Manning the midfield minefield
One of the most experienced also, an ever-present on Brian Cody’s teams since 2001, to the exclusion of more established stars. The Urlingford man’s not a spectacular hurler, certainly not in the way of his new midfield partner, Cha Fitzpatrick, but he is tremendously effective, a powerful, ground-devouring workaholic.
Mind you, he does chip in with the occasional point, and more often than not at a crucial time in the game. On Sunday, more than usual, that’s what he will be trying to do.
Why? Cork have Tom and Jerry, Kenny and O’Connor, the terrible twins, operating in that same midfield area, and without a shadow of doubt, both will score. For the sake of balance, Derek (and Cha) will be doing their utmost to match the Corkmen.
“Their strength is their pace, they seem to play as extra half-forwards at times, tear through the middle while the likes of Niall and Timmy McCarthy do a lot of the hard work, most of it unseen; you can open up a defence very easy that way. I suppose it’s something you’d look at when you go to mark them, that you’d keep an eye on them tearing through, keep up with them. They’re not going to break away and score four or five points from play in every game, but they have the potential to do it and you have to be aware of that — I think they’re the only midfield pairing that has that scoring potential.
“But they do a lot of other things as well, pick up a lot of loose ball in the back-line, great engines both of them. You’d always like to get a point or two yourself, but you can lose the run of yourself too if you’re trying to burst forward all the time trying to match the lad you’re marking, whatever he scores, you might neglect your defensive duties.”
An interesting match-up here then, one of the many areas of the field where a new-look Kilkenny will be attempting to keep pace with a more settled, seasoned, Cork 15. One area where Kilkenny are weakened, however, inarguably, is in the full-back line, after the loss of JJ Delaney.
It occurred less than two weeks ago in training, and Derek knew, instantly — they all knew. “I was in line with him when it happened, I could see him going for the ball, could see his leg getting caught. We knew straight away when he went down, it was obvious he was in pain, and JJ isn’t a fella who goes down too soft. I was talking to James McGarry afterwards, he heard something snap; we knew it was going to be touch-and-go for the final even it wasn’t as serious as it turned out but we found out for certain the next day. It’s terrible, whatever about the team, you feel gutted for him. Any time of the year you get an injury is bad, but two weeks before the All-Ireland final, heart-breaking for JJ. You could probably play him anywhere from full-back to full-forward and he’d still be on top of his game; he’s just that type of player, a natural hurler, his heart and soul are in it.”
Can Kilkenny use JJ’s injury to inspire the team? “Hopefully, you look for inspiration anywhere; someone has to step up to the mark, they have the opportunity of a lifetime now.”
Speaking of negatives and positives, some say Kilkenny’s real inspiration is to do what Cork did unto them in 2004, stop the three-in-a-row. Not so, says Derek; this Kilkenny team isn’t about stopping anyone from doing anything, it’s about winning, and only about winning. “That is genuine,” he insists; “Once we got to another final we were absolutely delighted; whether it was Cork, Waterford, in the final, you don’t care, you just want to be there. Now that it’s Cork you obviously want to beat them, but it’s not in the head to stop them from winning three-in-a-row. We just want to beat them, win an All-Ireland medal. Afterwards you can talk about stopping three-in-a-row — if we do, we do. But this isn’t about the negative, it’s about winning; we’ll let other people talk about the other stuff.”
Some of the ‘other stuff’ other people talk about is the ultra professionalism of this current Cork set-up. State of the art, by all accounts, the best-prepared team and all that. Could get to become a bit of a pain to have to listen to, if you’re one of the 30 or so guys in Nowlan Park several evenings a week, bursting a gut every evening, if you’ve gone through several months of hard slog to reach a state of fitness more than adequate for a high-powered 70 minutes in Croke Park. Could, but doesn’t.
“I suppose, you do hear a lot about how professional they are; I don’t know if we are or not, someone would have to follow us in training and tell us. Ah, I wouldn’t bother with it. Noel Richardson is our trainer this year, he’s very good at what he does, and hopefully it has added a new edge to us, but Mick O’Flynn had a great record too, was very good at what he did.”
Definitely Kilkenny are not as scientific, as detailed, in their approach as Cork, but let no-one be under any illusion — they will be ready for this final, ready in all departments.
“The younger lads that have come in, the younger lads, have done very well, showed a lot of maturity really, considering some of them are only around 21, the likes of John Tennyson have slotted in very well, Cha the same. Things are going well in training, and that’s one thing, you have to be doing a bit in there alright, no-one resting on the laurels. A good way to have it.”
No-one resting on the laurels, because Kilkenny, can’t afford to. Neither can Cork.
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