Ahead of the All-Ireland final between Clare and Cork at Croke Park, RTÉ GAA analysts have been giving their take on who will be lifting the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
DIARMUID O'SULLIVAN
There's a hunger in Cork, the Cork hurling fraternity are starved for success, they’re starved for All-Irelands.
The excitement around the county, the anxiety over tickets, the stress, everything, it’s different and on a level I’ve probably never ever seen before.
That says to me that Cork people need an All-Ireland. I think hurling needs Cork to win an All-Ireland title as much as everything else to get the traditional counties back up there again.
Cork and Clare are similar enough, they like to sit their half-back men back, turn over the ball and break with incredible power and pace, exploiting gaps.
It’s going to be fascinating. I know it’s a cliché and it’s been spoken of for the last numbers of years, but that middle third – if you match up Cork’s middle third and Clare’s middle third, well there’s going to be some collisions in there.
Cork’s best weapon is attacking. Cork can’t wait, they have to play hurling on the front foot.
If you look through games throughout the year, when Cork sat off and played on the back foot they struggled but when they played front-foot hurling, every guy attacking, every guy wanting the ball, no fear of making a mistake or fear of retribution of making that mistake; there’s a freedom to it and I think it’s the only way Cork can play hurling.
Verdict: Cork
PODGE COLLINS
How Clare and Cork match up against each other is very different to how Cork and Limerick would match up against each other, how Clare and Limerick would match up against each other.
We've been fortunate enough to come out on the right side of the last three results against Cork. I’m sure that will give the lads great confidence because I know all week in Clare the narrative has been that Clare are underdogs.
Even the Munster final this year (v Limerick), they were very optimistic but the vibe in Clare, it’s more hope going into this final but I’m content that we’ll match up well against them.
It’s all going to come down to who takes their chances, the more I think about this game.
One thing that is excellent about the game is that Clare and Cork both have their full decks. We’ve got every player available I think on both sides with Ryan Taylor coming back.
So it’s a case of may the best team win.
Verdict: Cork
JOE CANNING
I really hope Patrick Horgan does win it for his own sake. I was probably getting fed up of people saying to me 'Jesus, if you never win an All-Ireland'. It was something to hold against me.
It's an easy thing for people outside of hurling to say maybe if he doesn’t win one. But it doesn’t make him any different to his peers, everybody knows he’s a brilliant hurler and he’ll probably surpass TJ (Reid) as top scorer this weekend as well – I think there’s only three or four points in it.
If he finishes off with an All-Ireland medal as well it will be really special for him. He’s 16, 17 years playing with Cork and it would be fitting for him to get a medal.
Yes, Clare didn’t perform in the first half (v Kilkenny), they still stuck in the game which is a brilliant attribute to have. Kilkenny often did that down through the years where they mightn’t be playing that well but yet around half time they might be only two or three points adrift and then come out in the second half and perform. They almost did a Kilkenny on Kilkenny in the semi-final.
Clare, especially this year, yes they haven’t performed, but they are a really, really hard team to beat and they have got players back....Clare are coming in nicely to it.
I think it’ll be a really, really exciting game, probably high scoring. It’s probably going to be a hurling game, just score for score and it could be a repeat of 2013 when it was a drawn game. It won’t be far off.
Verdict: Cork
MICHAEL DUIGNAN
Clare have a lot of huge options and the thing about Clare that will be hard for Cork to pinpoint, I think they’re totally unpredictable compared to Limerick.
Cork earmarked Limerick this year, they’ve beaten them twice which is phenomenal, how much has that taken out of them mentally and physically?
Clare were the only team getting close to them (Limerick), they beat them in the round-robin, they drew with them, they were very close, but when they got to Croke Park, it had taken its toll the last few years.
You go to analyse that Clare forward line and it’s not as straightforward, some of the time I think they don’t hardly know what they're going to do themselves the way they play.
I have a slight fancy for Clare on Sunday.
This is only a hunch and Cork could easily go out and win by 10, but there should not be much in it when these top Munster teams play each other. I just think will Clare shade it.
Verdict: Clare
JACKIE TYRRELL
I feel Clare will win because they haven’t hurled consistently for 70 minutes this year, and I feel there is a huge performance in Clare that Brian Lohan will demand from his group.
They have big time players with experience of winning All-Ireland's and they have a stronger bench.
𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐝?
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2024
All-Ireland SHC final
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Sunday. 21 July, Croke Park, 3.30pm#RTEgaa
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There is questions of Shane Barrett pace and how John Conlon will cope. I expect Conlon to man the centre, win that battle and this battle could be pivotal to a Banner victory.
Verdict: Clare
SHANE MCGRATH
Who do I think will win? I think Cork will win.
I think if you look at the match-ups, where they’re at, their inside forward line, they got 1-12 the last day (v Limerick) and I thought they were awesome.
Can Clare go toe-to-toe with them? The match-ups around the field, when I look at it man-on-man, with the way the teams are, with the finishers Cork have if needed – I'm leaning towards Cork.
I think the confidence they’ll have from the semi-final, the way they’re hurling, I think they're a completely different team to the one that lost to Clare earlier in the year.
It's going to be close but I’m going to say Cork by three points.
Verdict: Cork
DÓNAL ÓG CUSACK
If Cork leave three inside, and Alan Connolly can rediscover the form of earlier in the season, Clare will need to get their match-ups right, or they risk being overwhelmed.
The biggest difference this time around though, might be confidence. Cork have got to finals before and lost them, so confidence isn't always a trump card, but few teams get a shot to the system like Cork get when things start going well.
Since that April day, Cork have beaten a team going for five in-a-row twice. Things don't go much better than that.
Clare have the hurlers, and they have the scars. They are a serious team, but they've been more methodical than creative this season. They will look to grind Cork down.
Sunday will be fast and loose. It'd be no surprise if either team wins, but the momentum is with Cork, and I believe that will propel them up the steps of the Hogan Stand.
Verdict: Cork
JOHN ALLEN
When Marty (Morrissey) asked both managers about the match-ups and where the game would be won or lost, they both said the same thing – all over the field.
There are so many conundrums, there are so many match-ups.
Shane O'Donnell has been in the form of his life really, he will need close attention. Tony Kelly hasn’t been the Tony Kelly we know but is due a big game. Tony Kelly can orchestrate a game himself. Mark Rodgers is turning into a top player, David Fitzgerald has the potential to run at defences.
Their backs as a unit, John Conlan sitting in the D, David McInerney, the full-back line has been very good – Adam Hogan has been very good, Conor Leen.
Then we (Cork) have a midfielder Darragh Fitzgibbon who has scored 22 points. It’s just extraordinary. A centre forward, Shane Barrett, who I’d presume is in the conversation for Player of the Year.
A full-forward line now playing, since the Limerick first game, old-style hurling, sean-nós hurling, direct hurling. We’re scoring goals.
Verdict: Too close to call
FERGIE TUOHY
For me the game will be down to whatever set of backs can contain the forwards because we (Clare) have sufficient forwards that will do damage. That’s what it boils down to for me.
I know there will be people swapping in and out from midfield because Cork have done it now in the last couple of games with Tim O’Mahony and Ciarán Joyce, they’ve alternated a bit and Mark Coleman can slot in there.
From a Cork perspective, they’re scoring heavy, they’re conceding heavy, so are Clare. Big scores there when they played a few weeks ago, 3-26 to 3-24.
Clare might have to maybe play, I hate the idea of a sweeper but we might need a small bit of protection.
They (Cork) remind me very much of that team that came with Jimmy Barry-Murphy when they made the breakthrough in 1999. The young boys there, the O’Connors.
They just have pace to burn now and we have to be wary of that, not that we’re slow ourselves.
We have a lot of big game experience. We have dined at the top table, you could say it hasn’t been fruitful but we’ve been in the last three Munster finals and two All-Ireland semi-finals.
It’s the day before Christmas, you don’t know if you’re going to get the bag of coal or the bicycle. We don’t know what’s coming our way but all I know is in Clare we have four All-Ireland's compared to Cork’s so if we could get another one it would be fantastic.
Verdict: Too close to call
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final, Cork v Clare, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
