THE FORM OF the Cork hurlers has been brought into sharp focus this week after they swept past reigning All-Ireland champions Limerick last Sunday.
After three rounds of the league Cork are top of Division 1 Group A, ahead of Wexford on scoring difference, and they will face Galway on Saturday night in their next test.
After the severe beating they suffered in last August’s All-Ireland final, Cork have bounced back impressively in the early stages of the 2022 campaign, but maintaining those high standards is the critical challenge facing them once again.
“Jimmy Barry-Murphy said to us in 2013, when we work hard we’re one of the best teams in the country, when we don’t we’re one of the worst,” said Cork’s All-Star winning goalkeeper Anthony Nash, speaking on the latest hurling episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast.
“And that was it and that’s Cork’s thing for the last decade.
“My question now is, will they do it again and will they do it again and will they do it again? If consistency comes into that Cork team, I think they’re one of the main contenders for the All-Ireland.
“I think that Limerick game was just set up for them, there was no way Cork were going to go down there and allow what happened last year, they were way more physical than I’ve ever seen them, the hits that were going in, the tackles that were going in.
“Look to be honest I really enjoyed watching the game, Result aside, I thought the heat of the match was frightening. Now there was a couple of high tackles, I get that but I felt Cork said they weren’t going to be bullied, they were going to step up and I haven’t seen a team beat Limerick in the middle third before in a long time.
“Look before we exaggerate, yes it’s the league, yes it’s February. You don’t know what teams are doing in training, Limerick could be training hard, and I felt it meant more to Cork than Limerick.”
Nash was particularly pleased to see his former team-mate Conor Lehane catch the eye with some sparkling first-half points. Recalled to the Cork squad for the 2022 season after starring for his club Midleton in their county senior title win last year, Lehane has made a swift impact.
“At the time there was a lot of frustrations around Cork that Conor doesn’t work, and that he can be hit and miss. The last year he played was my last year as well and I felt his performances were based off a winter hurling season. Conor Lehane is top of the ground, to me skill wise second to Hoggy, his hands are magnificent. He’s actually deceptively good in the air, he was one of my main puckout targets when I was playing.
“I’m delighted for him. He’s a great lad, he’s a character in the dressing-room. It’s after taking a fair set of balls to come back into that. The management team dropped him, he took a year out, he got extremely fit, he went away and Killian Murphy, who was on the Cork panel before, he’s doing a bit of personal training, and Conor went with him and did a programme.
“He deserved his call back. I thought it was a huge decision for him and his family to go back in, I’m delighted it’s working so far for him.”
To listen to the full episode, go to members.the.42.ie.
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