Munster Senior Hurling championship 2016 .

[ashman]

Starts the weekend with the big 2 in Q/f. 

Think tipp will win by 6 pts but if Cork can keep it tight they have a chance as Tipp have had problems winning tight games over the past few years.

[manfromdelmonte]

No underage teams for the last decade finally coming home to roost for Cork.

couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch

[ashman]

No underage teams for the last decade finally coming home to roost for Cork.

couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch

[seafoid]

The 2006 final was a real turning point for Cork hurling .
Kilkenny went on to greater things and Cork fell back
10 years ago now.

the strike did a lot of damage as well

[thejuice]

I thought Cork were coming good in 2014 but seem to be no great shakes these days whatever happened with them. It's rather sad but seems the strike has got them no where.

[AZOffaly]

I don't think yesterday told us anything about Tipp. Obviously conditions were bad, so some lads had trouble holding onto the hurl or the sliotar, but we saw enough of the flicks and wristiness to show that was still there. But I didn't see anything that made me think they had sorted out their weaknesses in the half forward line when games are going against them. Cork rattled off 4 in a row I think after half time, and at that stage Tipp's old failings were obvious. Just because Cork were weojeous doesn't mean Tipp have discovered the elixir.

That said, it was good to see the subs they brought on. Bonner, Jason Forde and Niall O'Meara all come on in the forwards, and Kieran Bergin in midfield. That's a lot healthier looking from a depth perspective.

On another note, Seamus Kennedy did alright on his senior hurling debut, so fair play to him, but Stephen O'Brien wasn't named in the 26. Surely he realises the football is his best bet for senior inter county at this stage.

[johnneycool]

I thought Cork were coming good in 2014 but seem to be no great shakes these days whatever happened with them. It's rather sad but seems the strike has got them no where.

Cork as pointed out by the lads on the panel last night didn't work the sweeper system well and granted they didn't concede any goals, but the Tipp backs were able to pick out their forwards at will and they in turn kept the scoreboard ticking.
IMO for these defensive strategies to work several things must work in tandem;

• The forwards must ensure no easy ball is cleared out of defence where a defender has time to get his head up and pick out a colleague.
• Don't allow anyone to waltz past you, stand them up, make them go backwards, more often than not a defender going backwards will strike/clear the ball higher giving your defenders more time to get to the ball.
• The sweeper must be able to cover the ground and read the game, and there needs to be an understanding as to who the sweeper is and that the remaining man markers do just that, mark their men. Cork looked confused at times yesterday as to who was doing what.
• In possession how are you going to work your own scores considering you've conceded the numerical advantage up the field, run it, pass it and so forth.

Waterford last year against Kilkenny didn't have this aspect of their game, they've improved upon it a bit this year, but enough to trouble the big guns!!!

Keeping the score down is great and good, but you need to be getting scores up the other end or you're on a hiding to nothing anyway.

Kilkenny have been deploying this kind of system for years, deep lying centre back with the midfielders covering and the wing forwards also coming deep, leaving acres for the full forward line to win ball and look for the runners in support bombing through the middle, no out and out sweeper ala Cyril Farrell in 1986 with Pierce Piggott and Galway.
There's nothing new in any of this

[AQMP]

What's the thoughts on referees ignoring the rules "for a better game"? I appreciate there can be ambiguous ones that the ref can make a judgement call on but two lads pulled the helmet off each other ( ) today and were given a yellow card apiece. Is that not a red card? If so, how can a ref ignore that?

Yeah, I thought that at the time too, pulling the face mask is a straight red?  One of the Cork subs (no 25??) was lucky too for a very wild pull after the whistle had gone.

[Canalman]

What's the thoughts on referees ignoring the rules "for a better game"? I appreciate there can be ambiguous ones that the ref can make a judgement call on but two lads pulled the helmet off each other ( ) today and were given a yellow card apiece. Is that not a red card? If so, how can a ref ignore that?

Only going by what I saw on tv, but looked to me more that the helmets were tangled up together.

For the life of me I cannot understand this "sweeper" mania sweeping (ha ha) the hurling world. Lunacy. I just cannot see where it is keeping the scores conceded way down.

Still nearly always the case that the team playing the better hurling on the day wins regardless of systems etc.

[AZOffaly]

Even the way the teams came out yesterday was funny. Cork with a slow deliberate walk of intent, as if they were trying to intimidate someone, but Tipp were in the dressing room for another 10 minutes, so I'm not sure who they were intimidating.  Then Tipp did the usual sprint out and lepping over the bench for the photo. Darren Gleeson buried a ball as high into the air as he could, but down towards the Killinan End where the Cork lads were warming up. It landed, was well controlled actually, by the sub keeper. Some of the Cork lads looked a bit thick over it. I doubt Gleeson meant it, he probably tried to hit it over the bar but it looked funny. Lucky one of the Cork backroom team didn't get it on the noggin.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

For the life of me I cannot understand this "sweeper" mania sweeping (ha ha) the hurling world. Lunacy. I just cannot see where it is keeping the scores conceded way down.

Sweeper in hurling, if done right, is actually a lot less about defending and more about attacking.  When Clare got it right in 2013 (and again at times this year) it was about what Pat Donnellan did with ball:

- Carrying up the field in All-Ireland replay and drawing men away from Shane O'Donnell
- Using the fact he was unmarked to pick out passes to Clare forwards
- Being an option for short puckout.

Only really against Galway that year where Canning was double marked by Donnellan and Dillon was it an out and out defensive strategy.

When Pat O'Connor was used last year and started defending as an extra man it proved only a hindrance.

Cian Dillon is playing that role of getting into space much better this year.

Likes of Cork and Limerick bringing this in without the work with rest of players (which are way more important in terms of movement) just makes a mess.  Go to a Clare match and watch half-forwards and midfield react when Cian Dillon gets the ball.  That's what it is all about.

/Jim. 

[Owenmoresider]

Maybe JBM's second coming in Cork wasn't so bad after all.

[AZOffaly]

From what I hear, Cork have righted the ship with their Rebel_Og coaching setup, and there are a few right good teams on the conveyer belt at the moment. The last few years their underage teams have been notable for their lack of first touch, which was hard to watch when you remember some of the COrk greats over the years.

That seems to have been rectified, so Cork mightn't be away too long at all.

[johnneycool]

What's the thoughts on referees ignoring the rules "for a better game"? I appreciate there can be ambiguous ones that the ref can make a judgement call on but two lads pulled the helmet off each other ( ) today and were given a yellow card apiece. Is that not a red card? If so, how can a ref ignore that?

Only going by what I saw on tv, but looked to me more that the helmets were tangled up together.

What? They both had their hands on each other's face guards and were pulling and hauling, ripping them off.

HS,
   Don't be going and applying the rules to this traditional Munster clash between Cark and Tipp! Its only the upstarts that get the line for these sorts of things which Loughnane mentioned about Shane O'Donnell getting the line a couple of years back for such a thing!
Cork and Tipp are more manly than that!

[seafoid]

Maybe JBM's second coming in Cork wasn't so bad after all.

He reminds me of Kenny Dalglish