Clever Catsgot tactics spot on to beat Rebels

THE title of a new movie came to mind at last Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final: The Squid and the Whale.

Cork, reliant on the momentum generated by a great mass in forward motion, were the whale. Kilkenny, withdrawing to counterattack up the wings on Cork’s puckout, resembled the squid, flexing its tentacles along the sides of an opponent.

In the movie, the two ocean dwellers make up an exhibit at a New York museum, locked in perpetual if indecisive combat, but last Sunday there was a clear winner, and Kilkenny were deserving victors.

Conclusions? The Cats’ victory has been heralded in some quarters as ending the “Cork support game” and a victory for innate skill over predetermined game plans. Brian Cody, Michael Dempsey and Martin Fogarty obviously told Henry to play up front and the rest of the lads to spread out as best as they can.

Nonsense. Derek Lyng didn’t retreat to his half-back line on Donal Óg Cusack’s puck-out off his own bat, for instance. As Donal O’Grady pointed out in these pages last Tuesday, Eoin Larkin didn’t create space in front of Aidan Fogarty on a whim either. Kilkenny had a tactic as well-defined as Cork’s famous running game, and it worked better on the day. Strategy is here to stay in hurling.

Other sides aren’t just throwing out the jerseys in the dressing-room before the throw-in either. Waterford have parked Michael Walsh at full-forward for the first quarter of most of their games this season before moving him to his accustomed position of midfield. Opinion is divided as to whether it’s designed to conserve Walsh’s energy or to employ his driving energy to win frees early on — he won three against Cork in the first half of the All-Ireland semi-final — but when he thundered into that same game he helped drive his side to within a point of victory.

Anthony Daly’s Clare are no strangers to tactical innovation either. Only two years ago, the Banner withdrew forward Alan Markham to supplement their half-back line and suffocate the Kilkenny attack. They came close to turning Kilkenny over and the game went to a replay before the Cats marched on. It’s no accident that those four sides contested this year’s All-Ireland semi-finals.

One point in particular struck us as being worth making about last Sunday’s game: first, the length of grass on the pitch was counterproductive for good hurling — for both sides. That makes for substandard underfoot conditions in two of the biggest games of the year, the All-Ireland final and semi-final. By any reckoning, that is unacceptable.

What’s equally unacceptable — and unexpected — is the demise of Wexford.

They couldn’t even raise themselves to the customary one-lash-in-them summer outing this year, which is worrying. A panel of 400 scientists recently retired Pluto as a planet; there aren’t so many stars in the hurling sky that we can afford to lose any (a Star Trek DVD to the first nerd who points out that stars and planets are entirely different). Factor in gloomy predictions about Clare, given the age of their central spine, and there’s reason to be concerned about next year.

This year? It’s probably already been forgotten, but Eoin Kelly’s 14 points against Limerick back in May were pretty special; that last effort, struck from the sideline, went out and up and over in an immaculate curve.

His 2-9 in the Munster semi-final against Waterford wasn’t bad either, mind. There was something particularly apt about how Henry Shefflin got 1-13 against Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final: a sense of “I’ll see your 15-point total, and raise you ... ”

Other memories: Tom Kenny scorching through the Clare defence in May, and Davy Fitzgerald’s save from Joe Deane in the same match. Ben O’Connor beating Brendan Cummins on his inside in the Munster final; Henry Shefflin advancing point by point through the championship — 1-7 in the Leinster final, then 11 points in the quarter-final against Galway; and Dan Shanahan offering a Croke Park photocopy of his Munster championship goal against Tipperary before Waterford hearts broke on Donal Óg Cusack’s late save.

That was ‘06. The participants can now either concentrate on club matters or their golf game. But as they used to say on Tales From The Riverbank long ago, that’s another story. We’ll discuss that next week.

* Contact: [e-mail]