Here we go again: Waterford vs. Cork

Daysha

May aswell start a thread on the match. The 7th Championship meeting between the 2 sides in 6 years, Cork winning 4 and Waterford 2. Should be another cracker, usually is when they meet, regardless of whos suspended or not. Cork naming their team tonight and Waterford in the next day or two.

While this isn't totally related to Sundays match, does anyone else feel these 2 pre-determined groups are a bit unfair?

Galway
Clare
Laois
Antrim

Offaly
Dublin
Losers of Cork/Waterford
Losers of Tipp/Limerick

With the emergence of Dublin there are now 10 teams with a real possibility of reaching the quarter finals. Instead of putting 3 teams into each of the 2 groups along with 1 outsider, theyve decided to put 4 strong teams into one group and put the 2 outsiders together in another. If it was a random draw it would just be down to good or bad luck, depending on your county. The fact though the the GAA specifically chose these 2 groups makes it a bit odd. Both groups would be far from foregone conclusions if say the losers of Tipp/Limerick switched with Antrim. But hopefully come Sunday night Waterford wont really have to worry about it!:D

Kojak

The problems with the groups is that "your damned if you do and your damned if you don't". Would you have prefered to have one group of death and another with teams that would get hammered in the quarters?

As regards the match on Sunday, I think that regardless of the suspensions that Cork have I still feel Waterford will win this match as Cork have bben on the road for a number of years now and eventually it is going to tell.

Cork will be missing Cusack, which will be a big loss to them from the point of view of quick puck-outs and overall general play. I am surprised that Hartnett at wing back hasn't been used yet as, from what I hear, he has the prospect of becoming a very good half-back.

Waterford have been very quiet since winning the league, which must mean that they are completly focusing on the championship - which is a good sign. They could have easily just said "We have won our national title now" and just left it at that.

Waterford have found a few new players this year in the likes of Keanrney (who had an excellent league) and this seems to have goven the whole team a new lease of life.

Waterford to win by approx. 3 points.

Daysha

Teams for Sunday:

Waterford
C Hennessy
E Murphy
D Prendergast
J Murray
T Browne
K McGrath
A Kearney
M Walsh
S Molumphy
D Shanahan
S Prendergast
E Kelly
J Kennedy
P Flynn
J Mullane

Cork
A Nash
B Murphy
C O'Connor
S O'Neill
J Gardiner
R Curran
K Hartnett
J O'Connor
T Kenny
K Murphy
N McCarthy
P Cronin
B O'Connor
K Murphy
J Deane

Heisenberg.

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Kojak

Absolutly brilliant game - talk about end to end hurling. Have to say that the skill levels by both sets of players was absolutly fantastic and some of the high fielding, especially by Waterford, was very good as well.

Cork defiantly missed O'Sullivan and O'hailpin as their 2 positions were being over-run by Shanahan and the high ball into the square. Except for the goal from the 21 yard he conceded, Nash in goal couldn't really be faulted. Most of the goals game from the high ball or a number of players tearing through the middle of the Cork defence. O'Sullivan's physical presence would have cut out most of this.

Prendergast was one of the man of the match contendors in the 1st half. He wisely handed off the sliothar to Shanahan for the first goal. This was a true sign of a team players - a guy who is willing to do the donkey work, so long as the team wins. Also Mullane was "on fire" as Duignan was saying. He seemed to be very motivated for this match.

The one problem that I thought Waterford would have would have been a bit too much celebrating after the League final win. However, they showed that they are still very determined to win Munster and challenge strongly for the All-Ireland. They will be strong favourites for the Munster final against Tipp/Limeirck. We seen today that they can hande the tag of favourites better than was generally thought.

I think that Cork will still be a pretty big treat when the 1/4 finals come round, and with them bloodening some new young players, it still bodes well for the rebels.

It was the best game of hurling this year, and only gives hurling an even higher profile.

Mushy

Definately a great game. Pretty much all of what Kojak says, dont want to repeat it all.

fuinneamh

Excellent game for the promotion of the game. Bote sides won't be bothered by the result ;they'll both reach the knock out stages of the all-ireland series and then its a case of stringing together 3 games together on the trot. From a waterford point of view the two things we can take from the game is i) we now have a bench that Justin can use ii) If waterford meet cork again, Brick cannot be expected to be both creator and workhorse. Kenny and JOC made too many chances running from deep, Brick is a natural footballer and was made into a hurler. He is perfect for neutralising players but because molumphy was under pressure brick had to try and become a creative force as well which left kenny and JOC with too much room to cause havok. How justin deals with this will decide it the next time they meet.

lukin

I don't think it was a great game at all and I'm not just saying that because I'm from Cork and am annoyed that we lost.
Just because there were a lot of goals does not automatically mean it was a "great" game. I think because there have been so many entertaining games between these two teams that we have to say it was a classic after each one.
There was lot of poor defending on both sides and nearly all of the goals were the result of mistakes rather than good play by the opposition.
Oh and that Eoin Kelly is an utter knobhead for his childish taunting of the Cork fans after scoring his goal. He's a lucky man Sully wasn't on the field or he would have sorted him out.

Kojak

lukin wrote:

Just because there were a lot of goals does not automatically mean it was a "great" game. I think because there have been so many entertaining games between these two teams that we have to say it was a classic after each one.
There was lot of poor defending on both sides and nearly all of the goals were the result of mistakes rather than good play by the opposition.

That's funny, because I was of the same mind-set after the All-Ireland semi final in 2005 between KK and us (Galway) I thought that it was poor defending on both sides. But everyone I knew that was from outside Galway, and a few from the county itself, thought it was brilliant.

I guess that when you'd be a neutral watchinhg the game you'd automatically think it was very entertaining. However, if your team was playing I suppose you'd have to find some fault with conceding that amount of goals.

Declan Prendergast, for a big man, was caught out a few time today - especially for Kieran Murphy's first goal. He will have to be more commanding for later on in the championship.

Daysha

Before I start, I'll agree with you all on Eoin Kelly. He usually isn't too bad but what he did after the goal was completely stupid and irresponsible. Considering that before the goal we had 60 mins of a great game played in perfect spirits, it kinda but a damper on things. I know for a fact that there are Waterford people who aren't happy with what he did so maybe Justin will sort him out before the Final.

While on that topic I was extremely pleased with Mullane today. He gets the usual stick from Cork fans in every match involving the two teams but today for once he just let his hurling do the talking, and 1-3 from play isn't a bad return.

I can understand that you might think that just because it had a lot of goals doesn't mean it was a classic. But in my eyes it was a classic, not because of 8 goals, but of the quality of those 8 goals, along with some fantastic points. For instance, Waterford today scored 5-15 with only 4 wides. That is quality scoring, never mind the opponent and whos missing from the opponents backine. And like I said some of the points scored were crackers eg. Joe Deanes and Shanahan on their weaker side near the far touchline. Add to that the constant swing of the play. Cork went 4 pts up in the 1st half yet went 6 down before half time, which they then managed to cancel out before we got that crucial 5th goal. The teams were also level SEVEN times. That sounds like a near classic to me.

To be honest Cork wont be too dissapointed I feel. Sure its never great to lose but they put up a great performance under the circumstances. Theyll know get 3 challanging games in the qualifiers to sharpen up before (presumably) the quarter finals.

rebs23

Very similar game to KK V Galway in the semi final 2 years ago and while some of the defending was shambolic the quality of stickwork, workrate, end to end stuff made it one of the best games I've seen in a long time.

While everyone is saying Cork will take a lot from this especially in relation to the play of their subs, etc I feel Waterford are beginning to have the look of a team that knows they can do it winning tight games and having confidence in their bench. What are the chances of these two meeting again?

Washout

lukin wrote:

I don't think it was a great game at all and I'm not just saying that because I'm from Cork and am annoyed that we lost.
Just because there were a lot of goals does not automatically mean it was a "great" game. I think because there have been so many entertaining games between these two teams that we have to say it was a classic after each one.
There was lot of poor defending on both sides and nearly all of the goals were the result of mistakes rather than good play by the opposition.
Oh and that Eoin Kelly is an utter knobhead for his childish taunting of the Cork fans after scoring his goal. He's a lucky man Sully wasn't on the field or he would have sorted him out.

are you kidding me?
take the goals out i still thought it was a fantastic spectacle.

some of the catches players wre making and some of the point scoring from tight angles was just amazing.

DéiseGirl

lukin wrote:

I don't think it was a great game at all and I'm not just saying that because I'm from Cork and am annoyed that we lost.
Just because there were a lot of goals does not automatically mean it was a "great" game. I think because there have been so many entertaining games between these two teams that we have to say it was a classic after each one.
There was lot of poor defending on both sides and nearly all of the goals were the result of mistakes rather than good play by the opposition.
Oh and that Eoin Kelly is an utter knobhead for his childish taunting of the Cork fans after scoring his goal. He's a lucky man Sully wasn't on the field or he would have sorted him out.

What would Sully have done to him?

Agamemnon

I thought it was a great game as well, top-notch hurling between two teams that know each other so well. From a Cork point of view, it was good to score 3 goals - we didn't score enough goals last summer and it would be nice if the problem was sorted.

Waterford should win the Munster title now and if Cork fall again, I'd love to see Waterford go all the way. Players of the calibre of Shanahan, Mullane, Browne and Kelly deserve an All-Ireland.

Heisenberg.

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Agamemnon

Yeah, Flynn is lethal when on top form. I dread seeing him take frees against Cork, he's like a sniper.

fuinneamh

Flynn is great when he is fit, saw him in a club game 5 weeks ago and he got a terrible roasting,thankfully yesterday he looked sharp and he showed hes always handy to have around when theres a 20-30 yard free.

Orizio

It was a great game, although I have personally seen at least two better over the last few years.

Hopefully Shane O'Neill and Cathal Naughton will get some more chances, love to see both start in the quarter finals.

I still fancy us to beat Waterford if we reach them later on in the championship.:)