Croke Park will really suit this Clare side
I’ve been hearing all this talk about Limerick not turning up, about Dublin forced to finish with only 14 men. That does massive injustice to Clare and to Cork. You get 70 minutes to do your stuff on the field, and only those 70 minutes. You can talk all you like about the game afterwards, you can bemoan all the missed opportunities, the bad luck, the refereeing decisions, but you can’t replay the game – it’s over, whoever won was the better team, the result stands.
Where do we start to analyse this game? A lot of people are pointing at Clare’s underage success, the two All-Ireland U-21 titles, the fact they’re hot fancies to add another in a week’s time and saying they’re the coming team, were always going to win an All-Ireland senior title and sooner rather than later.
Then you look at Cork and if you were to look at their underage record in the last 10 years you’d be saying they wouldn’t even be near Croke Park in August, never mind September. Yet here they are. Got to the semi-final last year in Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s first year in charge, in the final now.
I’m going to go to Clare first. Everyone’s been talking this year about what’s becoming known as ‘the Clare game’, the short stick-passing, holding onto possession, thinking before striking. But, of course, it’s not the Clare game, it all began with a club team in Cork – Newtownshandrum. They were the ones who came up with this style, I think it was Bernie O’Connor, father of the famous twins Ben and Jerry, who developed it, first at underage, then on to the adult stage.
It worked well for Newtown, so well that they won their first Cork senior title (2000), added three more, then won three Munster titles and an All-Ireland title. Cork then adapted that game to suit the players they had and won two All-Ireland titles (2004 and 05).
And that’s the secret – adapting it to suit the players you have. This isn’t a big Clare team, but it’s exceptionally skilful and pacy – the game suits them down to the ground.
Their problem though is they’re now coming up against a team that can also play this game and that is just as skilful and pacy. Another thing; while Clare are playing with real confidence now, in Cork they’re a coming team that ALWAYS played with confidence. Both teams too are very tactically aware.
The duels are going to be fascinating. Domhnall O’Donovan, Cian Dillon and David McInerney in the Clare full-back line, for instance; they’re coming up against this Cork full-forward line for the second time this year and we all know what happened the first time. Worse from the Clare perspective, Luke O’Farrell, Patrick Horgan and now James Coughlan are probably playing even better now than they were then.
This will be a hugely important area for Clare, a big task to hold that Cork inside line. It won’t be done by playing loose hurling – you’ve got to be able to man-mark those three or it’s end of story.
At the other end of the field, same thing. Clare will probably play a two-man line, Conor McGrath and Darach Honan, but given the right ball they can do real damage. This is where Stephen McDonnell, Shane O’Neill and Conor O’Sullivan will have to be really on their toes, O’Sullivan especially as probably the extra man. I think too that Darach could cause Cork problems in the air – we might see high ball being lofted in.
All the talk of tactics, go back to the semi-finals and think of the two crucial scores. Pa Cronin lobs a Hail Mary ball into the Dublin square, Patrick Horgan ends up flicking to the net – Cork goal; Conor Ryan 80-yard ball into the Limerick goalmouth, Limerick defence wires crossed, Darach Honan stretches a long leg to boot to the net. Tactics??? I’m expecting big scores and I think whoever wins this will win well. but who? Croke Park really suits this Clare team, I’m going with head and heart.
