Donal O'Grady's tactics board: Savage work-rate should be a given but Cork fell short
Jack Prendergast of Waterford scores a point despite the efforts of Cork’s Tim O’Mahony during the Munster Senior Championship semi-final at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Apart from the opening five minutes or so, Waterford were the better team in Thurles on Saturday. However, wind-assisted, they only led by three points at halfway.
I expected The Rebels to force the pace on the restart, but it was Waterford who took the game to Cork. Winning the throw-in, Calum Lyons, their right-half-back, pointed immediately. They slotted over another three points in that first five minutes. The goal in the 38th minute, by the aforementioned Lyons, was the most crucial score and main turning point of this game.
He made a telling run in an ‘inside-right’ position, outpacing Cork defender Tim O’Mahony. Lyons benefitted from the ‘seven-step rule’, stroking the ball easily past Anthony Nash.
Reading the danger, central defenders should have closed on him, forcing him to either shoot under pressure or to part with the ball. No one went to him. This was a hammer blow to the Rebels and it showed up their inexperience as a defensive unit in what was a disappointing performance.
This goal effectively put the game to bed for the Déise.
They dropped their forwards back towards the middle third and left Dessie Hutchinson up front on his own. This strategy requires a very high work-rate with lots of energy, and Waterford had this in abundance. There was great speed to their tackling, particularly in the third quarter.
Savage work-rate should be a given in the championship. I wrote on Saturday that Cork would have to outdo their opponents in work-rate and discipline to win. However, they were well behind their opponents in both of these areas.
Teams are judged by the number of tackles and turnovers forced by their forward eight. Cork’s attackers never really forced their opponents into mistakes with high-tempo harassment, and the tackling statistics from midfield up will make sobering reading this week.
Although the scoring return from play of Cork’s Horgan (five points), Kingston (four), Harnedy (three), Lehane (two), Cooper (two) looks OK, as a team, Cork failed to impose themselves to any degree on the opposition.
Discipline-wise, Cork conceded avoidable frees through poor judgement or sloppy execution. The Waterford attack ran strongly at Cork’s defence and were rewarded with frees (although one was a clear dive by Jake Dillon). Stephen Bennett had 14 to Cork’s six opportunities from frees. This underlines a big difference in defensive discipline. The low return from frees by Cork is testament to the discipline of Déise defenders and the lack of cut-and-thrust in Cork’s attack.
Tadhg de Búrca was named Man of the Match. The award might also have gone to Jamie Barron. Cork failed completely to get to grips with him, and Barron ran the show in midfield. De Búrca had 22 possessions, which he used constructively to settle his defence, either by passing cooly to unmarked colleagues or to set up attacks by driving forward with direct runs.
He was allowed to play as a sweeper, and his influence was colossal. A centre back/sweeper rarely generates his own possession. It is largely provided by ill-judged long deliveries or diagonal balls aimed for the corner which fall short because of the pressure applied to the striker. Cork were consistently guilty of this major error on Saturday, and the half-back-line failed to supply regular, quality ball to the attack.
A player with de Búrca’s game-reading ability has to be treated with the utmost respect. Cork defenders and midfielders should have avoided his central zone by moving the ball quickly with short accurate passes, either setting up direct running attacks through the centre of Waterford’s defence or using their wing-backs driving down the flanks.
Christopher Joyce and Tim O’Mahony should have made themselves available regularly as outlets for ball from the middle while deliveries were frequently hit under pressure into dé Búrca’s zone.
A sweeper is only taken out of the game if quality ball is delivered to attackers down the wings, into the corners, or if players run directly at him through the middle. However, Cork failed to apply these tactics with any regularity and created no goal chances or even half-chances.
In the 68th minute, Damien Cahalane sent a 35m defence-splitting pass to Luke Meade, who had to be pulled down to prevent a goal chance. It was Cork’s best pass from a defender to an attacker, and it begs the question as to why it did not happen more often.
Cork were a point to the good after eight minutes. However, they failed to score again for 12 minutes. They replicated this drought in the last 10 minutes of normal time. In these periods, the seeds of the loss were sown. They had too many wides and they never ran directly at Waterford’s defence.
Waterford kept the scoreboard ticking over throughout, and the Déise system works best when they are in front. Darragh Fitzgibbon and Robbie O’Flynn were absent for Cork and they are the type of players most needed by Kieran Kingston. They are pacy, and can support their inside attack with direct support running.
Kingston did not have direct replacements on a bench that was already stretched because of other injuries. However, Luke Meade, who does well in an unstructured game, could have been introduced much earlier.
Waterford manager Liam Cahill will be very pleased with this win. His marquee players showed leadership. However, he may have a worry that the CCCC will come calling on Austin Gleeson, who played well, for a needless hurley handle to the midriff of Cork’s Seamie Harnedy.
