Cracking the code at Croker
WAS the GAA’s best-known Dan Brown fan the victim of a conspiracy in the last two weeks? John Allen compared this year’s Munster Final to The Da Vinci Code: that was before several Cork players came back injured to county training, then there was the mysterious quarter-final draw pitting Cork against Waterford ... Allen was neither complaining nor speculating this week, however. Just getting on with it.
“We’ve only had the lads for two weeks since the club championships, and we did have a lot of injuries - Wayne Sherlock, John Browne, Pat Mulcahy and Neil Ronan were all hurt - but they should all be okay.”
Good news of another trump card also; Brian Corcoran resumed training, wiping the memory of his early departure from the Munster final. Other concerns also arose in the Tipp clash, the proverbial game of two halves.
“One thing’s for certain, we didn’t go in at half-time and say to the lads to ease off or anything,” says Allen. “I give praise where it’s merited, and I praised them at the break, but I said nothing too positive - in fact I gave out to them for over-elaboration.”
With a couple of weeks’ perspective, Allen is frank in his assessment of the game.
“We kept it going at a ferocious rate in the first half, and maybe we just couldn’t keep that intensity going after half-time. It’s hard to put your finger on it, to analyse what kept us more or less on the back foot.
“The game seemed to go against our midfielders, who usually work very well together and have two great engines. The ball fell right for Paul Kelly - I’m not taking anything away from him, he’s a fine player and got some great scores - but some days wherever you go you won’t get the ball. That seemed to happen to us in the second half.
“We played very far out, particularly in the second half. Timmy McCarthy gets a lot of unjustified stick, but he gets through an amount of work in every game and looking at the video he won a lot of the ball that came to him, he kept the high ball moving in, but guys like Joe Deane were a good bit out from goal. We did give Neil Ronan carte blanche, when we put him on, to move around. We didn’t want to leave him inside in the square on Philly Maher.
“When he took his point in the second half, a goal might certainly have killed the game but we didn’t need a goal - he was right to take the safer option. If Brendan Cummins had saved a goal it might have become a rallying point in the same way as Donal Óg’s penalty save in the first half.”
There were positives as well. The Cork defence held out under huge pressure, and Allen points out that he and his selectors have eight or nine backs for six positions: “On Sunday we’ll have a few subs who’d be playing for any other inter-county team.”
One issue that didn’t affect Cork was the GPA-RTÉ dispute which blew up the week before, when captain Sean Óg Ó hAilpín had to inform RTÉ at the team press night that the Cork panel wouldn’t be co-operating with the broadcaster. The players were supported unequivocally by Allen and his backroom staff.
The team management felt the issue wasn’t being handled properly and backed the players. It was that simple. Once the decision was made they just got on with preparing the team.
It’s just an example of the professional approach. Cork’s style of play offers another, showing how the selectors - and the team - make the most of their resources.
“If you don’t fit in with the system of play we use you probably won’t get picked, unless you’re really, really good - a player we couldn’t do without. The system’s been adopted democratically after all, it’s one that everyone’s happy with. Generally, if everyone’s bought into the system you have to stay with it; if we’ve come up with a tactic, a system that’s working, then the greater good has to prevail, if you like.”
So there you have it: the first Marxist deconstruction of a hurling team, where each player according to his abilities fits in with the needs of his teammates for the benefit of all. Whatever the political implications, however, there are dangers involved in the Cork style of play. Allen concedes that trying to move the ball a shorter distance to a player in a more advantageous position, whether that’s five or 25 metres, means it’s likely to break down on occasion.
“The traditional way, hitting the ball 90 yards, works sometimes, but our style now is the possession game, and overall, our record in the three years we’ve used it shows we’ve won an All-Ireland and two Munster titles. Other teams are now trying to use this possession game as well and someone’s bound to come up with an alternative tactic eventually. Hurling is evolving all the time, the game’s changing and some skills are almost gone.”
The players are the ones who have to mesh their skills with the system, and Kieran Murphy of Sarsfields is a fair example of the balance that has to be struck. A blue-chip goalscorer as a minor, since settling on the senior team, Murphy’s blue-collar work rate, rather than his goals, has caught the eye. Not that his manager is complaining.
“He’s a great guy to have on your team,” says Allen, “He works very, very hard and has made some telling hooks and blocks. He made the hook that gave Joe Deane the first goal against Waterford and in the All-Ireland final last year he made a vital block that closed down an important scoring chance for Kilkenny. In every forward line, you need a mixture of workers and scorers - you won’t win with six of one particular type.”
It’s Waterford’s turn tomorrow to face the system. Unlike other years, however, both sides have met already this season in the championship.
“A lot of the public didn’t seem to know that Cork could play Waterford again,” says Allen, “but I knew there was a chance when Clare beat them. Initially I was a little surprised, but motivation is one area that shouldn’t be a problem. We had almost six months of preparation for the last match, All-Ireland champions versus Munster champions, and now there’s a revenge game within two months of that.
“Waterford’s form hasn’t been great this year but there was only two points between us this year, one point last year. They’ll feel they can beat us and we feel we can beat them, so it has the makings of a great game regardless of form.
“I don’t think complacency will be an issue. There’s such a recent clash that I don’t think it’ll arise, I’ve seen no signs of it. There are very strong characters on this team, they’re winners and they set the tone. Donal (O’Grady) bought into the idea of professionalism, as did I, and when the team themselves have bought into it they keep that going themselves.
“When we were away in New Zealand this year a number of players trained twice a day - on their holiday. That tells you something.”
That kind of commitment is matched by the coach and his staff. During the week, Allen started watching a movie and realised afterwards that for the first time in months he was caught up in something outside the team. Searching for the extra edge isn’t just Allen’s job - he pays ample tribute to the backroom team: “I couldn’t say enough about them, they’ve been fantastic” - but it’s a duty he takes to heart.
“I read Clive Woodward’s book, I was interested to see how he did things but also to see what brought him to becoming a manager - his life as a player and so on. I was taken by his single-mindedness. The same with Jose Mourinho, the attention to detail.
“Sunday, you’re playing against one of the top three teams, and you’re looking for any inch, anything at all that’ll spark something in a player’s head which will give him something extra. It might come down to our lads being slightly better hydrated than Waterford, or to one player getting an early ball which sets him on his way. Reading those books is a way of looking for something extra.”
Was that why he mentioned the Da Vinci Code after the Munster final? How could a story of international religious intrigue help prepare an intercounty hurling team?
“Ah, that was just after the final whistle, someone asked me how it felt. I thought I might bring the thing up to date a little bit.”
Sounds like Cork have been doing that all along.
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