What a difference a year makes

By Tony Considine

Thursday, March 18, 2010

HOW did Portumna change so much from their last three appearances in Croke Park?

Tactically, physically, the way Portumna performed yesterday was nowhere near the levels they’ve reached in their three fantastic wins of 2006, 2008 and 2009.

Where was their touch, where was their physicality, where was their direct long-ball route-one strategy into the deadly duo Joe Canning and Damien Hayes?

Did they change their training regime for this one, did they change their tactics? They looked to me yesterday like a team that was over-trained, that was dead on their feet. Or was it just that the pressure of the three-in-a-row got to them? Or, and we must give credit where it’s due, was it just the pressure applied to them by Ballyhale Shamrocks from the outset? Were they forced into change even before a ball was hit, did they worry too much about the opposition, instead of just trusting their own game, which has been proven over and over again?

Whatever it was, I didn’t recognise that Portumna team yesterday, and definitely they weren’t the all-conquering side of the past two years. In fact, were it not for the greatness of one player – I’m talking about Joe Canning – they would have been beaten yesterday by at least as much as they beat Ballyhale last year.

Joe scored 12 points of the Portumna total, and several of those were scores no-one else would have got (and I include Henry Shefflin in that); he was a one-man band for Portumna, his workrate outstanding in a losing cause – where would they have been without him?

I forecast on Monday that this was going to be a brilliant match – it wasn’t, and I’m disappointed with that. We had some classic individual displays, from Joe Canning, as mentioned, and also from Ballyhale midfielders Cha Fitzpatrick and Michael Fennelly, decent displays from the Reid brothers TJ and Eoin, good patches from Damien Hayes, Ollie Canning and Andrew Smith, but as a contest, it was very disappointing.

For a while in the second half it looked like it was going to develop into a real match with Joe reducing the deficit to just four points with a quarter of an hour to go. But then came the deciding moment.

Goalkeeper is a really lonely position in any sport, but when you make a mistake, it’s always magnified. Ivan Canning made a mistake yesterday, Ballyhale took advantage, and another prediction I made on Monday came to fruition – an unlikely hero could emerge. So it transpired, but on the double. First there was corner-forward David Hoyne, on hand to tap home the breaking ball, and Ballyhale had the goal that would see them home. More significantly, however, and making a more telling and a more lasting impression, was a man at the other end of the field for Ballyhale.

Last year Ballyhale conceded five goals to Portumna in the semi-final, were beaten out the gate. This year that defence was altered, and the results are there for all to see. No goal conceded yesterday, no goal conceded against Newtownshandrum in the semi-final win. It’s not so much that the personnel were changed, it was the positioning. Aidan Cummins went from centre-back to full, swapping positions with Eamonn Walsh, while Paul Shefflin went from corner to wing – all those switches worked, and credit to Michael Fennelly and his management team for that. In typical Kilkenny fashion, they had done their homework properly, and quietly. Most impressive of all however, and that other unlikely hero for Ballyhale, they brought in a young fella, 19-year-old Alan Cuddihy, to corner-back and he was brilliant yesterday.

Those changes were critical to the Ballyhale win, but they were also necessary, which brings me back again to my opening question – why did Portumna change? They say you learn more from defeat than from victory, and obviously Ballyhale learned, and learned well. But they also say you shouldn’t change a winning formula, and this Portumna did, to their cost.

I know Joe Canning played well at wing-forward, and Damien Hayes was busy in the centre, but why would you take those two out of the full line of attack, from which so many goals have come over the years?

I don’t want to be too hard on Portumna, they’ve been magnificent. Last word to Ballyhale, however; yesterday they maintained a proud Croke Park record, won their fifth final in five visits to go top of the tree.

I know – and as I said in my final prediction – they gave the shamrock a good wetting in Knocktopher and Ballyhale last night.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, March 18, 2010