Paudie Butler: Why left is sometimes right
And who could blame him?
“He was the classic ciotóg, playing left-handed. It’s the left handers who play on their dominant left that have a beautiful way of striking the ball. It seems to look different but that’s attractive.
“It’s how you place them now and it’s important as a coach that they are developed early on in their lives on their left side. Some aren’t though and favour their shorter right side. But when they have confidence on their left side it gives a different stroke and it’s difficult to tackle it.
"The hurley is coming at you differently. Watching Jimmy Doyle, he was so elegant and effective doing it. Francis Loughnane came after that. Tipperary have a strong tradition of developing those marvellous ciotóg players and finding a place for them.”
Ciotógs Pat Fox, Declan Ryan and Paul Kelly were strong on both sides. Diarmuid Fitzgerald was another decent left-hander although injury cursed him. Then there was — and is — Lar Corbett, Padraic Maher, Patrick Maher and Niall O’Meara as much as they lean more towards their right.
What they can do is reach for the sliotar from a different hand, which upsets a right-handed opponent. Noel Hickey might say that after he contested an early high ball with his left hand against Corbett’s right in the 2010 All-Ireland final, which the Tipperary forward stuck in the net.
“It’s interesting that in tennis the proportion of champions out of the 10% in the population who are left-handed is very high. The same in boxing (with southpaws), so they tell me.
"You don’t meet them that often and because of that you’re unprepared. Often counties would play the unorthodox player, as they would have been known, at centre-forward given that advantage.
“It’s very difficult for an orthodox player to mark them. But then we’re not as inclined to put the long ball down as we did before. The mobility now is so good.”
Kilkenny have replaced JJ Delaney with another ciotóg in Joey Holden and then there’s Eoin Larkin and TJ Reid who look comfortable on both sides. They and Corbett might be closer than Corbett’s contemporaries to what former national hurling co-ordinator Butler considers the out-and-out left-hander.
“These players do give an extra dimension and they do add spice to it. They do give a manager options. If you have a right-handed hurler playing left-half back he’s inclined to come in-field into trouble.
"The left-handed hurler is breaking away from trouble. The same with the right corner-forward. If he’s an orthodox right-handed hurler he’s inclined to go too wide whereas the left-hander is coming in.
“It’s a beautiful thing when a player can be thrown and the left-handed player has that thing from childhood to sweep onto the left. Declan Ryan was a classic example of a perfect left-handed hurler. At his peak, nobody was better than him.”
According to Butler, it’s essential for the development of hurling that more ciotógs are encouraged to embrace their natural style.
“There was a period where everybody had to write with their right hand. There was a period when you were coached to play with your right hand. Now people are wiser and they’re bringing more of the ciotógs through.
“You’d see more of them at minor and at U21 level than you would have before and Tipperary have them again at minor level. I do think they add to the occasion. I think they see the field differently as well.”
These players do give an extra dimension and they do add spice to it. They do give a manager options
