Pat Ryan is walking a tightrope - and Cork's hurling year hangs in the balance
IN MODERN HURLING, the 30-point barrier has become the minimum standard to consistently win games.
For Cork to fall short of reaching 20 against Limerick represented a dramatic fall from their customary levels.
That 1-16 total wouldn’t have been good enough to outscore any of their championship opponents last year. They required almost double that total to defeat the Treaty in Munster last year.
During that run to the All-Ireland final, Cork averaged 2-28 per game. In fact, the last time Cork failed to clear 20 points in championship fare was their 2016 opener against Tipperary, when they mustered just 0-13.
But Limerick tied them up in such knots, Cork simply weren’t able to land a blow. Despite giving chase during a second half played with the wind, the Rebels didn’t raise a white flag from the 49th minute onwards. No starter scored more than one point from play.
They were reliant on Patrick Horgan’s 1-9 (1-8 from placed balls), although he mixed in a handful of misses too. Séamus Harnedy came off the bench to become their only player to reach 0-2 in open play. Dangermen such as Darragh Fitzgibbon and Alan Connolly were held scoreless.
Coincidentally, 1-16 was also their total in the league draw with Limerick, although the wretched weather conditions mitigated against scoring that evening.
When Cork lost their opening-round clash with Waterford last year, Pat Ryan’s reaction was swift and decisive. The template team that emerged from the league was thrown out. Places were put up for grabs. Players seized their chance, and a new line-up emerged.
When the selection meetings were concluded by the middle of that week, nine players remained. Six were changed.
Niall O’Leary, Eoin Downey, Tim O’Mahony, Declan Dalton, and Brian Hayes have been part of the furniture ever since. Barring injury, so too has Ethan Twomey.
Of the six who dropped out, only Mark Coleman and Conor Lehane, against Offaly, have started a championship game since.
That day, Cork lost by three points. Last Sunday, they lost by 16 to a rampant Limerick team with a point to prove.
Yet 12 months on from Walsh Park, this Cork team has a stronger track record to take into consideration. They have come within a point of Liam MacCarthy glory and ended one famine with league silverware. You don’t want to risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Where do you find the balance between changing it up and trusting in what you’ve developed?
You don’t want players to lose belief in the master plan. Yet, you don’t want squad members to think the team has become a closed shop.
Ryan skillfully retooled his selection last year and found the right balance. Maybe that sweet spot only lasts so long. Form isn’t constant and if some players aren’t showing it, there has to be a cutoff point.
The malfunction in Limerick was so vast, perhaps you can shelve it and trust in players to find the right response. That performance didn’t represent the work that they have put in. So go back out and show what you can do.
The tightrope is such that if it doesn’t work on Sunday, it’ll be a long wait to get it right. But get the win against Waterford and Cork get an immediate shot at redemption in a Munster final.
Some decisions have been taken out of Ryan’s hands. O’Leary and Dalton will miss out on Sunday. That’s not an ideal scenario by any means. Still, it does give Ryan an opportunity to inject something fresh into the team and see if it sticks.
After all, that’s how the team evolved into All-Ireland contenders last year.
There is no shortage of suitors for those positions. In defence, Ger Millerick, Cormac O’Brien, and Damien Cahalane are battling for inclusion. In attack, a fit-again Harnedy would be an obvious choice to add that ball-winning edge into the half-forward line. There could yet be further adjustments. Coleman’s best position is one area of conversation. He adds plenty with ball in hand, but Tom Morrissey and Cathal O’Neill made hay on his wing.
Twomey has brought bite to midfield, but that form has tailed off, leading to his half-time departure in Limerick. O’Mahony was quiet too.
Do you bring Coleman forward? Do you drop O’Mahony back? Could Fitzgibbon return to the middle? Do you stick or twist?
Is Ciarán Joyce now the preferred centre-back, or was that an accommodation for a hampered Robert Downey?
Patching up those defensive lines is key. Waterford’s best performers against Tipperary were Jamie Barron, who scored 0-4 off seven shots as he drifted from centre-forward, and Stephen Bennett, who netted a first-minute goal to break Paul Flynn’s all-time Déise scoring record.
They also have their own issues to resolve after that nine-point defeat.
Waterford would’ve had Tipp lined up a long way out as their most likely exit route to the All-Ireland Series. Their failure to exploit a fast start will rankle. They had a 1-3 to 0-1 jump on the hosts, but miscued nine wides within 25 minutes. Their conversion rate, like Cork’s, scarcely topped 50%.
Dessie Hutchinson’s quiet performance was a worry as Barron and Bennett, much like Horgan, lacked back-up on the scoresheet.
Teams have worked out how to exploit Tadhg de Búrca’s deep-lying role. Cian Lynch was man of the match from centre-forward against Waterford. Andrew Ormond achieved the same feat by scoring 0-3 and getting fouled for five frees. He should’ve had a penalty too. Peter Queally must figure out a solution or risk Fitzgibbon or Shane Barrett exploiting those same spaces.
In the round-robin’s sixth iteration, Waterford will be getting sick of missing out on qualification. They were All-Ireland finalists the year before the round-robin was introduced and in one of the two Covid years during which it was on standby. Yet they have never escaped among the Munster top three.
With Rebel improvement expected, they will also need to significantly improve upon their 1-20 tally.
It will be nervy, but Cork’s track record in similar corners should stand to them.
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