Nicky English: Waterford and Cork ready to pounce on any sign of weakness

Here we are, with four teams left standing, in what promises to be an intriguing two days of All-Ireland semi-finals. And the first semi-final between Limerick and Waterford – a rematch of last year’s final – is by no means a foregone conclusion.

I’ll put my hand up straight away and remind everyone that I was one of the few pundits to go for Waterford in last year’s All-Ireland final. Of course that turned out to be a one-way affair with Limerick – 0-30 to 0-19 – ultimately proving their mastery but there are sufficient questions, going back to that day and indeed from this season’s championship, to anticipate a far closer affair on this occasion.

Something wasn’t quite right with Waterford that day. Whether it was the loss of Tadhg de Búrca? Or was there truth in some talk they had over-trained in the week in the run-up to the game, but they’d slipped a bit? There is no doubt they underperformed and were nowhere near what I expected them to be.

Their opening game against Clare earlier in this year’s championship was very disappointing. I felt they very poor and looked as if last year’s exertions had taken it out of them. But they have improved massively in the games against Galway and Tipperary. If you disregard the fact they are playing their fourth game in a row, which I think is a negative, they are coming back in pretty good shape.

Nicky English: If Cork reach Croke Park it could open up for them

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Nicky English: Clare always seem close to self-destruct, but they should see off Cork

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Nicky English: if Tipperary lose, what happens next?

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Nicky English: Tipperary can’t pin penalty as main cause of defeat

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Dessie Hutchinson is confirming he is a great player and will warrant Seán Finn's full attention. Shane Bennett has settled in well in the backs with the excellent Conor Prunty and Calum Lyons. Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson have been outstanding over the past two weeks. Their big players have been playing well, they're showing a lot of energy and I think they are by far the most dangerous opponents really for Limerick of the teams that are left.

Limerick have some question marks of their own to answer about their consistency. I wasn’t over-impressed with them against Cork and, then, in the Munster final against Tipperary, the doubts I had about Limerick were borne out in that first half. They looked off the pace with poor touch. But their second half was absolutely phenomenal, and there is no team that’s going to live with Limerick on that second-half performance.

So, it is a question of where Limerick are really at? Is it the second half of the Munster final? And how much of that was down to Limerick, or did Tipperary collapse a bit as well? In their games so far, we haven’t seen real consistency. But they’re a few years on the road and have a smart coaching team, but I would imagine they will be improving coming in here and they also have the memory of that 2019 semi-final loss to spur them on.

Aaron Gillane did an outstanding job the last day when he came on. Up the centre, they have big players: Nicky Quaid, Dan Morrissey, Declan Hannon, Gillane. And, of course, Cian Lynch is the kingpin. How do Waterford deal with Lynch? He is going to be centre forward on Shane Bennett who is essentially a centre forward himself at centre back and it is hard to imagine that Lynch isn't going to be a big influence on the game. If Waterford can actually negate the influence of Lynch it would go a long way to negating Limerick. Lynch is the fulcrum, almost everything goes through him.

Limerick’s real form is somewhere between their first and second halves in Cork. They will need to find their best because I think Waterford are clearly the biggest danger to Limerick retaining their title. Waterford are battle hardened and it is possible they could play better in a semi-final than they did in the final last year.

Limerick’s best will be good enough, there is no doubt of that; and if they can get close to that level consistently over the 70 minutes or whatever it takes, they will win.

To be honest, the second semi-final, is a case of take your pick really.

Cork have patchy form but they came back from defeat to Limerick and answered some key questions about their make-up and their will to win against Clare. When Clare went a point in front with the crowd behind them in the last quarter, Cork responded well with Séamus Harnedy standing up and they got their goal and their bench did well.

I was looking for them to confirm that against Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final but they were in and out in an inconsistent performance and gave Dublin a chance to come back at them. Dublin didn’t have the firepower to do it, but Kilkenny do.

So, the choice is: Cork, who have recent doubts about them and who are going into a third week in a row; or Kilkenny, who also have real question marks on their form given the level of opposition so far.

Kilkenny’s prospects and ranking seem to have improved for the fact they haven’t been seen in the championship for a number of weeks.

Looking back on form, they’re potentially at the same level as Wexford based on that Leinster semi-final which went to extra-time and Wexford subsequently proved to be no match for Clare. There is a trend emerging. Dublin were no match for Cork. And also Galway – a Leinster championship team – came out and got well beaten by Waterford. So, in the crossover between Munster and Leinster teams in 2021, it’s always been the Munster teams that have won out.

Kilkenny are the Leinster champions and you know how they are going to play, they will compete aggressively for 75 minutes or however long the match will last.

It looks as if Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen are providing support to TJ Reid in 2021 who has operated like a one-man band in the past. Against Wexford, it looked like Cody and Mullen were a real help. Kilkenny weren't firing on all cylinders in the Leinster final against Dublin. Their backs were fine but around midfield and into the forward line there would need to be improvement and this is an area where Cork will test them.

Cork’s ceiling is possibly higher with a definite edge in pace. I’ve had a feeling for quite a while that Croke Park might suit them and they have a lot of speed in the middle third with Tim O’Mahony, Robbie O’Flynn, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Jack O’Connor.

I’m inclined to give a tentative vote to Cork to get the job done with pace.