‘Our focus is how we can get the maximum out of the team’
When Tipperary came through against Waterford the former ’keeper knew the direction conversations would take.
“Once the semi-finals were over and it was a Cork-Tipperary final, young people who haven’t seen many Cork-Tipp finals were probably listening to people talk about past games.
“There have been some great games between us in the last 20 years, and probably more of those in Thurles than anywhere else.
“Once the two teams qualified I suppose all those memories come flooding back.”
Cork’s progress wasn’t guaranteed against a fancied Clare side, but Cunningham points to the champions’ experience.
“We looked back at last year’s All-Ireland semi-final and I suppose the optimism about Clare came from that game. There was only a point in it and I suppose they had the incentive to beat us.
“They beat us in the league and there was a lot of talk about their preparation and how they were going to go for it. But the beauty of having an experienced, settled team is that the lads focused, knowing the prize was big enough — going straight to an All-Ireland quarter-final through the front door. There was a lot riding on the match but it probably focused our minds that we got such a tough draw, particularly the fact they came so close to us last year.”
Other games last year may not be as relevant — take the ‘05 Munster final, the proverbial game of two halves.
“I don’t think that’ll have much influence on this game, what happened last year is done. Okay, we’ve the same management and team, but Babs has come in for Tipp and he’s brought in his ideas and his tradition to the whole thing, while they’ve a couple of new players as well. Last year won’t have a bearing on this Munster final.”
As champions Cork are there to be beaten, and Cunningham acknowledges that his side are a target.
“No matter who the champions are, every team obviously has ambitions to be the best and will target the champions on that basis — if you want to win any championship your attitude is probably that you need to beat or be as good as the champions. We’ve been up there for three years, winning two and losing one, but the lads’ effort is still targeted at getting back and staying at the top.
“Our focus is completely on our own team and how we can get the maximum out of them. We’ve looked at a couple of different options and we’ll look at them again before the Tipp game.”
One option that seems to be a hardy annual for debate is Cork’s puck-out strategy. As a former Long Puck champion Cunningham was well able to deliver the ball into the opposition danger zone, and he acknowledges that there seems to be more focus on the puck-out nowadays.
“We always look for ways to improve. There’s been a lot more media focus on puck-outs in the last few years, on getting primary ball, compared to previous years. Everyone sees a puck-out as starting out with a ball in your hand and a chance to get primary possession. We’ve worked on it and evolved different systems over the years, and hopefully we can change our system if we need to; we’ve got away from the very short puck-out system.”
Nervous Cork fans might imagine that’s part of a plan to keep the ball away from one Eoin Kelly, but Cunningham says the Tipperary star isn’t the sole focus of the red defence.
“Eoin Kelly’s performances in the last few years speak for themselves – he’s a very talented, very skilful player, one of the top forwards in the country at the moment. Obviously the top forward gets a little more focus than the others but that’s not to say we won’t be watching the other forwards, and we hope we can come up with a plan to stop him scoring 14 or 15 points.
“In the course of the game he’ll get a supply of ball, and it’s all about the quality of that ball. If we can influence that it’ll help the player marking him; it’s not about one man, we’ll want everyone to make an effort.”
A great forward. A defence busy planning. Tradition.
