Cork GAA Discussion Thread

This should be an absolute cracker of a game. Both ourselves and Clare play free-flowing and expansive hurling.

Clare are looking for their fourth championship win in a row over us, so they probably feel that they have the edge on us.

We just need to work on being tight in defence and our defensive structures in general.

We kept Limerick goalless and we won, and we should beat Clare as well as long as we stop them from scoring goals.

Defence and midfield will be the winning of it. I think we're slightly better than Clare in the forwards as well.

Pat Ryan taking two weeks off work to prepare for the final. I hope he's not losing out financially.

What's the story with AI tickets through the clubs? When are they released?

Any word on when clubs are getting allocations?

what do you mean by code?

right ok, I didn’t realise Ticketmaster had any part in handling tickets for this match. I’m not sure the answer to your question.

I have great time for Limerick people. In fairness even during the bad times ye always had great support at the matches. I do think ourselves and Limerick are the two biggest fanbases in hurling as well.

If he's on parental leave is it not just basically the equivalent of the dole or thereabouts? Unless Pfizer give gold plated parental leave benefits.

I was waiting for all the dust to settle and more importantly until I had the time to do a proper post about our win. It was phenomenal and a real battle between 2 good teams.

Looking through my preview now with the benefit of hindsight and I was close enough!

"It is a weird feeling of if we perform, I think we will win. Will we perform though? Chances are yes as I think we targeted this game a while back."

Interesting thing is Pat Ryan said afterwards that he knew we would perform. Now of course he would say this after a win but he seemed very certain the way he said it. I have repeatedly said that teams should worry about their own performances and not get too caught up with the opposition. Of course you need to gameplan such as the puck outs and where they go etc but at the end of the day its about putting the ball over the bar/in the net. So performing and doing your best is critical.

"If however, we go up by a few and the lead changes a lot then I think we have a great chance. This would mean the teams are basically level."

"More than likely we stay with them and hopefully go ahead a few times. The importance of going ahead is vital as it shows them we aren't just hanging onto their coattails."

This was vital to show that we were a real threat and not just hopeful. I knew we were in with a great chance when the lead changed a good bit in the first half. Going in 2 points down was a bit disappointing but we seem to do better in the second halves of games. We tend to finish strong but in this game we didn't score in the last 10 mins! The fitness was strong though as there was a lot of chasing limerick forwards and I think its that extra effort leads a player to just either hurry his shot or just miss which is what happened to Limerick.

I thought the subs were the key and notably Kingston in particular couldn't get going when he came on. It just happens like that. Limericks subs did well except for the few misses near the end. Just a small bit wide and the misses were huge in consequence. It left them going for a goal rather than an equalising point.

"The biggest issue we have is a poor goalkeeper."

I was totally wrong on this one!! But I thought he wasn't brave enough until this game and glad he proved me wrong! He gave one poor puckout that led to a limerick point but all of his puckouts other than that were very good.

"Totally agree with Straight talker above, a complete performance is needed and I do think Croke Park will suit us. I thought the exact same thing about the Dublin football result. Everyone looks unbeatable until they are beaten. Then everyone will say the signs were there. If we can get our pacey style game going then we will look unstoppable all of a sudden. Its getting up to that level is the key. This is why I say we need to look to ourselves and our own performance."

This paragraph could be just repeated for the final! If we can get our pacey type game going again in Croke Park then victory could be ours! We didn't get a complete performance though as we didn't score for the last 10 mins but the work rate didn't drop which was very important.

As regards Clare, I am happy it is Clare rather than Kilkenny. Kilkenny looked great in the first half against Clare but didn't get the scores they should have. They should have been out of sight by half time. I didn't understand the dropping of Drennan either. I know he wasn't superb in his few games but lads who are young need time. I didn't think Robert Downey was a great player but now he is blossoming. He scored our first point against Limerick soloing up the pitch with Limerick players chasing him. He was very solid in defence. These young players need games to bring them on.

This isn't me saying Clare is easy. Far from it. I just think Kilkenny has a higher gear they could potentially get to, but blow hot and cold. See the Carlow result and then the first half against Clare. Clare on the other hand do what they do very well. They are looking for a complete performance too like us as that first half was abysmal. We had a 10 min period where we didn't score but the workrate was good. They had a whole half where Kilkenny were pummeling them.

I can see us punishing anything like that if it were to happen again. This game is like my preview of the Limerick game. Except now its reversed. Clare need to stay with or lead us all the time to create doubt. If they pull ahead by a good few, the game would still be on as we can come back. If we pull ahead though, I don't see them coming back. Though we were 7 points up in the first game and they came back! I think we have improved since that game though. The game against Limerick in PUC really galvanised us and improved us to no end. Kiely said in postmatch the other day, it felt at times in the second half after Limerick got a score, Cork went down and got 2 or 3 in quick succession. It is a great trait to have in the team.

Yes they have beat us already and that does give a team belief they can do it again. The sending off though was crucial to that loss. It was still only by 2 points with that!

SOD is a great player and if we can keep him quiet will be vital. Maybe Pat Ryan on his 2 weeks off is working on something for him like we did with Kyle Hayes! Again all good but we have to do our own performance at the end of the day. The great players nowadays are almost unstoppable when they get the ball into their hand. See Gillane the other day. You have to hope you stop him getting the ball at source or try to make sure he doesn't get a goal at least. Sometimes by just flinging your body at the ball like Collins did!

yes, I had a code and once I logged onto TM I was able to view all the possible sections that I could chose from.

Does anyone know the best place to watch the match in Dublin, as in soak up the atmosphere but not having a ticket....a place where kids can go too such as family friendly pub etc

Almost one week to go! Hopefully the spirit of the late and great Teddy Mac will be with the lads next Sunday week. Small margins will decide this game perhaps that bit of Corkness, that good old we are Cork fighting spirit will get us over the line!😉

We've had a load of legendary forwards over the years Charlie McCarthy, JBM, Ray Cummins, Muller, Kevin Hennessy, the Baby Jesus, Joe Deane, John i don't pass the ball to inferior players Fitzgibbon!, Ben O'Connor and Hoggie etc, well hopefully after next Sunday we'll be speaking about Brian Hayes, Alan Connolly and Declan Dalton etc in similar terms! Up the rebels. A Cork man or woman is never beaten before a ball is thrown in!

probably murrays in O'Connell st the beer garden is huge and has huge screens , its beside the gresham , has the cork club tickets been allocated yet

Nothing Wrong with eurovision windy. Thought with your username you would appreciate all eurovision songs.