Cork GAA Discussion Thread

That's the modern game. Understanding the referee and preparing for them is as important as preparing a gameplan for the opposition.

re ‘playing the ref’. Limerick were experts at it re the supposed hand pass. Limerick knew that very, very, very few throws were called up so it lived as close to the edge as possible. Kilkenny lived very close to the edge on some aspects of the game. Re jersey pulling, can the ref see a jersey being pulled if the player , whose jersey is being pulled, is DIRECTLY between the puller and the referee. I think not in most cases . Maybe Clare had ‘fine tuned ‘ the practice more than Cork.

Jackie Tyrell. Back in the day when Kilkenny were beating everyone easily, we used to just watch Jackie Tyrell: not when the ball came in, but off the ball.

And what year was it that Sully and Donal Óg basically climbed on top of Paul Shelly who had the ball in hand? Some of the worst fouling I've ever seen. Two red cards under normal circumstances, but the ref bottled it and they got away with it. Very streetwise/sneaky etc. The winning sides have that in them, but I'm not sure if this Cork team has it in them. The opposite side of that is the likes of Austin Gleeson who has a knack of almost always being right in front of the ref when he does something!

I suspect the two red cards in Munster maybe had Cork spooked and made them a small bit "too honest".

My biggest hope is that they can bottle up the hurt a little bit and deliver from the start next year. They owe us nothing, but it'd be nice if they could get some silverware for themselves.

Was it a pull on the jersey or not? The evidence suggests it clearly was which then means a free in. He was a dodgy ref no point hiding it and contributed in Clare getting over the line in a tight game. He should never be allowed to ref again that clown.

100% is.

No it doesn't mean cheating. It means that if you are playing and a ref has a particular way of reffing you work with that. One ref in Clare pulled everything if you batted a ball but hit the other players hurley from behind even if they had it up in the way. Others pulled for a chop if you came from the side. Another pulled for 5 steps while others only really pulled for five if you were going forward, going backwards or sideways you got a bit more leniency but you could pull hard as hell. There were refs you could talk to and others you would not.

Lads Rodgers and kelly waltzing through was a disgrace on yere part. Speaking from tipp when we were going well, paudie maher would have left those lads in a heap before any shot got off. Ye dont seem to have any enforcer in defence.

Look at our last team to win an all Ireland, you had lads like Sully and John Gardiner in it etc, lads who had that bit of ruthlessness, that bit of slyness and cunning in them etc.

The current Cork team lacks characters like that. They're a bit too nice. I felt Clare bullied us a bit yesterday, and we just allowed it to happen.

It was blatantly obvious after twenty or twenty five minutes that the long puckouts should've been abandoned as well.

The Clare backs were so efficient at shutting our forwards down, and at the other end their forwards had acres of space to operate in.

Oh make no mistake about it we have a lot to learn, and a lot to improve on both on and off the pitch if we're going to win an all Ireland.

We can blame it all on the referee but it won't get us anywhere. The bottom line here is that Limerick were possibly a bit off this year, but we failed to capitalize on and take advantage of that.

I just hope that just like 2013 we won't be spending the next decade ruing and lamenting this defeat.

He saw it unimpeded.

In fairness it's easy for you to say that! I did say yesterday that the Limerick reff wanted Clare to win. In hindsight i do regret that comment but feelings were very raw at the time!

Nonetheless i felt he had a poor game and allowed too many incidents go. Taking nothing from Clare, Cork have a lot to improve on ourselves but that's my opinion on the matter regardless.

You are spot on. It was said here that players shouldn't blame the ref when a huge call goes against them in a tight game. Of course they should be giving out if you lose an Ireland over it. The players are the ones putting in the effort to get there and their hopes and dreams dashed by a dodgy fat ref.

Horgan played the whole game with a hamstring injury. Admitted it today.

Whether he concealed it from Pat Ryan is not clear however.

Every player can be overrated when they play poorly. Even Tony Kelly was described as that by some before yesterdays final.

Believe me when I tell you there is no preference for Clare over Cork for a majority of the county!

I'd say Johnny Murphy would have been delighted to bring it to a replay as much as the general public. Shanagher gave him an excuse in normal time but O Flynn got away from his man despite the jersey pull and in Murphy's defence he probably would have expected that to go over and maybe watching the shot anticipating a score. An awkward one to bring back when it went wide.

When all is said and done Clare have won 5 of the last 6 games between them and we're perfectly primed for yesterday. They saved their season twice when they were on the brink of being knocked out in Munster Round 2 (23/24). They're just a bit further down the road in the school of hard knocks and it showed in their willingness to put their body on the line.

Cork are a lot better placed now than they were in 2013.

Clare were in the last three Munster finals and last three all Ireland semi finals as well. They are a more battle hardened team who've been to the well more often than Cork. I know some people in Cork thought that just because we knocked Limerick out that we'd beat Clare, but i never subscribed to that theory.

Yeah Cork are in a better place than in 2013. Back then we didn't have the players coming through from underage that we do now. That 2013 team was probably the weakest Cork team that played in an all Ireland final for years imo.