Time to throw tactics out the window
The craic seems to be going out of it and I think this has a lot to do with how the game is being presented to us lately, on television especially.
It’s all the experts doing the rounds these days, the managers with all their complicated tactics and game-plans, the analysts then getting their chance to dissect in great detail what happened after the game.
It’s as though they invented hurling when the fact is that this is a game where the fundamentals have never changed. Are the guys in the media and involved with various teams doing all this for their own egos and reputations? Hurling isn’t a computer game, it’s played on the field by real people — enough of this hurling-by-numbers nonsense.
What’s tactical about a defender sending a high ball into the square, the ball bouncing off someone’s hand or hurley and into the net? How many critical scores have we seen where ‘tactics’ played no part? It’s all numbers and analysis now — ‘Oh he had a great game, he was on the ball 25 times’. But what did he do with the ball? A fella might have only been on the ball five times but might have done the divil on those five occasions.
By all means have a game-plan but for God’s sake let the players go out and express themselves. The players are what this sport is about, not managers, not analysts.
In contrast to all those deadly serious ‘experts’, give me someone like my friend Busty Sullivan any day of the week, someone who has seen more hurling than most of us and who is still enjoying it as much as any of us. Give me someone like Cats great Joe Hennessy, as enthusiastic about the game now as when he was winning All-Ireland titles and All Star awards with Kilkenny. Busty doesn’t overdo the analysis, nor does Joe, neither of them see hurling as anything more than it is, a sport to be played, to be watched, to be enjoyed.
It all started when this Kilkenny team began to win All-Irelands for fun and guys felt they had to do what those in soccer and Gaelic football were doing, break down every move, every play. Maybe that’s the effect Kilkenny have had, all the experts began to feel you must have these great plans and tactics to beat them and a lot of managers bought into it. But you don’t. Look at Limerick in the semi-final; they had a game-plan, but they met like with like, put it up to Kilkenny man-to-man in the old fashioned way and very nearly won. When the two managers went and shook hands, a smile on their faces — they both knew how close it was. That’s what we need and I’m hopeful that’s what we’ll get from these two managers, Brian Cody and Eamon O’Shea. You have to really admire Brian Cody and all those who have been with him for the last 16 years. Yes Kilkenny do tactics, and the first man to do so was probably Fr Tommy Maher decades ago, but they still keep this a simple game. O’Shea also, his big thing all year has been allowing the Tipp players full licence to express themselves.
We need a good game. That has to be said. After last weekend, my ear-drums are bursting with all the talk about the football. Great contests. But look at Mayo — if they had gone straight toe-to-toe with Kerry the first day instead of the big tactical ‘sweeper’, they’d have won that game without any replay. A sweeper? They’d have been as well off putting a jersey on that big supporter who encroached in the replay and play him at full-forward in extra-time.
Will we see a great game? I don’t know. Tipperary have questions to answer, going back even to their All-Ireland win in 2010. Is that win tainted? They won the senior and U21 double that year with many very good players, but a lot of people are wondering (including Tipperary people), would they have won it in 2010 if Kilkenny had been at full strength.
They’ve had so many chances to beat Kilkenny in a big game, yet every time, they’ve failed. The 2011 All-Ireland final was a huge test for Tipperary — they failed that test. Even this year, the league final, last year the league final and the All-Ireland qualifier in Nowlan Park, every time coming close but every time a loss. You have to wonder, do Kilkenny have their number?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Kilkenny make a few changes from the semi-final win. They’ll want their best possible defence against this high-powered Tipp attack so I think we could see Pádraig Walsh brought back to wing-back at the expense of Joey Holden. Richie Power will probably start ahead of Mark Kelly. Walter Walsh could also feature from the off. One man we’re not sure of is Henry Shefflin but I’d start him. Henry hasn’t made a huge impact in any of the games where he was brought on. Start him, put him in around the full-forward line where Tipp are least experienced. See how they react.
Kilkenny will target this Tipperary half-back line, so impressive against Cork — hammering the hammer, as Tomás Ó Sé puts it. Break down Kieran Bergin and the two Mahers and you’re a long way to breaking Tipperary.
Padraic Maher could be facing another speedster, as against Eddie Brennan in 2011 — think Colin Fennelly or Richie Power. That’s the target area for Kilkenny.
Richie Hogan has been the outstanding midfielder this year, in line for hurler of the year. He’s also a top forward and could switch with Michael Fennelly.
If Kilkenny have time to think about a team, they generally come up with a plan. If Tipperary are to counteract it, it will come down to their inside line of forwards, and here, Seamus Callanan/JJ Delaney will be a fierce battle, while I expect Jackie Tyrell will take up Lar Corbett again. Bubbles O’Dwyer is Tipperary’s top outside forward — he won’t have space or time to tie his laces. Kilkenny will have a man-marker for him (Pádraig Walsh would be my man) and if he’s held, if Callanan is held, if Bonner Maher can be limited, Tipp are beaten.
The result? If it’s an open game, there will be only one winner — Tipperary — but I don’t think it will be open, I don’t think it will be flowing. Kilkenny will come up with a plan to keep it tight, close, and make it a battle. And if it does become a battle, down to the last few minutes, who would you bet on? Kilkenny.
