A standout moment from last week is Cork‘s Mark Coleman crossing the pitch to take a lineball under the Mackey stand in the 54th minute. In the end it goes wide. Nobody has stepped in for Coleman and Nicky Quaid pucks the ball back out to Cathal O’Neill, who was free and open with no one picking him up.
It’s not as if Quaid had spotted O’Neill there and was racing to get the ball to him. He had time to look up, see him there, fire out the ball and watch as it was flashed over the bar.
That’s a desperate reflection on a team. Dublin were 15 points down to Kilkenny, on a par with what was happening to Cork, but at least they maintained their shape; they tried.
Cork completely disbanded – which is the right word. They became a collection of individuals.
I had expressed some doubts about Cork and was disappointed when I went to Páirc Uí Chaoimh to see them play Tipperary only for Darragh McCarthy to get his red card. That was the kiss of death for Tipp, who had no chance from that moment, but it also meant that Cork couldn’t address the question marks still hanging from their second-half collapse against Clare.
Even the league final second half against Tipp raised issues, as Pat Ryan said at the time.
Now, I accept last Sunday was a much more important match for Limerick, which was obvious even before they – most unusually – suspended the omerta afterwards for long enough to acknowledge that they had gone after Cork in response to last year’s defeats.
Maybe Limerick won’t play as well again this year, who knows, but they blew Cork asunder. I can’t imagine what Monday night recovery or training on Tuesday night must have been like. It can’t have been easy.
On the face of it, a match with Waterford to decide if you reach the Munster final is a quick chance of redemption, but they have to have big doubts about themselves. They have also picked up injuries. O’Leary and Downey are two of their best defenders and both are out.
As a result, their bench this weekend looks quite light, particularly on backs. It’s a huge test for Cork. A fighter who has just taken a heavy shot is 100 per cent vulnerable, but the question is, have Waterford the punching power to finish them off?
Probably not. They remain very dependent on Stephen Bennett and even with his heroic application, cracks have appeared. Dessie Hutchinson has declined to the point where has hasn’t been selected to start. They simply don’t score enough.
It’s all very well to point out how, at the other end of the pitch, Waterford have conceded just one goal. On the face of it, that sounds great but Tadhg De Búrca has been sitting back to defend the D and in the last two matches, the centre forward for Limerick and Tipperary has been the man of the match.
So, Waterford are not conceding goals, but Cian Lynch and Andrew Ormond ran amok in the two matches because of the space that was allowed to them.
An improving Limerick put them away and after a bad start, Tipp were still able to beat them convincingly.
Cork should win with their greater spread of scorers but if Waterford stay in this until the last 10 minutes, the home contingent in Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be sweating and not just in the crowd.
The big match in Leinster is in Parnell Park. Dublin v Galway might even help to spotlight the province after a really low-key campaign, not helped by the preponderance of Saturday matches.
Galway have improved, no doubt, after the opening weekend in Kilkenny. Cathal Mannion was their best player that day and he has maintained that form. Conor Whelan can come alive at any stage, so there are two outstanding forwards.
They’ve become more serviceable around the middle of the field. Cianan Fahy, Tom Monaghan and Gavin Lee have all started to play but I still have reservations, having watched them all year from the league through until now.
Virtually any time they played what you might call a benchmark team they were well beaten. So far in the championship, Kilkenny are the only side they have played at that level and they were very poor.
Dublin right now look closer to that benchmark. They conceded calamitous goals on their visit to Nowlan Park – such as defenders running into each other and a player dropping the ball in front of goal with Adrian Mullen standing by. I would argue that those mishaps are relatively easy to address, like ensuring that the goalkeeper takes control in those situations.
Hard as it is to make the distinction, they played well apart from that. Their forward play was sharp and precise. Donie Nealon used to emphasise taking the easy score and there’s actually a skill in that. They’re not spectacular but if you’re missing them, you’re putting yourself under pressure.
For example, an inexperienced Shane O’Brien in last year’s semi-final was caught in two minds. Either take a chance for goal or the easy point but thinking about going for the goal meant that he missed the easy point.
Dublin have been very good at focusing on the easy score. They’re not complicating it as much up front as they have historically. The likes of Cian O’Sullivan, Seán Currie and AJ Murphy, when he came on, just hit routine points.
They actually played better in the first half when conceding four goals than they did in the second, when launching their comeback. I think they have a good chance of winning this even though Micheál Donoghue has an improving team and knows this group of Dublin players very well.
