Cork GAA Discussion Thread

Cork have been considered soft for a long time.

Some difference between how Kerry handled being so far ahead at ht and us. When Hoggie had a chance to put us up at the start of the second half he missed whereas the Kerry lads come out and turn the screw further...we need to learn from teams like that

Donegal were as good as Donegal could be , they played to a structural game plan and failed

Last week cork never performed, because they were under huge pressure

I taught if ye won this year ye would dominate the next 3 or 4 , but pressure is still in the way it would seem

I would absolutely love if your prediction came through but I don’t think so, ye will win it at some stage and will probably win a few together then. Surely this year won’t set ye back as much as you say, let some of the older lads go and bring in some young lads, use the hurt of this year to motivate next year. Am I taking too much of a simplistic / optimistic view of it.

I don’t see what I said wrong, ye were hot favourites and probably the best team in the country until the second half of the AI final, I’m simply making the point that surely things can be turned around / make a few changes, it’s not as if ye are starting off from scratch with nothing

According to wiki these are the players on the day. Most of them still involved. Closer to 20 to be exact.

Lads we've been living in a fools paradise with this Cork team. The plain and simple truth is that they just are not that good. Look at our record in Munster over the last two years; it isn't that impressive is it? We lost two games last year and this year we lost one, won two and drew two (I am including the Munster final in that).
Since the format of the provincial championships was changed to a round robin it has had the effect of putting a false value on some teams. It means you can lose two games and still qualify for the AI series (as we did last year). Also if you draw a game there isn't a replay. It hasn't made much of a difference in Leinster because KK are so far ahead of the other teams. It has had an effect in Munster because the teams are more evenly matched.
If the Clare game we drew in Ennis this year had gone to a replay would we have won it? If the Munster final had gone to replay would we have won it?
We could have been playing Kilkenny in an AI semi this year and they gave Tipp a much closer game this year than we did remember.
Last year we were thirty seconds away from being knocked out of Munster. It was a quick puck-out from Patrick Collins that allowed us to win the penalty at the other end that Horgan scored. We could have quite easily not qualified for the AI final this year and last year. I am not saying we were lucky; the lads took advantage of the opportunities they got and full credit to them for that.
We need to be more convincing in Munster if we are to win the AI. I hate to be drawing comparisons with other teams but the Limerick team that won the four in a row only lost one game in Munster in the years they won the AI's. And that was only by a point (to Clare in 2023). Tipp were not convincing in Munster either this year but you could actually argue they were more consistent than us. They beat Waterford by a bigger score than us, they beat Clare in Ennis (which we failed to do) and they drew with Limerick (albeit in Thurles).
The only blip they had was when we beat them convincingly in Cork. But we had to two blips; the hammering by Limerick in the round-robin and the second-half meltdown in Ennis.
The optimism we had before the AI was based on us beating Tipp twice this year already. The two capitulations were ignored; "that won't happen again".
I think there is an All-Ireland in this Cork team but it's a big ask to get back to the final again. If they do the pressure on them to win will be tenfold what it was this year.
But we will nearly need to mow every team down on the way to show we mean business. No scraping through or getting hammered in one game and winning the next.
I really hope we can do it.

What happened during the hand shakes?

Next year Cork are away to Tipp, should be Waterford away but have Clare and Limerick at home. Clare will surely be better next year and Limerick will be smarting after a poor year by their standards. Will Cork get 2 wins from those 3 games?

Whatever about Cork . Envious of Man Utd 🤣

4 Corkmen, Heavin, Garde, Brosnan and Deane

Tipp in Thurles first up next year

Provisional 2026 Munster SHC fixtures

Round 1: Tipperary v Cork; Clare v Waterford.

Round 2: Cork v Limerick; Waterford v Tipperary.

Round 3 (separate weekends): Clare v Limerick (first); Waterford v Cork (second).

Round 4: Limerick v Waterford; Tipperary v Clare.

Round 5: Cork v Clare; Limerick v Tipperary.