Cork need to play without fear
“WITH much of the focus in the southwest on the 50th annual Rose of Tralee Festival over the coming days, it may have escaped popular attention that Miles Davis’ jazz masterpiece “Kind of Blue” also turned 50 this week.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, its influence is still in evidence today and its revolutionary nature set the tone for much of what came after it. Watching a recording of Tyrone’s recent victory over Kildare and the 2008 All-Ireland final this week, I was once again reminded of the master jazz improviser Davis, of his ensemble sextet and of how they too, like the Tyrone collective have always been more than the sum of their parts, despite the presence of so many talented individuals.
Watch how Tyrone backs are so willing to gamble on leaving quality forwards unmarked to attack the ball these last 12 months. Watch the devastating five points unanswered burst at the end of last year’s All-Ireland that finally put paid to Kerry’s three-in-a-row hopes. Watch and see how the rising Kildare confidence was quashed in a six points splurge after half-time a few weeks back and you begin to get the sense that in order to maximise your chances of winning against Tyrone you too must be willing to play the game without fear.
That is why tomorrow’s game is so attractive on so many fronts. It’s not that Tyrone don’t make mistakes. They do. It’s just that mistakes don’t seem to knock them off their stride as much as other teams and the concern from a Cork viewpoint is that they may well have vacuum packed most of their mistakes for 2009 into the quarter-final having previously come through a handy Ulster Championship campaign.
The other factor is that they’ve also not met a team ruthless enough to punish them since the start of their 10 match unbeaten championship run in July 2008. When Owen Mulligan, Joe McMahon and Tommy McGuigan dropped those first half balls into Tomás Corley’s hand in the Kildare goal last August weekend the three counter attacks yielded two wides and a ball into Pascal McConnell’s arms at the other end. Cork forwards will surely not be as accommodating as Alan Smith, James Kavanagh and Dermot Earley were.
