THEY led by six at half-time. They lost by 15.
Cork’s 3-27 to 1-18 All-Ireland final collapse against Tipperary at Croke Park left supporters stunned, embarrassed and, above all, bewildered.
How could a team so composed in Munster, so dominant against Dublin, unravel so completely when it mattered most?
The truth is, it wasn’t one thing. It was everything.
From tactical failings and a lost physical battle to missed leadership and poor sideline decisions, Cork's performance fell apart across the board. Here’s where – and how – it all went wrong.
Tactics, or Cork’s failure to respond to Tipperary’s tactics on the day. Here the management, as well as the players, must take the blame. Using an out-and-out sweeper is nothing new in hurling and the Cork management should have been prepared for it by Tipp. Clearly the team wasn’t because again and again in the first half, they played in long, high balls which were lapped up by the Tipp sweeper. Most disappointingly, Cork never tried to change that approach.
Sonny Lyons from Clonakilty enjoying the build-up in Croke Park before the All-Ireland hurling final.
Surely, the management should have had a Plan B in place for such an eventuality. The long ball game killed Cork on Sunday – why couldn’t the players themselves adjust on the pitch when they saw it wasn’t working?
Tipp hammered the Cork hammer. This year Brian Hayes had developed into Cork’s main threat in attack, scoring and creating goals. Tipp boss Liam Cahill made the brave decision to put his captain and centre back Ronan Maher in on Hayes and he played him off the pitch. Hayes hardly touched the ball all day, Cork’s main goal threat was nullified and so was the feared Cork inside forward line.
Cork are at their best when playing a fast, running game, tearing teams asunder with their pace. We never saw it on Sunday when it was most needed against the sweeper system. Why not? Tipp never gave the Cork players a chance to run – they closed them down at source, when they won possession, hounded them, chased them. Cork never really got up to the pitch of the game because of this failure to get their natural running game going.
I must admit I was extremely nervous heading for Croke Park on Sunday because it was Tipp we were playing. This Tipp team had improved in leaps and bounds all season and their basic hurling skills were every bit as good as Cork’s. On Sunday they were way better, their first touch superb, their sharpness exemplary and their use of the ball out of the top drawer. Cork never matched them hurling-wise on Sunday and that was something few Cork supporters expected.
Jayden, Pat and Kayla Sexton from Kilbrittain cheered Cork on at Croke Park.
Cork lost the physical battle hands down and it was so hard to understand after Cork’s amazing win over Limerick in the Munster final, which was such a physical battle. On Sunday, in the second half, Tipp physically hammered Cork. Whenever there was a ruck, a Cork player ended up on the ground. When Tipp players burst forward, they simply blew Cork players out of the way. Tipp went into the trenches, made the second half a physical battle, Cork failed miserably to respond.
The most damning of all, Cork’s work-rate was way short of what was needed in an All-Ireland final. It happened against Limerick the first day out and it happened again on Sunday. From the start Cork players neglected to chase Tipp players in space. There was no mass-tackling of Tipp players. Very little hooking and blocking. It’s baffling that this element was lacking when the county hasn’t won the title in 20 years. There is no excuse for poor work rate on the day.
In the absence of Séamus Harnedy, Cork had no leaders on the pitch, like Ronan Maher, John Maher, and Jake Morris for Tipp. When Cork needed somebody in the third quarter to halt the Tipp comeback, nobody took responsibility. The midfield pairing of Fitzgibbon and O’Mahony, who were expected to lead the way, had very poor outings. Unfortunately, Patrick Horgan is now well past the leading role he often assumed in the past, while the Downey brothers never dominated their positions. Apart from Shane Barrett, not a Cork player rated more than a five on the day.
Once again, the Cork sideline showed a remarkable reluctance to introduce subs early in the game when it was all going against Cork. At least two of the Cork forwards should have been called ashore early. Cork also paid the price for not whipping Eoin Downey off when he was yellow-carded. Harnedy was Cork’s best player for the short time he was on and both Lehane and O’Connell tried very hard but not using the subs’ bench properly was costly.
David Murphy from Garnish made the trip to Dublin to support the Rebels.
We all thought Patrick Collins had solved his puckout problems but it was back to the old style of lumping long balls on top of a forward line that just couldn’t win them. Why didn’t Cork go with short puckouts and run the ball through the middle third? They were stuck in the rut of long, hopeful balls.
In the past six weeks Cork had played only one competitive game, and that was far from competitive against Dublin in the one-sided All-Ireland semi-final. Clearly, the edge had gone off their game on Sunday while Tipp had played two hard games against Galway and, especially, the semi-final against Kilkenny that had brought them on no end. Winning the Munster final was fantastic but it didn’t do this Cork team any favour.
Most disappointingly, Cork, for all their progress over the past three seasons, lost all composure on the pitch in the second half when the tide turned against them. Players started doing things that they wouldn’t dream of doing in their wildest nightmares. Their game fell asunder in spectacular fashion while Tipp, who were the fairly new team on the block, were composure personified when in possession and in all aspects of their game. There was no panic in their ranks when they fell six points behind whereas Cork just couldn’t respond when the scoreboard went against them. It's hard to understand why.
Last of all, Cork again failed to deal with the tag of being favourites in an All-Ireland final. They have lost five finals since 2005: Croke Park on All-Ireland final day is becoming more and more of a graveyard for Cork hopes and dreams. When will it ever end and what can be done to call a halt to this trend? Answers to the Cork County Board please.
