John Horgan on hurling: Injuries won't help Cork's chances of turning tide against Limerick

When a team is comprehensively beaten by a far superior opponent, the pain of that defeat can be acute and could linger for quite a while before the opportunity presents itself again to try and make amends against that very same opposition.

In times now long past on the provincial and All-Ireland stages, a team might have to wait a full year before they got a chance to try and set the record straight against the county that had inflicted that resounding defeat.

That was in the days of the old championship format, one loss and the season was over, no second or third chances.

Now and rightly so too it's all changed, it has been now for quite a while and the opportunity to turn the tide in the opposite direction can come around in a matter of weeks.

Next Saturday night the Cork senior hurling team find themselves in exactly that position when they encounter Limerick again in the Munster final, a very short time since they were crushed by John Kiely's side at the Round-Robin stage of the competition.

Nobody envisaged what transpired at the Gaelic Grounds that day, in fact some pundits were firmly in Cork's corner on that occasion, they entered that game carrying the tag of All-Ireland favourites.

EMPHATIC

Limerick's emphatic win, however, to the tune of 16 points changed mindsets and that tag underwent quite a dramatic revision.

Limerick are now the bigger fancy again to regain the title of being the country's number one team and on the evidence presented in that game, they are quite entitled to be ranked in pole position.

Cork went out and did what was required of them against Waterford in the final group game but there is still a hell of a lot of ground to be made up on Limerick next Saturday night.

But the most important thing of all is, in a short space of time they are getting the opportunity to prove that the earlier result against Limerick was a one-off, just one of those days when it just does not happen for you.

They must go out and prove that first game on the Ennis road did not make them a bad team overnight, it was just an aberration that sometimes happens.

There is a fairly strong school of thought that this second instalment between the two counties will have another one added to it in July when their paths may well cross again. And that will be the only one that really counts.

All ridiculously premature talk of course with Kilkenny, Galway, Tipperary and Dublin going to have something to say about that.

Right now it's all about this Munster final showdown, Limerick trying make more history by winning a seventh provincial title in a row and Cork seeking a first since 2018.

It has been suggested that Cork are now in an ideal position entering this final, no longer carrying the favouritism tag, with a lot of ground to make-up, plenty to work on and wrongs to be righted.

Quite a number of the team and squad will be experiencing a Munster final occasion for the first time while Limerick are old hands at it.

Limerick's performance a few weeks back was, unquestionably, the best display by any county in this season's campaign.

Many would go further and suggest it was their greatest performance since they began their phenomenal journey to become one of the best teams, if not the best of all times.

Cork, meanwhile, have not convinced enough to suggest that the 20-year famine without an All-Ireland is nearing its end.

Maybe it will happen but further proof needs to be forthcoming, beginning next Saturday night.

It would have to be stated that this Cork team has yet to put in a 70-minute performance that is going to be required going forward.

But, without reaching that high-level mark, they are where set out to be, 70 minutes from being in an All-Ireland semi-final or 140 minutes, if they have to go through a quarter-final.

Apart from that drubbing of Cork, Limerick have not set the world alight either to the extent that they might have liked.

They managed only a draw with Tipperary while subsequently enjoying a pillar-to-post victory over Waterford, the latter not coping with the six-day turnaround after their excellent win over Clare.

KNOCK

Their encounter with Clare was a dead rubber of a game and wholesale changes to the starting 15 were made by John Kiely.

However, they still fielded strongly and the perception that their squad was by far the strongest of all the counties took a bit of a knock as they were second best to a Clare team who were just playing for local pride.

Maybe some of that Limerick squad are better coming in as substitutes rather than starting, just a theory.

Cork certainly didn't shoot out the lights against Waterford either, not playing as well with the gale-force wind in the second half as they did against it in the opening 35 minutes.

And if criticism is to be levelled at this Cork team it is the fact that they are not putting together two really solid halves of hurling., ie not being consistent enough for long enough.

Against Clare in their opening provincial assignment, they were fortunate enough to secure a draw after blowing a 12-point advantage. They were wiped out by Limerick in the opening half and against Waterford they let an eight-point second-half advantage be reduced down to three.

This is their fifth game in the provincial championship this season and in three of the four so far, there has not been the type of consistency that may be required going forward.

And the most important priority on Saturday night will be to prevent Limerick the type of early run that they were allowed to get on them a few weeks back.

Injuries to key players have not helped, of course, and we have to wait and see what Saturday's starting 15 will be.

There will be changes to the team from the game against Waterford, of that it's fairly certain. The injury situation has prevented the type of settlement that Pat Ryan would have wanted.

Injuries to Niall O'Leary, Rob Downey and now Ger Millerick has created concern in defence and Deccie Dalton's injury has robbed the attack of the type of physicality that has now become a key element of all the leading counties.

The performance levels of a few players has dipped a bit too and overall it could be said that the team as a unit is blowing a bit too hot and cold.

But being in the final without serving up what the really big days usually require is a positive, reproducing the type of effort that downed Saturday night's opponents twice last season.

In a nutshell, the very best will probably be required to turn the ship around from the rocks that were hit in that earlier 16-point loss.