Under the microscope
THE Castlelyons player has been the butt of much ill-informed criticism from Cork supporters over the years, but he invariably does well in Croke Park, and the All-Ireland semi-final win over Waterford was no different.
Tracking McCarthy throughout the game shows both sides of the forward’s task: scoring with the ball and working hard without it. He scored as early as the second minute, coming onto a loose ball on the Cusack Stand side of the field and pointing from the sideline. For a player who’s taken so much criticism it was a fair statement of confidence.
McCarthy lost a puck-out to his marker, James Murray, in the fourth minute, but broke on the next delivery from Donal Óg Cusack to his inside forwards. In the seventh minute he dispossessed Waterford full-back Tom Feeney; Brian Corcoran placed Tom Kenny for a point as a result.
Though his next possession, in the 11th minute, was a long delivery cleared by the Waterford defence, two minutes after that McCarthy and Neil Ronan fought hard to win a line-ball which led to a Brian Corcoran point.
In the 22nd minute, McCarthy won a ball he fed to John Gardiner for a lengthy clearance, and four minutes after that he broke another puck-out into the Cork full-forward line. At this point McCarthy was drifting in off his wing to some effect, and in the 31st minute he was able to take a pass from Ben O’Connor for a second point from 45 metres. The half ended for him with James Murray winning a Cork puck-out.
When Waterford goaled on the resumption, McCarthy was prominent in Cork’s fight-back: he and Joe Deane helped place Neil Ronan for a point on 37 minutes.
McCarthy’s physical courage has never been questioned, and on 39 minutes he took an elbow in the head before dropping a ball into the Cork full-forward line that came to nothing. After receiving treatment he came back on to concede a clean catch to James Murray on 40 minutes, but seconds later he foraged for the ball with his namesake Niall before driving hard at the heart of the Waterford defence before scoring his third point.
The game then largely bypassed McCarthy and Murray.
The Cork man fouled Ken McGrath for a free out on 58 minutes, and he won a good ball to place Brian Corcoran three minutes after that which the Cork full-forward put wide. However, it was interesting that McCarthy had the stamina and nous to defend the left corner of the Cork defence deep in injury time: he was able to back up Tom Kenny when the midfielder came clear in the 73rd minute, and when Waterford returned the sliotar it was McCarthy who finally came away with it on the referee’s whistle. Scoring three points from play, contributing directly to two more, and winning the last ball of the game.
Cork fans would be happy with a repeat performance on Sunday from a much-maligned forward.
THE excellence of Cork’s defensive unit was shown to full effect in the All-Ireland semi-final. Waterford have a terrific mix of pace and strength in forwards such as John Mullane, Dan Shanahan and Seamus Prendergast, and Cork defended cleverly.
To stop them getting into the game meant cutting off the supply at source and defending the Waterford puck-outs well. With two big men in Shanahan and Prendergast in the half-forward line, Waterford had to bank on parity in this area, particularly given Ronan Curran’s substitution last year when marking Prendergast, and Shanahan’s game-breaking catches against Tipperary in the quarter-final.
However, Cork’s aerial strength came to the fore early: their half-backs won five of the first six puck-outs. The lengthy deliveries of Clinton Hennessy had the effect of pushing back those half-backs as well, compressing the space Mullane and Eoin McGrath had to work with; in the fourth minute Shanahan and Mullane combined outside the Cork 21, but neither could get a shot in and the ball was cleared.
In the first half, of the 16 deliveries into the Cork defence, 12 were won by red jerseys. Almost as significant, Waterford saw little of the goal. Though Donal Óg Cusack saved superbly three times in the first 10 minutes, none was a clear-cut goal chance (two balls dropping into the square and a deflected 65, all handled safely). Cork conceded three scoreable frees, which were pointed, and also gifted Waterford a point when an attempted short sideline ball to Cusack didn’t work out. Still, conceding eight points in the first half was a fair reflection of the Cork backs’ superiority.
Waterford restarted brilliantly, however, with 1-1 in two minutes. Significantly enough they needed three efforts to goal, and Prendergast’s effort for a follow-up point was initially hooked by Gardiner. That was representative of the game: Cork were still defending well and Waterford managed one point (in the 47th minute from a free) between the 36th and 62nd minutes and created virtually no clear-cut scoring chances at all. Though they won more puck-outs with Miceal ‘Brick’ Walsh at midfield, they seemed less able to win primary possession up front (Walsh’s positioning at full-forward is a bugbear for Deise fans, but while on the edge of the square he won three first-half frees that Waterford pointed).
Cork’s dominance in defence is clearly shown in the puck-out breakdown: of 17 long-range deliveries sent into the Leesiders’ defence, 13 were won by Cork. Waterford might still have managed an equaliser if it wasn’t for Ronan Curran: their last four deliveries upfield were fielded by the Cork no. 6, even if one was flicked out of his grasp by Prendergast for a Mullane point.
In the end Cork conceded 1-15. It meant they didn’t have to reach their notorious 20 points to win, thanks to another claustrophobic performance from their defence.
THOUGH the consensus after the Clare-Kilkenny All-Ireland SHC semi-final was that James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick had run Henry Shefflin close for man of the match, the Kilkenny midfielder was relatively slow in getting to the pace of the game.
Track Fitzpatrick through the game and he only appears on the ball three times in the first 15 minutes, feeding James Ryall for a wide, winning a free on the wing, and putting a free from his own half wide. In the 18th minute he hunts the ball in traffic but doesn’t win it, while two minutes after that he makes a bread-and-butter play — winning a loose ball in midfield and laying it off to another player for a long clearance.
That sparks Fitzpatrick: on 26 minutes he wins a ball and is challenged by three Clare players, one after another, before he hand-passes to a better-placed colleague.
Having acclimatised, Fitzpatrick plays the ball a lot more towards the end of the half: he takes a hand-pass from Tommy Walsh to deliver the ball long and high into his forwards on 31 minutes, and a minute later he wins a Clare puck-out and drives the ball wide. In both the 33rd and 34th minute Fitzpatrick picks up a loose ball in his defence and clears high.
That’s not to say he wasted his first half: Fitzpatrick did a lot of covering back towards the right side of the Cats’ defence and backed up James Ryall very well. In addition, his high delivery seemed tailor-made for the Kilkenny forwards — with the likes of Martin Comerford to break that high ball outfield to the onrushing Eddie Brennan, Clare struggled to counteract a simple game plan.
After 10 plays in the first half Fitzpatrick managed the same after the break, but several were eye-catching: holding up Jonathan Clancy on 36 minutes and clearing from his defence a minute later were routine, but he also had a point from play. In the 45th and 49th minutes he fielded two Clare puck-outs and returned them with interest, which contributed to the general impression of dominating midfield.
He won a battle with Clare’s Colin Lynch on 54 minutes, conceding a sideline ball and overran the ball in traffic three minutes after that, but it was in the closing stages that Fitzpatrick excelled.
In the 66th, 69th and 71st minutes the midfielder won the ball in the heart of the Kilkenny defence: on the first occasion he laid it off to Jackie Tyrrell to clear and on the second and third he delivered it long himself. In general play Fitzpatrick stands out of the rucks and melees, leaving midfield partner Derek Lyng to use his greater physical strength, but the Ballyhale Shamrocks man has a natural flair for intervention, picking his time to contest loose ball and come away with it. His crucial clearances as the game wound down show that.
SHEFFLIN was his brilliant self against Clare, notching 1-13. Tracking him throughout the All-Ireland semi-final was like a tutorial in movement, decision-making and striking, which is hardly surprising. Despite wearing 11, Shefflin began at full-forward and his move worked out within a minute when a long ball squirted past Brian Lohan for him to goal from close range. When the ball was still in the air Shefflin was ahead of the Clare full-back; he faded in behind Lohan at just the right time and his gamble paid off with a goal chance that was snappily converted.
The fact that Shefflin wasn’t out in front of his man, as coaches always preach, is neither here nor there. When the ball is that close to goal then, in that immortal phrase, a forward only has to be lucky once, while a defender must be lucky all the time. In any event, using the term ‘luck’ is a little unfair: it’s not the first time Shefflin has ghosted in behind a full-back line. In the crucial period of the 2004 All-Ireland final he got off a first-time shot from a Martin Comerford handpass that Cork’s Donal Óg Cusack did well to save.
Though Shefflin usually roams outfield after the first quarter, he had 1-2 to his name before taking up his station on the left wing about 15 minutes into the game: the two points came from frees he won himself.
Once out on the wing James McGarry didn’t drop many puck-outs on top of him, however. Though Shefflin is a big man and well able to win primary possession in the air, clearly Kilkenny don’t want to overwork their
star forward with graft before he has to apply the glitter. (In any case, a right-hander at left-half-forward contesting puck-outs is always conceding the advantage to his marker, as he can’t protect his (left) catching hand against the wing-back standing inside him).
The left wing is only a starting point for Shefflin anyway. His last score of the first half came from that neighbourhood, but in general play he drifts into the middle and onto his stronger side. Hence his 27th-minute point from play, taken from directly in front of the posts.
This tendency to come into the centre was seen also in the second half: two of his four points from play came when where one would expect a traditional centre-forward to stand, in the central channel leading directly out from the goalposts (certainly he was booked for a loose pull in the 56th minute while in the number 11 territory).
Shefflin’s accuracy from placed balls is a given, missing none in the 70 minutes. The only conundrum for the Kilkenny selectors is that their plan for Shefflin perhaps worked out too well: scoring 1-2 in the first three minutes is the epitome of early and often, but if that doesn’t happen against Cork they face a dilemma. Do they gamble on keeping his point-scoring ability from the open space on the half-forward line in the hopes of a goal chance inside? Given the Cork dislike of goals which can skew the narrow margins of victory and the strength of their half-backs — particularly Ronan Curran holding the centre — don’t be surprised to see Henry spend over 20 minutes on the fringes of the square on Sunday.
