Tipperary legend Brendan Cummins believes Cork must adopt a more pragmatic approach if they are to dramatically turn the tables on Limerick and win a first Munster title since 2018 this Saturday.
In their round-robin encounter last month, the Treaty County ruthlessly put 3-26 on the Rebels as they continually exploited the space left by Cork's aggressive attacking approach – especially on puck-outs.
Cummins, who guided Tipperary to All-Ireland Under-20 glory last Saturday, believes Pat Ryan has to adapt if they are to reverse their fortunes.
"Has there been much talk in Cork about the structure of the game against Limerick," Cummins asked on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"(Cork) played with all their forwards up the pitch, the half-forward line never came back to help their own half-back line which meant players were doubled-up on in every position around the middle third of the pitch.
"Were there any murmurings that 'we can’t go with this project of man-to-man all over the pitch like Clare did last year and got success. Maybe we need to tweak.’"
One of the big issues for Cork against Limerick in the round-robin game, as examined by RTÉ GAA analyst Shane McGrath this week, was Darragh Fitzgibbon’s inability to get to terms with the influence of Kyle Hayes.
"Will O’Donoghue will mark Darragh Fitzgibbon and that will allow Kyle Hayes to come back a bit," Cummins offered.
"That was the problem the last day that Darragh Fitzgibbon had, he was stuck between two big trees. Normally he comes out the pitch and he floats around but to be fair to Limerick, the Limerick midfielder picks up the opposition 11; you can’t really see that in the general play and that’s why Will O’Donoghue is so good.
"Darragh Fitzgibbon came back out the pitch and everywhere he went he was tracked by a midfielder so there was none of these loose ball that we saw Tony Kelly get on for years at 11 or Cian Lynch.
"The reason Lynch is so good is because he can stand in between that channel at the 65, you can hit it at him through the letterbox and he makes it stick whereas Fitzgibbon’s not that kind of hurler.
"Cork had no anchor there to play it through."
Cummins also feels that the dramatic peak and trough disposition of the Rebel fans is also becoming a factor with the atmosphere for their round 5 win over Waterford noticeably subdued for such an important fixture in their season.
"Below in Páirc Uí Chaoimh the last day, the supporters were fair jumpy and anxious against Waterford, it was like sitting there in the dentist chair waiting to know when the drill was going to go off and when the pain was coming.
"I said before about the supporters, you’re on an unbelievable high, you’re going to win the All-Ireland, ‘no we’re not’, this kind of thing."
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