OF CORK’S THREE recent losses against Limerick, Anthony Nash believes Sunday’s was by far the worst.
It finished 2-25 to 1-17 in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as John Kiely’s outfit once against outfought Cork. They now have two weeks to bounce back ahead of a crucial clash with Clare on May 1.
“This was the worst of the three games. Of the All-Ireland final last year, the league final and this one,” said Cork’s All-Star winning goalkeeper Anthony Nash, speaking on the latest hurling episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast.
“They picked almost the same team as last year bar a few players, they played the same tactic. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
Nash said he had sympathy for the squad, but there is no sugarcoating how bad a showing it was.
“I feel sorry for them. It is not that I am having a pop of the management that much either. You got turned over in last year’s final and play the exact same way. I don’t understand that.
“Did they think it was just one bad day in the office? Did they expect Ger Mellerick to make the whole difference? I thought Cork did well on Cian Lynch. He played well but wasn’t as influential as last year’s final.
“I met Gearóid Hegarty’s father walking out after. He said if he was a Cork supporter he would’ve nearly walked out after 45 minutes. It was just dead. I genuinely hate sitting here saying that. My friends are on the field there and I felt for them. The league was great. The final went the way it went. Yesterday was just terrible.”
He went on to argue Mark Coleman should be switched to wing-back. More importantly, there are serious structural questions that need answering if the Rebels are to make the top three in Munster.
“The players will put up their hands and say, yes we did not do enough. But number two, structurally, the likes of Limerick and Waterford, I liked some of what I saw from Galway in Wexford too. I was standing in Wexford Park on the sideline and I looked left. There was two Galway forwards within their scoring zone, the rest back working like dogs.
“Traditionalists, man on man, that is gone. Cork are in the middle of it. Trying to get enough bodies back but not getting enough back. When they are back, not working hard enough.
“Jimmy Barry-Murphy said on day one to us: ‘When we work hard we are one of the best teams in the country. When we don’t work we are mediocre.’
“There are two things, you would look at the Cork forward line and ask, off the ball are they doing enough? Are they structurally set up? People listening will say they should just work. Yes, they should.
“But do they know what they are supposed to do? Then it is are they willing to do it? If they are not they should not be on the field. I always believe you tell a player what to do so clearly that if he doesn’t do it you have a reason to take him off. “
