Cork Senior Hurling 2024

Countdown is on

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41436649.html

https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-41431993.html

https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-41436238.html

On the week before they play in an All-Ireland final the Cork hurlers can't train on their own pitch because a women's soccer match is being played there.
This could only happen in Cork GAA.

We need the money although theres only 15,000 tickets sold out yet they claim its a sell out? In a 45,000 capacity stadium? I dont get it.

Anyway, Pat Ryan said they have no problem with it and will train in PUR

Tipp Ex wrote:We need the money although theres only 15,000 tickets sold out yet they claim its a sell out? In a 45,000 capacity stadium? I dont get it.

Anyway, Pat Ryan said they have no problem with it and will train in PUR

Can't use the terrace for soccer.

Seating only.

Tipp Ex wrote:

Anyway, Pat Ryan said they have no problem with it and will train in PUR

He was just being diplomatic.

Its great to be hearing the "Are you travelling Sunday" and "Any tickets floating around?", been a while

Is the big "UP Cork" sign on the way into Killeagh back i wonder?
Wont be down that way before the weekend but i always remember its prominent position on the right as you head East. Its been so bloody long i dont know if its still on the go. Savage sign

Sean O Don became a father last week. Christ some month for him so far

I had two tickets for Sunday because I have the season ticket but I gave them to a friend (for face value of course).
I’d only go if my father could go with me like he did in 2010 but he’s not able to anymore (he’s 89). I wouldn’t enjoy it if he wasn’t there with me.
I’d love him to see Cork win a hurling All-Ireland live and in the flesh but at least he will see it on TV (if we do win).
The best I can hope for is he gets his photo taken with Liam if they bring it to the village (again only if we win of course).

Sports Direct have compiled a 3-part video on Cork GAA.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

The Cork team to play Clare has been announced.

1.Patrick Collins, Ballinhassig.

2.Niall O’ Leary, Castlelyons.
3.Eoin Downey, Glen Rovers.
4.Sean O’ Donoghue, Inniscarra (c).

5.Ciaran Joyce, Castlemartyr.
6.Robert Downey, Glen Rovers.
7.Mark Coleman, Blarney.

8.Tim O Mahony ,Newtownshandrum.
9.Darragh Fitzgibbon, Charleville.

10.Declan Dalton, Fr.O Neill’s.
11.Shane Barrett ,Blarney.
12.Seamus Harnedy ,St. Ita’s.

13.Patrick Horgan ,Glen Rovers.
14.Alan Connolly, Blackrock.
15.Brian Hayes ,St. Finbarr’s.

16.Brion Saunderson, Midleton.
17.Damien Cahalane, St. Finbarr’s.
18.Ger Millerick, Fr. O’Neill’s.
19.Tommy O Connell,Midleton.
20.Luke Meade ,Newcestown.
21.Ethan Twomey, St.Finbarr’s.
22.Conor Lehane ,Midleton.
23.Jack O Connor ,Sarsfields.
24.Shane Kingston, Douglas.
25.Padraig Power ,Blarney.
26.Robbie O’ Flynn, Erin’s Own.
Extra Panel Members
Conor Cahalane, St. Finbarr’s.
Eoin Roche, Bride Rovers.
Cormac O’ Brien, Newtownshandrum.
Sean Twomey, Courcey Rovers.
Brian Roche, Bride Rovers.
Ben Cunningham ,St Finbarr’s.
Cathal McCarthy, Sarsfields.
Conor O’Callaghan ,Dromtariffe.
Daire O’Leary, Watergrasshill.
Eoin Carey, Kilworth.
Micheal Mullins, Whitechurch.
Robbie Cotter, Blackrock.

The sane team which started the Semi-Final.

No suprises there

Matchups (all guess work and im open to debate on these) -

Ciaran Joyce on Peter Duggan?
Rob Dowmey on Mark Rogers
Mark Colman on Tony Kelly - this is key
Seán O'Donoghue on Aidan McCarthy
Eoin Downey on Shane O'Donnell - this is key
Noel O'Leary on David Reidy

Tony Kelly played at MF v Kilkenny (he was missing for the first 50 minutes). Does David Fitzgerald play wing forward for them, if so he'll need picking up by a big man, not Mark Colman, so Tim could swop with him

The players im worried about on the Clare team are John Conlon, Shane O'Donnell and MArk Rogers. They need minding and elimination. And Tony Kelly. As i said, he tends to go missing in Croke Park but any point from him is like two points to the Clare support so he also needs to be contained. Conlon and himself are the heart of the team along with O'Donnell.
All 3 played in 2013 ironically

Personally the only Clare player I'm really worried about is Shane O'Donnell. You simply cannot let him get the ball in hand. I'm not sure if Eoin Downey can handle him and O'Donnell is a great man for winning frees and yellow cards for opponents.

John Conlan undoubtedly, has been a great warrior for them, but he may find the pace beyond him on this occasion. Hopefully at any rate!

Sunday is all I'm thinking of

In his column in the Irish Examiner (the online version is behind a pay wall, so I can’t link it), Brian Gavin references the All-Ireland of 2013 between Cork and Clare which he refereed. His excuse for allowing the extra 30 seconds over the allotted extra time was that “Just before that (Clare’s equalising point), a good amount of time had elapsed in Cork taking a sideline cut, so I had made up my mind that I was going to play past the 30 second mark.”

What he infers here, of course, is that Cork delayed taking the sideline because they were a point ahead, which is, of course, a complete fabrication. The Clare goalkeeper, Patrick Kelly, who had possession of the ball was forced out over the sideline by Luke O’Farrell. Kelly picked up the ball and carried it halfway back to his goals, before dropping it on the ground and Cork had to go and retrieve it before Stephen Moylan took the sideline cut which he sent wide. Moylan took about 3 seconds to hit the sideline cut. All the time had been wasted by Kelly, so there was no reason at all why Gavin should have allowed an extra 30 seconds.

That Cork couldn’t have stayed alert for another 30 seconds is entirely beside the point.

Brian Gavin was one of the worst referees of all time

THU, 18 JUL, 2024 - 14:08
Brian Gavin

It’s natural for Cork supporters and most neutrals to wish for Patrick Horgan to end his wait for an All-Ireland medal on Sunday.

Eleven years ago, he was a few seconds away from it. I obviously know because I was referee for the 2013 drawn final with Clare. Not only that, it was Horgan who sent over a neat score to put Cork a point up in the first minute of additional time.

My timekeeping of that game has been a talking point in Cork down through the years but I was completely happy with how I handled it. At the end of normal time, I communicated to the sideline that I would be allowing for a minimum of two minutes. My stopwatch told me that there was an extra two minutes and 25 seconds to be played.

The whole area of timekeeping, allowing an amount for substitutes, blood substitutes, HawkEye etc, became clearer in the following years but in 2013 the understanding around the subject was hazy.

What we were told at the time was if you intended playing an additional amount that was so many minutes and below 30 seconds, you rounded it down for the purpose of the public announcement. If it was above, you rounded it up.
Domhnall O’Donovan’s amazing equalising point was struck before the 25-second marker and went over with 26 seconds on the clock. Just before that, a good amount of time had elapsed in Cork taking a sideline cut, so I had made my mind up that I was going to play past the 30-second mark.

The quality of O’Donovan’s score was unreal. When I saw my umpire PJ Lawlor raise the white flag, I was almost in disbelief. I think the majority of the stadium was too. There was a lull soon after the final whistle. Both sides lived to fight another day but it feels almost like an anti-climax. Cork might have had a problem with what was played but if the protocol with additional time had been known, there probably wouldn’t have been a word about it.

It had been a good game, all the same. Anthony Nash’s running pile-driving frees had been the talk of the championship and he sent one passed a group of Clare players earlier in the game and he did the same in the replay.

The way in which he was able to bring the ball forward like he did later forced a rule change. I remember him claiming to me in one game that the opposition were charging his shot. I told him it would be easy for him to look at it that way when he was nearly on top of them by the time he struck the sliotar.

That was the second of three All-Ireland finals in a row that finished level at the end of normal time. What followed in the replay was a day of wonder from Shane O’Donnell. I was standby referee that day for James McGrath and that was another thriller, although Clare always seemed to have the upper hand.

That season of 2013, which also saw HawkEye’s debut in the GAA, was an unusual one. It was the first time since 2005 that Kilkenny didn’t feature in a final. They and Tipperary had been dominating the championship but when they both went out of Leinster and Munster before the finals and then drawn against each other opportunity knocked for everyone else.

I was in line to take charge of the Leinster final but when that pair were pitted to face each other in Nowlan Park I was reassigned to that. I handled that pretty well so was in the frame for the All-Ireland final.

I’ve written it before but I rarely found games involving Cork difficult to referee because they have so often been a lovely, fast hurling team, so I didn’t feel as if I had to be on top of being firm about players’ behaviour as I would have in a game between Kilkenny and Tipperary. And as it turned out it wasn’t a difficult game to referee, although I did make a couple of mistakes in the first half, both which negatively impacted Clare.

Afterwards, I didn’t receive much heat from Cork. I had a great few hours with Jimmy Barry-Murphy in the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham a few years ago but if he was miffed with the additional time played that day he didn’t mention it. Likewise, I’d be friendly with other Cork boys like Mark Landers through our love of horse-racing and they haven’t really raised the matter either.

On “The Sunday Game” the night of the game, Ger Loughnane had a go at me, saying he didn’t think I was up for the game. I don’t know if Loughnane wanted me fist-pumping or what. Like I mentioned, I would have been more relaxed than a Kilkenny-Tipperary meeting because I didn’t anticipate it would be a physical game but it was a final and every final has to be taken seriously.

I think Loughnane went in heavy partly because RTÉ had time to fill. As there was no link to the winners’ banquet, they had extra space in the programme and so the referee came in for extra scrutiny. It was the same for Barry Kelly when he was in charge of the drawn 2012 and ’14 finals.

I wondered at the time if Loughnane was doing a favour for Davy Fitzgerald but I’ve since realised that wasn’t the case. However, former referee Seánie McMahon, who was doing logistics for Fitzgerald at the time, was sent my way at half-time. In the end, he didn’t approach me. I’d have nothing against McMahon but if he had come near me, I’d have given him short shrift. I wasn’t going to be intimidated.

A player might visualise what the final whistle might feel like but most referees wouldn’t. When Horgan sent over that score, I didn’t imagine the Cork fans in raptures because one moment even in the dying seconds of additional time can define a performance.

A year later, Barry Kelly awarded Tipperary a free against Brian Hogan for charging. Had ”Bubbles” O’Dwyer’s long free gone over, Kilkenny would have been raging and all the good decisions made by Kelly forgotten about.

Read More
How Cork's leading man Patrick Horgan discovered less is more
That’s something Johnny Murphy has to keep in mind on Sunday: every minute, every second counts. He has a responsibility to be fair to both teams but there is an onus on him to contribute to a spectacle too. People are now paying €100 into an All-Ireland final. They don’t want it to be a free-taking shoot-out between Horgan and Aidan McCarthy.

On paper and the basis of their previous couple of Munster games, it should be a high-scoring game but it’s important the players, within reason, are allowed to get on with it.

My worry is that Croke Park, who strangely found fault with Thomas Walsh’s fine command of the Cork-Limerick semi-final, will remind Murphy to keep things tidy. I despair at how out of touch administrators have become with the game and what supporters desire and the lack of ex-referees on national committees is really showing.

Murphy is a vastly-improved referee but has earned a name for being fussy. The game is more physical than 11 years ago. That has to be an allowance for that. Let the game breathe.

Nervous about tomorrow and the result. I am naturally a pessimist anyway so ignore me if you wish.

Theres an air of just turning up creeping in a bit methinks. Among supporters. Fine, let them enjoy it as long as the players and management dont fall into that trap.
Clare are a serious team and have beaten us already in the championhip and their recent record against us is very good. Can we peak again for the third time this year and banish 19 years of hurt?
Lets do it ffs!

I'm not enjoying this one little bit I'm afraid!! - All I want, is to get over the f.ing line and move on from nineteen years of starvation.
For me, there is more "ifs" in the Clare camp than ours - Tony Kelly for example - Can he just turn it on "just like that" in the immortal words made famous by Tommy Cooper - KK should have been out of sight by half time the last day -Can they go for seventy minutes rather than the 35/40 they have been doing - I don't know - Maybe they can - And then there is Lohan, who will try every dirty trick in the book to unsettle us.
The very best of luck to the young rebels and bring Liam home - Jesus the nerves!!!!

After the Waterford game, on this site I accused Cork hurling supporters of being delusional. I said we hadn’t really progressed beyond a game plan designed years ago to reflect the fact that we had no forward who could catch a ball in the air. Here we are a few months later on the eve of an All Ireland final having lorded the skies with long deliveries and puck outs. Kudos to players and management for proving that I was the delusional one. Whatever happens tomorrow we’ve come a long way this year.

To get over the line it’s going to be about how we deal with the Clare half back line and how we succeeded in limiting the damage O’Donnell and other Clare forwards do off the chances our defence continue to cough up. Ironically, we may need to rely less on the long bomb tomorrow and mix it up a bit more.

Our score taking against Limerick was really good. Tomorrow we are going to need to be patient as the occasion and the law of averages will mean the accuracy levels might dip a bit.

We have a real fighter’s chance. It may not happen, but it’s a better chance than anyone (especially me) would have given us a few short months ago.

Enjoy the day lads. All Ireland finals are special. All Ireland finals that Cork are playing in are even more special. The craic, the colour, the raw emotion. I am nervous and, if I’m honest, not very convinced that we’ll do it, but maybe that’s the right place to be right now. There’s no Cork arrogance in people I talk to. We know Clare have had the upper hand over us for a while. We know we have to turn up, turn it on and hope that a few things go our way. But we also know that there’s a fighting chance of those things happening. There’s thirty other counties whose supporters would love to be able to say the same. Corcaigh Abú.

You'll laugh at me for this but I won't watch it, I'll be too nervous. I know it's only a game and we will all get up again Monday morning and get on with life regardless of the result but I just couldn't bear it if we miss out again.

Totally understand that leesider. Nearly did the same against Limerick in the semi

On the players mentality. If this is anything to go by. The day after the Limerick Semi final I was in a cafe in Ballincollig. In walked Patrick Collins. I went up, put out my hand and said "that was fucking incredible yesterday Patrick"
He Said "let's drive on from here"

Up da rebels

Just heading out the door for Dublin - full of that nervous anticipation feeling we know so well.

Can't call this - flip flopping in my mind over the last few days. We are younger, faster, fresher - Clare are more battlehardened and resilient. Both teams equally desperate to win one - whoever turns up and handles the occasion & pressure better will win.

Enjoy the day comrades (if ye can..it can be a hard day!). Rebel Abu.