Cork Senior Hurlers 2021

Donal O Grady will be joining the Cork setup it seems.

With the prospect of making a return as manager, later, maybe? A good analyst and can maybe spot problems early on in a game.

However … I remember one game against Waterford when Donal was in charge and John Mullane was running riot against John Gardiner, and had already scored 2 goals and a couple of points before any change was made.

Grady afterwards said something like “We had to make the change because the Cork crowd were getting restless, but John (Gardiner) was just getting on top.”

While I welcome O Grady to any Cork teams set up, and it can only be a good thing, he doesn't strike me as the type of fella wholl fall in behind or underneath someone else.

He's a leader and I would guess he'd like to do things his way. Twill be interesting to see how it works out

CORK'S Mark Coleman and Shane Kingston have been included in the list of hurling nominations for the PwC All-Stars announced today.

Coleman, an All-Star at wing-back in 2017, was superb in the Rebels' three games this season, while Kingston asserted his status as one of the team's marquee forwards, following on from a Fitzgibbon Cup campaign with UCC that saw him picked as the top player and excellent form for Douglas.

Patrick Horgan, an All-Star for three years in a row between 2017 and '19, as well as 2013, was unlucky not to make the list, while Seamus Harnedy, a winner in 2013 and '18, was on song against Dublin and Tipp.

Cork football captain Ian Maguire was among the football nominees revealed on Friday.

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https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2021/0126/1192185-allianz-leagues-set-to-be-delayed-until-end-of-march/

Allianz Leagues look set to be delayed until end of March

The extension of Covid-19 restrictions is expected to delay the GAA's return to inter-county action until March and have a knock-on effect on the start dates of the Allianz football and hurling leagues.

The association is expected to update its return to play plans in the coming days following confirmation that the Government has agreed to continue Level 5 restrictions until 5 March.

An update on the 2021 season could be given after the GAA's Covid-19 Advisory Group meet on Monday.

Found the following quote interesting from Pa Horgan yesterday on the role of Donal O'Grady, looks like he's got stuck in already and is proactive with the squad

"His hurling brain is something else. We've had a couple of Zoom chats with him and anything you want, whether you're a forward or a back, he can put it into real-time. He understands from the players' side the feel and the movement of the game so we're looking forward to meeting up with him soon"

If he can simply make them work harder to close down the opposition, that will make a big difference. Not letting the other team play is what brings success. No more free-flowing shoot-outs where they let the opposition have free pot-shots.

https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-40224458.html?type=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Looks like we won't be seeing any Cork teams in action until May

League Fixtures
May 9th v Waterford at home
Week after that Limerick away
Then Westmeath at home
Tipperary away
Galway at home

Play Limerick in the Semi Final

If you are gonna catch the All Ireland champs on the hop the first game is the time to do it.

Tipp Ex wrote:Play Limerick in the Semi Final

Has a date for the fixture been set?

Sinbin wrote:

Tipp Ex wrote:Play Limerick in the Semi Final

Has a date for the fixture been set?

Well, according to the Munster GAA website, the final is down for the weekend of July 18th so id guess either the 11th of July or 4th of July. Independence Day!

First game of the season on Sunday at home to Waterford. With very little training done since lockdown, its gonna be hard to predict a team or even how they'll play. Anyone wanna make a stab? I assume the U20 hurlers are keeping to themselves

The Cork Senior Hurling team to play Waterford in Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League has been announced.

Patrick Collins ( Ballinhassig)
Niall O Leary ( Castlelyons)
Damien Cahalane (St Finbarrs)
Sean O’Donoghue (Innscarra)
Tim O Mahony (Newtownshandrom)
Mark Coleman (Blarney)
Niall Cashman (Blackrock)
Billy Hennessy (St Finbarrs)
Daragh Fitzgibbon (Charleville)
Robbie O’Flynn (Erins Own)
Luke Meade (Newcestown)
Seamus Harnedy (St Ita’s)
Jack O Connor (Sarfields)
Patrick Horgan (Glen Rovers) Captain
Shane Barrett (Blarney)
Gerard Collins (Ballinhassig)
Sean O’Leary Hayes (Midleton)
Robert Downey (Glen Rovers)
Daire Connery (Na Phiarsaigh)
James O’Flynn (Erins Own)
Daniel Meaney (Blackrock)
Shane Kingston (Douglas)
Alan Cadogan (Douglas)
Alan Connolly (Blackrock)
Conor Cahalane (St Finbarrs)
Tadgh Deasy (Blackrock)

No mellerick, Dalton or Cooper. FB line looks dodge as all 3 have been cleaned out in previous games. Postives are Cashman, Barrett and Hennessy getting runs. Hard to gauge now with the long break. Very small FF as usual.

Also no Colm Spillane. Are they injured?

Id have torn up the whole thing after last years shambles but that's just me. 80% is familiar to us all. Little bit disappointed with that.Kingston is determined to make a half back out of Tim Mahony by hook or by crook
But I suppose if the attitude is right from all, then that's a plus. Go out to win every game.

I believe if they went out with the determination not to lose any game that would be sufficient to get us through. With Donal O’Grady coaching the backs, it will be interesting to see how difficult they can make things for Waterford. With Liam Cahill it’s always work, work, work, as we saw in two All-Ireland under-age finals against Tipp. He has Waterford doing the same. I hope we can match it. Sometimes it's not a change in personnel that's required; it's a change in attitude.

New Season but unfortunately for me the selection for tomorrow all feels a bit samey. The subs bench excites me far more than the starting 15 and I'm hoping that they are sprung early and often!!

I would be unforgiving of Management following our balls of a season last year, their awful tactical approach(or total lack of it), their inability to make hard decisions regarding personnel and would have got rid of them to be honest. However it is what it is and I hope earnestly that DOG can somehow instil some kind of control over proceedings.

I don't give a shit how we do in the league but what I do want to see is a commitment from each player to giving 110% every game win, lose or draw for as long as their legs hold up given that I'm sure they are in heavy training and that fresh legs are introduced as soon as possible. Our workrate has to be increased all over the field or else we are wasting our time, if players ain't working then they need to be removed, zero tolerance, simple as...

I would have concerns about some of the individuals who again are on the panel this season but It would be very unfair to start picking out names before a ball is pucked so I wish every one of them the best on Sunday and hope they can lay down a marker to the hurling world that Cork are a team to be watched and not taken lightly this year. It's great to have hurling back (football too) and matches to anticipate and watch.

I'm just hoping for something different from Cork, I don't know what that is but just anything to move away from what we've seen for the past 5/6 years.
Surprise me!

I was gonna come in here and give out shit about all this short passing but in fairness the goal was brilliantly worked.

Lots of positives so far

Good start to the league it has to be said. All the usualslike attitude, spirit, workrate were there. The thing now is to do it 2 games in a row.
The backs were tighter than normal which is probably O Gradys influence, Waterford didn't create goal chances (bar 1 I think?), the corner backs in particular were aggressive and attacked the ball, a little looser in the second half.
The HB line worked well, Tim can swing from the ridiculous to the sublime but today he was good, supporting the forwards, Coleman is just Coleman, he oozes class, Cashman did well
MF were good too, Fitzgibbon looked something like his old self while Meade played a world of ball, however it won't always be like that for him, Hennessy worked hard throughout and is deffo worth another look.
HFs werent the strongest of our lines today, Harnedy and Flynn were only in and out of the game.
FF line, Barrett looks tasty, O Connor took the goal well and Hoggy was just himself, could have had 3 goals from play.
The subs all contributed, Cadogans looks like he's bulked up, Kingstons pace will trouble anyone, maybe he's an impact sub, Connolly goal x2 set up by Cahalane.
I hope we haven't used up our quota of goals in one game. What was pleasing there besides the fact we scored 5 goals was that none of the 5 were scored by Hoggie who up till now we almost totally relied upon to score them.

Not a perfect display. Conceding 1-27 especially what looked like an off form Waterford is worrysome. Still too much fuck acting around with the ball from puckouts for my liking, don't think Collins opened up once in his striking.

We'll know a lot more after next Saturday night's game v Tipperary

Well, 2 points earned, I suppose and that’s what matters.

Yes, the backs were good and tight in the first half and hardly gave Waterford a sniff. In fact the tackling was intense all over the pitch, including the forward line, which was particularly pleasing. It was what any team which hopes to win an All-Ireland has to do and which Cork have hardly done at all up to now.

But as the final quarter dawned the Cork marking started to loosen and Waterford were able to score some very soft points. I found this quite frustrating. A match is 70+ minutes long and the job is never done until the final whistle blows. Have Cork not learned their lesson yet?  

After Waterford had a man sent off, during practically injury-time alone, Waterford scored 1-4. That sort of slackness won’t win any titles, no matter how many goals you score. 5-22 to 1-27. Yes, in spite of Cork's dominance for almost three-quarters of the game, Waterford ended up with one more score than them. I sure hope Donal O’Grady pounds it into them the importance of keeping the concentration for the entire match.

Off to a good start. As already said here not a perfect performance tho. They gifted Waterford too many scores with the short passing being intercepted. But they must know this is the risk thus are taken. I was impressed by both corner backs. I thought their tacking was great and intense. The new lads did well but I'm not gone on Meade and O'Connor. I know Meade was involved in a few scores but against a better team I don't see him being able to play like that. We still struggle on the puck outs when waterford pushed up towards the end we couldn't even get the short puck out right. So there's a lot to work on. They must push on now v Tipp next week and cut out the mistakes.