“Kilkenny are a far stronger side than last year” – Ciarán Carey

Cork have a lot of nice hurlers, but they fail at the art of defending and it cost them again on Sunday.

Ultimately, they were weak in defence and not enough of their big guns showed up on the day. The problems of last year too came up again, their bench.

You can’t depend on their bench. The subs that came on, outside of Tim O’Mahony, didn’t improve the situation. When a sub comes on for any team, you are duty bound to change it or improve it.

That didn’t happen for Cork, but it was the opposite for Kilkenny. They are in a far stronger position this year when compared to this time last year.

Cork were expected to win. A lot of people tipped them. I tipped them myself, but at the end of the day you have to take your hat off to Kilkenny.

Any time they go out, whether they have an outstanding team or a team in transition, they will give a very honest display.

Brian Cody usually picks the player that has the heart and a fella that will empty the tank on any given day. Kilkenny deserved their win.

What impressed me most about Kilkenny was their new kids on the block. Adrian Mullen in particular.

They always have the heart and are an extremely honest team, but what also impressed me was that they backed it up with the hurling. Walter Walsh came in off the bench, Fennelly and Hogan all hurled very well.

They were also very solid in defence. I would also say that their full back line might not possibly be the strongest and thankfully for Limerick, our strongest line is arguably our full forward line.

I think that particular area could have a huge bearing on the semi final. If they have any weakness in that full back line, you can be sure that the Limerick full forward line will hurt them and target that area.

To listen to the full Ciarán Carey podcast click below.