Ex-Limerick star makes damning assessment of Cork’s mental game in final loss

Favourites for the title, and six points up at half-time thanks to a goal just before the break, with the momentum on their side. It was the ideal position to be in for Cork during Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final.

So what went so wrong in a second half that they lost 0-02 to 3-14?

Some put it down to an all-time display of hurling by the Premier County, Cork boss Pat Ryan said it was because his side lacked energy, while Joe Brolly went and blamed it on Dónal Óg.

Former Limerick forward Niall Moran has now weighed in with his opinion, and believes that it was the weight of past failures that took a mental toll on the Rebels.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, he said: “I suppose in the analysis of this game, people are going to either take two approaches. They’re going to laud the Tipperary performance and rightly so, or they’re going to criticise the Cork performance.

“And I think for me, the overall capitulation gave me the sense that Cork, with a half an hour left to go, were looking for the finish line.

“That is a consequence sometimes of the scar tissue from losing All-Irelands. And it just seemed, even in the first half, they definitely didn’t play with the flow that they had (in previous games).

“They were poxxed to be six points up. A drawn game at half time would have been a very, very fair reflection.

“People spoke about the sweeper. Cork knew what was happening. They knew that Bryan O’Mara was was flooding one side and it’s nearly 101 in terms of coaching there. You’re being given a spare man in the full-back line. What you have to do is work it through the lines.

“But I think they were completely inhibited after 10 minutes by a fear of failure. No one wanted to take that responsibility of making that big play.

“And what I was amazed at in real time, and I don’t think it was picked up even last night on the Sunday Game, Cork for a lot of the game actually went five-on-five in their own backs.

“In the second half, Eoin Downey had very little cover in front of him. He was forced into a situation where he was forced to play John McGrath from the front. And that left the door open for him to go in the back.

“So psychologically, yes, there’ll be a big focus on it. But tactically as well, they just got it really wrong against what is essentially a basic tactical concept in today’s game.”