel. I think its down to a lack of creativity on the sideline. Half the coaches out there are copy and paste.

Well i think with regards to his CV at underage level, that on paper Pat Ryan was the best man for the job. Perhaps tactically the management can improve, but i thought there was a spirit to Corks performances last year despite our early championship exit. We need to stop these fadeouts in games though, where we let the opposition go six or seven points ahead. We do come back into those games, but it's hard to win matches when you let the opposition completely get on top of you like that.

Agree. It's early February FFS.

Gosh the views being expressed all round about Cork not turning up is laughable. Kilkenny played out of their skins in the first half and had their own fade out in the second half. Cork had the reverse. No team keeps up such a tempo for the entire 70 minutes. People need to get real.

We must also get real about Cork hurling. They had moments against Clare in the first match where they didnt score for long periods. The same happened yesterday against Kilkenny. They go missing for long periods and then they have too much work to do to get back into the game. If this trend continues Cork will not make it out of the Munster championship again this year. Last year Kilkenny beat Cork in the semi final of the league. People were saying Ryan wasn't showing his cards etc but what worried me that day is Cork never looked like winning at any stage of that game. When the Munster championship happened then, they couldn't beat Tipp Clare and Limerick. More of the same will continue if Ryan doesn't address these notable issues.

If the hand-pass rule changed to eliminate the throw (and it needs to happen), Cork would be in serious bother.

In terms of pace and movement, Cork have no equal, they are the best at it in my view. However, I struggle to see them deliver more than a handful of legitimate hand-passes a game, although the assist for the goal Saturday night was a beauty of a pass (and one permitted and encouraged under the proposed new rule) in terms of vision and execution. Their attacking game game is built almost exclusively around throwing the ball to retain possession which allows them to use their pace and movement to great effect.

And as long as the throw is allowed, then horse on. Their comeback the other night against Kilkenny, most of it was down to getting their throwing game in order after a poor sort where the movement was more static and individual.

The problem for Cork though, is when it gets into the nitty gritty, or when easy possession can't be retained, they struggle to win ball, whether in the air or on the ground, and have no out and out defender bar Joyce.

Their movement and pace is too much for other sides to handle, but is built around throwing the ball. But if you break it down, without the weapon of easy retained possession through throwing, or all their skill, they lack the all-round skills of other sides, particularly the further back the field you go.

I remember that 03-06 team, the defenders/midfield. Wayne Sherlock, Pat Mulcahy, The Rock, Murphy, Gardner, Curran, O'Hailpín, Tom Kenny, Jerry O'Connor. Cusack, a really top, top keeper as well. They weren't just big men, they were athletic (not so the Rock, but you didn't go through him), their first touch was perfect, they were strong in the air, but above all they had the skill, the teak toughness and real instinct and fight. Cut from a different cloth them lads were.

Cork just don't seem to be producing that type of players any more, for whatever reason. And while those players were generational players, to not produce even a few of those type of players for as long as they have, is a mystery in a county the size and tradition and history of Cork.

Outside view? Cork look the very definition of over-couching through the various levels. Athletic, movement, quality first touch, quality striking, tactics based around movement and athleticism, but dulled instincts and lack of other skills that might not be as flashy, but every bit as important. And without them skills, you get found out eventually. you'll get far, you might even get to the big day, but you don't get the trophy. And god help them if the throwing in the sport gets tackled, because the lack of those skills is more exposed when they can't use the throw to greater effect than others like they do.

A lack of all round quality. it's that simple. Solve that, you solve the Cork hurling enigma, and they start winning All-Ireland's again.

I think Cork will always produce hurlers with the skill and pace, the dainty stickmen i suppose you could call them. We have struggled badly post 2006 with the more nitty gritty stuff alright. The way Cork club championship games are refereed doesn't exactly help things either. The referees in Cork are very whistle happy as such! The u20 team that won three of the last four all Irelands in that grade, seems to have lads with that bit of skill and toughness in them. They seem to have that bit of Corkness is another word for it i suppose!

Cork did almost snatch a smash and grab all Ireland in 2013, we could have won the all Ireland in 2018 if we got past Limerick in that years semi final. That's a defeat that Cork hurling as of yet still hasn't recovered from imo. You talk about clamping down on throwing the ball, but there's other stuff that referees have to clamp down on as well. The holding and interfering of hurleys, hands and arms etc when a player is going for the ball.

Cork's problem is not talent, it's a mix of poor shot and pass selection along with failing to use space by varying their playing style enough. Some of their best chances against Clare came from simple long ball into a forward in space.

I was talking to a Limerick fan on Sunday evening who was trying to convince me Cork have been trying to copy Limerick by passing out from the back the past few years but Cork have always played that way.

I also think it doesn't help that some of their forwards just disappear in certain games for whatever reason but Cork have too much talent coming through at underage not to win an All-Ireland in the next decade, if they appoint the right manager.

It's bit of a barren period alright. Still though at least we aren't Waterford!😁🤣

Yet 😀

I think Cork underperform really in a sporting sense. 600,000 people in a county predominantly GAA and the main GAA sport is Hurling. More clubs than anywhere else and no All Ireland in 20 years. The footballers look a decade away from success. Less AIL rugby clubs than Limerick aswell. Cork is definately producing more professional rugby players than it used to but not out of proportion to its size. Obviously my neighbours in Limerick are sports mad and thats widely known but I wouldnt associate Cork with boxing above their weight category in sports. I think there's a reasonable stream of soccer players coming through but again look at Cork City...an omni shambles.

Over the next 5 years Cork will win a senior Hurling All Ireland and remain competing for silverware for good..no more blips as the processes and structure is there now to deliver but this 'first senior All Ireland ' will be very hard to win. The pressure is huge and building. The hunger is massive..Cork people do well to hide it but its just under the surface.

At least Cork still have past all Irelands to watch on youtube etc.😀 It's not ideal but sure it's better than nothing at all!

What Cork do should be applauded. All other counties followed KKs dogmatic and tenacious approach, at the expense of the technical side of the game, all except Cork. Cork are the only county left playing actual hurling, the sport we grew up with, as opposed to the Limerick and KK philosophy of hack at the heels all day, make your players bigger and more physical.

To change their style would be beneath the ethos of Cork hurling, they wouldn't lower themselves to play this more primitive version of the game, win or lose. And Cork will eventually navigate the other approach, and are getting closer all the time. When Cork finally suss out Limerick, the others are in big trouble.

Most counties have now spent two decades trying to play a certain way, and when Cork overcome it, will have no answer, unless they radically change their way of playing.

People think I'm joking or whatever, but I'm deadly serious, all aspiring hurlers should be sat down at a young age and watch Cork play. That it's not all about winning, but the skills and art of the game.

Cork have always been unique in a sense, always took great pride in how they approached the game, very seperate to the rest of the hurling counties and I think it's to be commended. It will be a dark day for hurling if Cork change their game like everyone else has done.

Cork winning the All Ireland would be huge imo, in how everyone approaches the game. Others having to change their philosophy to beat them, while youngsters get a lesson in how the game should be played.

Cork are the only team saving the game of hurling, keeping alive the philosophy of how the game is supposed to be played. And the most successful county for much of hurlings history, and you could argue still are. The Cork approach to hurling is one best things the GAA has going for it.

Until their recent fall for much of the last two decades, they were always a level above even Tipp and KK, across the board, at most age groups. KK and Tipp, even at their best, can't hold a candle to the technical brilliance of how most Cork players play.

An average Cork team winning Munster circa 2017 possibly, put in a second half performance against Clare that was possibly the most perfect half of hurling ever played, in terms of skill and technique. Put even the great 4 in a row KK team to shame.

Cork, the true purveyors of our historical game!

Corks lack of success is not due to their ability or style, but the approach the others have taken, in regards physicality and their dogmatic approach. In the mean time, Cork had internal problems which sent them back years.

You can see by the success of their underage teams, and even their senior teams, the trajectory would suggest they are getting closer all the time to Limerick and the rest of the anti-hurlers. As the talent continues to come through, they'll improve.

Their style or game isn't the issue, it's a case of putting the pieces together from their own fall out years ago, sending them back years, and sussing out how to work around the style the others have adopted. They are very close to toppling the Limerick approach imo.

I've said it for a few years, they are getting closer all the time, and have serious talent about to emerge onto the seniors. They're on the brink to be honest, when they get the better of Limerick, it's game over for Limerick and the rest, they'll have sussed out how to completely play around the others.

When that happens, they'll outhurl the rest from a technical standpoint, completely taking out any physical advantage the others hold. Casual 40 yard sideways passes, playing around a soon to be dated approach.

They've shown flashes of it, and are getting closer all the time. This is what people don't want to accept. All the coming talent is coming from Cork at the minute tbh!

For every champion is a challenger, for every style there is a counter. Cork are the anti-thesis to what Limerick and KK do. The huge battle coming down the road will be a few years of an established Limerick trying to hold off a buoyant and coming Cork, with Cork finally prevailing after many great battles.

Two opposing styles is what makes this coming rivalry intriguing. Like Barca v Chelsea under Mourinho, pure hurling versus physical and negative hurling. Cork will finally overturn them, and it will validate their style and ethos, people will see!

Do you have any views on ‘Another cork enigma’ the decline of club hurling standard in the county. No munster or all Ireland since 2009…..recent county champions regularly getting 10 pt plus beatings in club competition….?