Today’s question: Should Cork start Brian Murphy
Davy Fitzgerald and his management team were relatively optimistic in the wake of the loss that they could bounce back quickly. Although Brian Murphy did a top man-marking job on Tony Kelly, and the likes of Seamus Harnedy impressed, the Banner backroom felt the score wasn’t truly representative of play as much as they were the poorer team on the day.
Fit-again Murphy is rumoured to be the one change to a Cork team to be announced tomorrow. Is his inclusion worth the fuss it’ll cause?
In his absence, the Cork back-line has acquitted itself well and to upset it now just for Murphy to be included with a mind to shadowing Kelly might be more of a luxury than a necessity.
Of late, Kelly has been operating in a floating role between midfield and the half-forward line but who’s to say Fitzgerald won’t alter his plans in foot of Murphy returning to the team? Who’s to say that Kelly, a real contender for young hurler of the year, isn’t salivating at the prospect of going up against Murphy one more time? Forgetting all that, who’s to say the Cork defence can’t mind Kelly without Murphy? With Pat Donnellan adopting a sweeper role, the option is there for Jimmy Barry-Murphy to deploy an extra defender. Wouldn’t that be sufficient to curb Kelly’s influence? Which defender loses out if Murphy is brought in is a question many in the county are pondering. On last weekend’s Sunday Game, Dublin manager Anthony Daly said Tom Kenny and Christopher Joyce had less-than-impressive All-Ireland semi-finals against his side but highlighted Kenny’s experience.
In yesterday’s newspaper, former Cork defender John Gardiner, who believes Murphy will be in the team, admitted it would be harsh on Joyce were he to be demoted for the Bride Rovers man.
But then would Kenny be better placed to deal with such a disappointment than Joyce, 12 years his junior? Or is his nous just too precious to sacrifice? Then again, with Kelly now doing most of his work now around the centre in contrast to the Munster championship when, as Daly rightly pointed out on Sunday, he was roaming closer to goal, would Murphy actually be suitable to the altered brief?
Barry-Murphy has regularly stated how important it is for his team to focus on themselves not the opposition. But were he to select Murphy, wouldn’t that be a slight contradiction on his part, given the defender’s mission will almost certainly be a detail on Kelly? The Clare U21 starlet is worth added attention but if something isn’t broken, why try and fix it? It’s a conundrum teasing a lot of Cork fans.
