With the demise of Cork hurling at all levels in the last ten years or so many Cork hurling followers are asking the question - is Cork hurling too soft? Much of the "blame" is being directed at the standard of refereeing in the county and how refs are blowing for too many "soft" frees. The players are being overly protected within the county and as a result aren't prepared to dig deep when it comes to winning the dirty ball at inter county level. The Sarfields defeat at the hands of Cratloe yesterday has raised the question once more. Too many of their players were looking to the ref for "soft" frees rather than go all out and win that dirty ball. It's all very fine boasting of having wristy skilful players but it takes more than that to win the bigger prize.

westisthebest (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 10/11/2014 12:59:38    1671074

Cratloe beat Thurles Sarsfields yesterday. The Tipp champions..
Kilmallock from Limerick beat Sarsfields from Cork after extra time in a cracking match. Cork flopped in the senior semis but won munster, a serious achievement at any time. Were a whisker away from winning the 2013 AI. The 'soft' analogy is crude to say the least. If you start a thread like this with your basic facts so wrong at the start, whats the point!?

skillet (Limerick) - Posts: 1062 - 10/11/2014 13:13:44    1671078

OUCH , Best answered by the rebels themselves , having seen them at close quarters at under age I wouldn't have ever described them as soft .

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 10/11/2014 13:17:29    1671080

Apologies, I did mean to say Kilmallock. By the way the views expressed in my post are now mine but those I've read by Cork people.

westisthebest (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 10/11/2014 13:22:32    1671084

Dont want to be the defender of all things Cork here, but its a description i couldn't begin to agree with. They mightn't have the quality of 10years back and dont exactly inspire fear any more, but soft! No soft inter county hurlers out there in IMO. Any Cork lads care to offer an opinion.

skillet (Limerick) - Posts: 1062 - 10/11/2014 13:45:26    1671092

I read the views of Cork hurling followers on another site and just wondered what Cork posters here might think. There is something drastic going on down Cork way as they haven't managed to win anything of note at minor, under 21, colleges, club or senior for a long time now.

westisthebest (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 10/11/2014 14:10:02    1671099

Won Munster this year & nearly an All-Ireland last year...

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 10/11/2014 14:17:51    1671102

It is probably fair actually. We have skilful hurlers alright but as the original poster said, that is not good enough. We are not physical enough for the modern game.

A measure of where we are at is when the likes of Damien Cahalane just decides that he is playing with Cork hurlers and we then pick him - we had the Rock a few years ago in his position(doubt anyone would call him 'soft').

Aidan Walsh has the physicality alright but does not have the hurling nous. To win an All-Ireland all you need to do is hit it off in two really big games - but they must be the right games and I don't see that we have enough quality or physicality to be able to do it.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 10/11/2014 14:50:52    1671122

It's amazing that the county champions in a county the size of Cork has only won a Munster title 4 times in the last 30 years. To make it better one tiny club - Newtownshandrum, won it three of those 4 times between 2003 and 2009.

Cork teams dominated the competition in the 70s, but then it all seemed to go quiet.

ringo (Wexford) - Posts: 384 - 10/11/2014 15:27:53    1671136

They got enough soft frees yesterday. The refereeing was abysmal and for the ref and umpire to miss Cussen's throw for the goal late on was horrendous. Better team won simple as that really.

Hoover78 (Limerick) - Posts: 865 - 10/11/2014 15:42:53    1671143

Totally disagree. if you watched the match yesterday Sars were far from soft. it was a hard physical but fair game

GerMan (Limerick) - Posts: 38 - 10/11/2014 16:17:17    1671152

Perhaps physicality is not their specialty right now ( this current panel) but I wouldn't call em soft.
They have some big players in Aidan Walsh , Christopher Joyce & Lorcan McLoughlin. Well able to be physical in a game.
I've never seen nor heard of a soft Cork team in general since I've been put on this earth!!

WildPundit (Tipperary) - Posts: 1709 - 10/11/2014 17:12:29    1671180

If you look at last 10 years how many football leagues, underage and senior c ships Cork have won. Ger Loughnane was lambasted for saying that the biggest threat to hurling is football. In Corks case is there a case to be made that he was correct?

If so then if a county as big as Cork cant have hurling and football parity then there is no hope for the rest of us.

disillusiondfan (Limerick) - Posts: 4279 - 10/11/2014 18:09:52    1671206

I agree with the original point to be fair. The Cork Championship has too many back doors and lacks competitive edge. Sars comfortably enough won the County this year and have dominated in recent history but yet when they go out in Munster they put up little fight.Of course the opposite can also have a bad effect. It is a well known fact that the bad blood that exists in the Galway Club Championship can have a knock on effect on the County Team. Having said all this Kilmallock are a good Team and deserved their win yesterday. Don't think people are giving them enough credit. They could actually go and win Munster after the battle they came through yesterday and best of luck to them.

Think the poor showing in Munster is probably a collection of a few things.
1) Poor development at underage level - This is fact. The eye has been taken off the ball with regard the development at a very early age and if it wasn't for excellent work done at some clubs we would be further back i.e NewtownShandrum

2) Bad Cycle - Every so often every County goes through a period where the players coming are not as prolific as other years and when you marry this up with point 1 things end up not looking good.

3) Cork is a very big County and the spread of players is huge. It can be often a case that a Team at Intermediate level have a couple of outstanding hurlers that are Inter County Standard but yet cannot get out of the Grade as they are not strong enough
overall.

Nevertheless we appreciate all your concerns but there is no way Hurling in Cork is finished. There is too much interest in the clubs for it to die out. We are having a good showing in the Harty this year and won a very competitive Munster. Think the current Team are on an upward curve development wise and should have a few of the minor Team from 2 years ago to add in to next years Team.I actually think when Cork roar back and they inevitably will they could dominate for a while.

Cornerback1977 (Cork) - Posts: 67 - 10/11/2014 19:09:48    1671216

surely aidan walsh should stuck to football
he just doesnt look like a natural hurler

rhudson (Galway) - Posts: 1478 - 10/11/2014 19:40:25    1671228

Did you miss the shoulder that led to the late free in for Sarsfields equaliser to force extra time? I thought Sarsfields and Kilmallock was a very high quality match for a club fixture. Kilmallock are clearly a very strong side after seeing off NaPiarsaigh and Sarsfields.

Cork will be back, we all know that.

Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 10/11/2014 20:08:20    1671237

Some of the discussion I've been reading relates to the standard of refereeing within Cork. The suggestion is that the refs don't allow enough physicality in club games etc and thus leading to Cork hurlers being "soft". Some posters here - non Cork in fact- mention winning the Munster final this year, ALMOST winning an All Ireland in 2013 and Cork club champios Sarsfields contesting an entertaining game yesterday as evidence that Cork hurling isn't soft! Have we forgotten the collapse against Tipp in the semi final this year? What about Sarsfields lack of success in Munster over the last number of years? Some of the most sought after coaches are from Cork, yet hurling in the county is struggling. You have Donal O'Grady, Cusack, Allen, Cunningham and Justin McCarthy offering their services outside of Cork and being taken up by other counties. Yet their own county could badly do with them.

westisthebest (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 10/11/2014 20:20:03    1671242

I'm sorry corner back but cork did not win a competitive Munster. Waterford n Clare were v poor this year. Limerick then had a five week lay off which TJ Ryan admitted was new to him n he got iwrong. It was the same five week break that posed issues for cork against tipp. If Clare Dublin n Galway return to where they CAN be then Cork are prob not a top 5 team based on 2014. Mind u resolving dual player issue might improve things but for me cork lack players

disillusiondfan (Limerick) - Posts: 4279 - 10/11/2014 20:39:26    1671247

if ever there was a county who cant call another county soft it's galway....

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 10/11/2014 20:47:52    1671249

The longest Cork have gone without winning an All Ireland is 12 years i believe.They are certainly in danger of equalling this unwanted record.Everything looked so rosey when they beat Galway to win back-to-back in 2005.Pretty remarkable how low they have fallen since losing to Kilkenny in 2006.
This current team,while having a few quality players like Lehane and Horgan,do not have enough players of the requisite talent to win an All Ireland.To be fair,they were within a whisker of doing so last year.But it would have been a travesty had Clare failed to beat them.One thing i have noticed a lot with Cork over the last few years,is the amount of times a forward will take the easy option and score a point,when theres a man free in a goal scoring oppurtunity.They have lost that killer instinct.Cork teams of old never looked a gift horse in the mouth.The net would be shaking.Along with the opposition.
The U21s got a severe beating down in Ennis.No doubt this is a great Clare U21 team,but Tipp were unlucky not to beat them in semi final in Ennis.Cork seemed overawed and outclassed.Where was the natural Corkarrogance?Judging by Corks recent underage record the future does not look promising.However,if one county can get their act together in jig time,its the rebels.Like the mushroom,they can come over night.10 years is nearly a famine to Cork.How many more years will it last?My guess is that Cork will win the All Ireland in next 3 years.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 10/11/2014 21:01:27    1671256