Patrick Kelly: The road is long and hard, but I think this Cork group will make strides
CROWDED HOUSE: Cork’s Brian Hurley with Jonny Cooper and Eoin Murchan of Dublin in Saturday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park. Picture: INPHO/Evan Treacy
A statistic to start off with; Cork’s combined first half tally against Kerry and Dublin this summer reads: scored 14, conceded 19. Not bad considering the opposition. However, the second half combined tally tells the full story; Cork scored seven points, conceded 25 points. Where did it all go wrong? Conditioning is too easy an out, tactics play a big part.
After conceding nine goals across seven division two league games, which included a goal in every game, Cork’s response was to employ Seán Powter as a sweeper to occupy the D and eliminate the threat of goals for the championship campaign. Indeed, it is bizarre that in 11 competitive games Cork played this year they only kept a clean sheet twice; against Kerry and Dublin. The big difference in those two games was that Cork sacrificed an attacker and essentially played with seven full-time defenders. The knock-on effect is huge, and I’ll try to explain why.
