Portumna are in a class of their own Talk about keeping the best wine 'til last! I have never seen such a good team performance from any club team in the history of this competition. Talk about peaking on the day and delivering a style and brand of hurling that was a joy to watch. Portumna hurlers would be a match for many intercounty teams throughout the country and there is a school of thought that they would best represent the inter county team also. That might be going a little bit too far but on the evidence of their display on March 17 one should not rule out anything. From goalkeeper to Damien Hayes in the corner forward position, they showed no weakness whatsoever. They were all comfortable in their positions and hurling with great confidence, it was quite clear after the first few minutes that De La Salle were in for a torrid afternoon. They simply had no answer for the Galway men. Despite bringing an extra man back in defence to deny them space, it seemed to work in reverse as the Hayes got the freedom of the park and big Joe Canning took all the minding to release these two lads to do as they wished. Make no mistake about it, De La Salle came with the intention of keeping it tight around the middle and stop the supply of ball to the inside men. Portumna tuned in as if they were aware this was going to happen and they likewise brought a man further out the field to complicate things even further for the Deise boys and they had no answer to it. Breaking ball in open space is like feeding candy to kids as it allowed Damien Hayes to move like lightning to score magnificent goals that killed the game as a contest. De La Salle, no doubt will feel very disappointed with their performance and will think that they failed to show up on the biggest occasion of their sporting lives. That will gall them more than anything else, they are better than what they showed but they can also take comfort from the fact they were not the first to take this dose of medicine from Portumna. Looking at the age profile and desire of this great team, they certainly will not be the last. It is onwards and upwards for these boys and the chance to create their bit of history by winning three in a row is very much alive and there are not too many who would bet against it happening. It all sounds familiar to what is happening at intercounty level! National Hurling League I travelled to Nowlan Park recently to see the Kilkenny wipe out of the Rebel County - just to remind you again the score was 4-26 to 0-11. That is a 27 point defeat of Cork and that has to be the biggest defeat of any Cork team in the history of GAA. To say that Kilkenny were awesome would be an understatement. They had everything ... physical strength, fitness levels of the highest degree, team work and most importantly the ability to get goals. How many times have we seen the player in possession taking the right option and give the ball to the man in the better scoring position when a goal is on? There is no better team in the country to go for the jugular. And to do all this without four or five All Stars shows the complete strength in depth that is in this squad. No Cha Fitzpatrick, Derek Lyng, Noel Hickey or Martin Comerford - it just shows that competition for place is at all time high and this was so evident by the performance of their midfielders Michael Rice and Michael Fennelly. They lorded the middle of the park from start to finish and have really put it up to Cody for inclusion come championship time. What about Cork? Well they certainly did not help themselves by playing only two men in the full forward line in the first half when they had a very strong breeze to their backs and allowing Michael Kavanagh all the time and space to mop up and deliver clearance after clearance seemed very strange. On a physical front Cork could not match them and in the 50/50 challenges there was always only one winner and he was in a striped shirt. Cork have to unearth a few big men particularly in our forward division and we must get more physical and direct in our play. I have always said that hurling is a simple game and sometimes when you try to complicate things, it will come back to bite you and not alone did our pride take a hammering but it was a baptism of fire for Denis Walsh as manager that he could have done without. Denis is a decent guy and he will learn from this but he now has to be strong and independent and be prepared to make the hard calls now because make no mistake about it, they need to be made. Time is not on his side because the championship is so close but he will have a great chance to see the form of contenders over the next few weeks in the club championships and Sean Og's brother Aisake is one to keep an eye out for and one that I would break the transfer market for is Michael Cussen from Sarsfields. Yes, he is the footballer and standing at 6ft 7 he would be my choice for the edge of the square and he would take some minding. They are the positives for Denis to look at and he will get it right and even though no one gives Cork a chance this year, I would not write them off quite yet. Maybe and this is only a maybe - the Cats have peaked too soon! It is now time for Liam Sheedy to show his hand and pick his strongest team available and use it as ideal preparation for the Munster championship that lies ahead. That will be against a very wounded Cork bunch who have nowhere now to turn but to themselves to get it right. The bright nights are here, the ground is getting hard and the ball is moving much quicker - summer hurling is almost here again and so much to look forward too. Tweet

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