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20th July 2025
06:42pm BST
After being six points up at half-time in the All-Ireland SHC final, Cork ended up losing by 15 points to Tipperary, as their wait for another Liam MacCarthy goes on.
It was one of the great second-half performances we have ever seen in inter-county hurling with the Premier County scoring 2-14 to blow the Rebels away.
After the game, former Cork star Dónal Óg Cusack was fairly lenient in his assessment of his county.
He said: "The goals were a killer as well though. The goal, losing your fullback then, the whole game going against you. They were the killer then.
"All of Cork's play needed to get those goals, Cork didn't get those goals. They came at a killer time...
"In that second half, once the momentum swung it just felt like there was nothing Cork could do to get back in the game."
However, former Tipperary All-Ireland winning manager, Liam Sheedy, was having none of it.
He responded: "Say what you like Donal Óg, but that was a massive underperformance from that Cork team in that last 35 minutes. That level of performance is not something you expect from that Cork team from what we witnessed all year.
"Whether it was the pressure of the All-Ireland final or what, they were a shell of themselves in the second half."
Cusack added: "I don't think it was the pressure, like."
But Sheedy was not finished with his grilling, and he asked: "Can you remember a performance that was as bad over a 35-minute period over the last two years?"
Dónal Óg answered: "From a Cork point of view? No, sure Cork have been consistent over the last couple of years. They won the league. they won the Munster Championship...
"We all want Dublin to be back and we don't want to take anything from them. But it was like everybody's view was obscured because that was the lens we were viewing Cork on.
"There was a huge difference between what Cork faced a couple of weeks ago and here. It didn't do Cork any value now looking back on it.
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