All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 2024 (Munster And Leinster Championships,Liam McCarthy Cup)

As I've mentioned already the Limerick fans were unbelievably gracious in defeat. But they did get a land, they (justifiably I thought) thought it was over at HT. A few of them were singing Sean South at the Bar in the Cusack at HT, was a full on party....

No Cork player was bad yesterday. Probably minimum 8/10 across the board.

Yeah I was going to write earlier that Cork will probably feel they "delivered" across the board, whereas Limerick will probably believe they can improve. Limerick are some machine, and aren't going away any time soon IMO!

And from a Cork perspective we need to win the AI now, there's no use being the "up and coming" team. There was a lot of hope back in 2013 that we could get back to winning ways, but it's been a long barren spell. It's a very good Clare team but we owe them this and I hope we can deliver.

Looking at the age profile, you would expect Limerick to be there or therabouts for the next 4 years. The caveat is that they don't pick up injuries to key players. Gillane in particular would be a huge blow. They have 6 years of hard hurling done, they are not going to get faster, a couple of players are already a small bit slower. They have lost a bit of their aura where some teams were beaten before the match started. Some may be even more motivated to come back after the loss but it will be hard to be more motivated than the drive for five. The big fear is than another monster, Cork, will replace Limerick

I think losing will be more of a motivation than anything else. But at least one other team won't fear us as unbeatable anymore.

Finished third in munster is a god send when you really break it down.

Two very easy games more than likely leaves you sitting nicely for a SF.

Mad format imo

One thing I spotted yesterday right after the final whistle when pat Ryan was shaking hands with Kiely was a black sign with white writing with the number 31 at the side of the stadium. Might be a good oman going forward in two weeks.

I see Cork hosted their pre All Ireland SHC final preview evening in SuperValu Pairc ui Chaoimh tonight. The day after a game. They're organised and getting their ducks in a row.

Clares one is on tomorrow night

No. He started against Waterford and Offaly. He came off the bench in other games, lastly against Dublin. Didn't play against limerick.

I think they just have a habit of being lazy when they can. Every game where they needed to raise it they did.

I think that's why Waterford caught them too.

Ah stop. They haven't even won one all ireland and you're talking about them winning 5 in a row.

Once they get the monkey of their back with 1 win they could go on to win a few over the next 10 years but definitely not 5 in a row. That's fantasy dreamland stuff.

The same could be said of Clare. They seem to raise it when they have to, especially against munster opposition. Hard to see Cork hit that level of intensity 2 games in a row and Clare played well within themselves on Saturday.

Limerick hit 14 wides to Corks 10 but it was the manner of the wides a lot of them were real energy sapper poor misses from not so difficult distances or angles. Over the years i don't remember Limerick missing so many easy chances in a whole year never mind a single game.

Hegarty and Reidy two bad wides around the 15th minute mark and to compound things Cork went up the field almost immediately to score a goal. A 5 point swing in those 2 minutes. So un-Limerick like.

Diarmuid Byrnes drops a ball into the goalkeepers hand soon after. Then a botched goal chance when Gillane really should have finished that three-on-two opportunity in the 23 minute. Then didnt even get a consolation point but a free out to Cork for overcarrying. And to make it worse Cork soon sent over a point. A four point swing.

The second half straight away more profligacy with a Byrnes wide. Around 45 minutes saw couple poor wides from O Neill followed by Limerick's second great goal chance. Other years Hegarty would have burst the net like v Kilkenny in 2022 final but Collins saved. And just like the first half the spurned goal was quickly followed up by a howitzer from Dalton (his third long range missile of the second half not often they all go over). Another four point swing.

The last 10-15 minutes Limerick were well on top scored few nice points but just when it looked like Cork were there for the taking inexplicably O Brien missed a real sitter on 69 mins followed by another good Limerick chance sent wide on 70 mins. At the very least one should have gone over to leave just the one point in it (usually Limerick would never miss either) but the fact the gap was still two Limerick had to chase a goal for the last couple minutes of injury time.

I realise this is a post with my Limerick tinted glasses on but small things were happening all throughout the game that never happened to them over the years. Little momentum shifts that went against them.

It was always going to happen some day i guess. I wanted Limerick to win and do the 5 in a row. I was disappointed for them.

Finally congrats to Cork. They brought great colour and noise to Croke Park on Sunday. It's been a long time since i saw so much red around the city from early morning on. I have a feeling there wont be many years of Dublin being a red free zone in the near future.