Cork hurling Super Saturday nights at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh are unrivalled

When the Munster Council released the times and dates for this year’s provincial hurling championship back in late January, one of the downsides of the schedule was that Cork did not have a home game on a Saturday night – both for Cork, and the Munster championship.

In a new rotational agreement whereby the Munster and Leinster finals take place on the same weekend, with the games alternating between the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon slots, this year will be the first time in living memory that a Munster final (not a replay, like 2010) will be staged on a Saturday.

Apart from the final, the only Saturday games are in the third round of fixtures, which is Cork’s ‘bye round’, with Waterford welcoming Limerick to Walsh Park on May 3, and Clare taking on Tipperary in Ennis the following weekend.

TV scheduling is a decisive factor but the championship will miss a Cork Saturday home game, especially when three of those matches – against Limerick (2018 and 2024) and Tipperary (2023) – were amongst the best and most atmospheric matches in the history of the round robin.

Cork fans celebrate their late equaliser against Tipperary in 2023. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Last year’s clash with Limerick on an eternal mid-May Saturday night was one of the greatest matches ever played, which added another layer to the mystique and magic of Cork matches in the Páirc on a Saturday.

GOLDEN

Cork have a team now good enough to win an All-Ireland but those golden memories of last May are still so fresh that a Saturday evening fixture triggers expectation and giddiness amongst the supporters.

Over 26,000 tickets were sold before the Cork-Limerick game in February until the atrocious weather turned thousands off turning up. On another evening, the 30,000 barrier would probably have been broken.

Limerick are always an added attraction and, while the recent Cork-Kilkenny game was a double-header with Cork-Roscommon in the football, a crowd of over 22,000 still showed up.

No other venue, or team, attracts those crowds for a league game so early in the season.

GAA supporters are still indifferent about championship games on a Saturday, never mind the league. Saturday still works for championship, but only in certain venues, and at certain times.

Yet the one place Saturday night games definitely work - in league and championship - is Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

With two of the three fixtures this evening – Tipperary and Clare in Thurles and Limerick and Wexford in the Gaelic Grounds – dead rubbers, the GAA got lucky that Cork-Galway being effectively a league semi-final in PUC has helped prevent what, if the fixtures had fallen differently, could have been a wipeout weekend.

Jack Grealish of Galway is tackled by Seamus Harnedy of Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

RTÉ expected, and hoped for as much too, as they had this game logged in the calendar once they initially drew up their schedule.

There would have been a lot more intrigue and drama around the weekend if Limerick had beaten Kilkenny last week, but Cork-Galway still always had the look of being a critical fixture.

It had that appearance because Cork were fancied to reach a league final from the outset of the competition.

Now that they’re in this position, Cork will expect to win. Their supporters will be extremely disappointed if they don’t.

But it’s also a game Cork need to win.

Backing off now and not putting themselves in a position to win silverware would carry more negatives than positives.

If Cork harbour any reservations about how winning a league make take the edge off them for championship, now is not the time to take the foot off the gas. It's not in this team’s DNA anyway, especially since Pat Ryan has generated a culture that has reformed Cork from an inconsistent outfit into a team of real substance.

In the past, this is a game Cork could have lost, especially in the circumstances.

ADVANCED

Cork could still lose to a Galway team that beat Kilkenny in Nowlan Park, but Cork are at a far more advanced state than Galway to ensure that they will win if they perform.

What Cork are looking for now though, is also more than just two points. Cork have been sourcing most of their scores off turnovers, which is a real positive, but is that more down to Cork’s increased tackling numbers and intensity, or other teams having already pulled up the handbrake?

Cork will need to keep those numbers up but they’ll also be looking to generate more scores off puck-outs, particularly the opposition.

In their last two matches, Cork sourced just 0-8 off the opposition restart.

Two weeks ago, the only traction Clare had in the match was off their own puck-out, when mining 0-15 from that source.

Cork would be reasonably happy with the numbers off their own puck-out but they’d still like them to be higher - especially when that was such a productive source throughout last year’s championship.

Two of the key learnings from the Kilkenny game were taken fully on board for the Clare game - goalscoring (which had been an issue earlier in the campaign), and stalling the opposition’s momentum.

Kilkenny got 0-4 off puckouts in a handful of minutes before half-time but Cork never allowed Clare to build any rhythm in the match, which subsequently kept the Cusack Park crowd quiet all afternoon.

Today’s game is a chance for Cork to reach a final but it’s also another opportunity for Pat Ryan’s side to keep learning, and building from those learnings, to ensure that nothing is left to chance for the start of the championship.

And a win will be even more satisfying again in front of a home crowd who expect big performances - and a memorable occasion - for a Saturday night game in the Páirc.

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