Anthony Daly: It'll take something special to counter Cork's capacity for destruction
Cork's Brian Hayes scores the opening goal against Dublin's during the All-Ireland SHC semi final at Croke park . Picture: Eddie O'Hare
I had a bird's eye view in Croke Park on Saturday, a few rows back behind the Dublin dugout, so engaged in the action that you could almost hear the players communicating with each other, so close that you could nearly smell the sweat off their jerseys.
It was a privilege to be that close to pitchside to witness the mesmerising quality of Cork’s performance, the wizardry of their skills, the slickness of their pace and movement and devastating finishing, a total fusion of a complete Croke Park performance.
Alan Connolly nearly summed it up. A handful of touches and he bags 3-2 from play. I said it here on Saturday that I felt Cönnolly could cut loose. He did. So did almost all of the Cork players. It was a display of almost total hurling.
Connolly and Brian Hayes deservedly got most of the plaudits, not just for their goals but for the genius and class wrapped up in those strikes, but they weren’t the only players continually spinning magic tricks. Tim O’Mahony was awesome. So was Deccie Dalton. On any other day, they’d have walked away with the man-of-the-match award. But this wasn’t any other day. And it certainly wasn’t any other performance.
Dalton neatly encapsulated the difference between the teams. Chris Crummey was suspended for Dublin. Seamus Harnedy was injured but Cork were able to just seamlessly slip in Deccie for Seamie. Dublin did have Donal Burke on their bench but he wasn’t a ready-made replacement for Chris like Dalton was for Harnedy. Donal is a brilliant player but he’s just one shooter compared to the gang of assassins and speed merchants Cork were able to unload off their bench; Shane Kingston, Robbie O’Flynn, Conor Lehane, Jack O’Connor, along with Tommy O’Connell.
It was like trying to row back a raging tide but I felt Dublin never really gave themselves a proper chance with how they set up. It was going to be an ordeal whatever way they went about it but I just thought that with Connolly, Hayes and Hoggie so dangerous, especially in Croke Park, that Dublin needed Conor McHugh back there in the full back line. Ok, he was there to do a job on Shane Barrett but I don’t think that Barrett has been in such good form that Dublin needed to put their best man marker on him at centre back when Cork’s danger men, and primary goalscorers, are in the full forward line.
Dublin needed to try and shut down the space in front of their full back line, to sit a little deeper and try and close off the supply. Their defensive plans went out the window anyway when McHugh got injured, while they were on the back foot even more when two members of the full back line, Paddy Smyth and Andy Dunphy, were on yellow cards so early in first quarter.
Dunphy had to be put back in the corner, where’s he’s probably not as comfortable, before young David Lucey suddenly finds himself parachuted in on Hoggie who’s on fire. Dublin were trying to put out fires everywhere but there were always too many blazes to try and contain.
Everything was compounded early on when the Dubs were under such pressure on their own puckout and Cork were charging forward in waves. The die was cast early but I felt that this was always going to be a seismic cultural shock for the Dubs when they’re not used to playing against a team at this level, and with the capacity for destruction that Cork have.
Leinster lads can say all they want about the standard of their hurling and performances but it’s just not at the same level as in Munster in these last few years. One outstanding display against Limerick was never going to be enough to hothouse the Dubs for this kind of a whirlwind.
Dublin at least kept trying. Cian O’Sullivan was outstanding. Séan Currie tried really hard while I felt that Fergal Whitely, who has been a fall-guy (unfairly so I may add) for Dublin for so long was excellent. They were really fired up but not enough of the Dublin lads were. One of my former players, Dotsy O’Callaghan, got a yellow card on the sideline as a hurley carrier. I wish more of the Dubs were as pumped as Dotsy.
From a Cork perspective, it’s not really about dialling down the hype because the hype is so real but I felt that Pat Ryan did his best to keep everything in context afterwards. He gave a deadpan enough interview. There was no major high-fiving on the pitch. It was job done for now because the big job still has to be completed.
The trick now is to try and find those levels again in two weeks against a far better team. That won’t be as easy as it was on Saturday but if Cork perform with the same class and quality again, it’s going to take something special to stop this machine.
