Who possesses the hardest shot in hurling?

JOE Canning’s cracking penalty nine days ago in Thurles against Cork set us to considering a basic argument: who has the hardest shot in hurling?

We turned to the men with first-hand experience: the goalkeepers. First we talked to Christy O’Connor, journalist, author of the magnificent ‘Last Man Standing’, about hurling goalies – and a very fine goalkeeper himself with St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield and Clare.

“I always felt Eamonn Taaffe was a super finisher — very clinical, very efficient. If you were in training his shot mightn’t have huge pace, but he could put it somewhere you couldn’t get to it. But for power . . . Eugene Cloonan has a good crack off a ball if he catches it right. And Paul Flynn has a very good shot.”

Ger Cunningham, who spent the guts of two decades in goal for Cork, had no doubts. “When he struck the ball properly John Fenton was one of the best. Certainly taking a penalty he had as good a shot as anybody around.

“Generally, the hardest shots to block are the ones that come in about head high, and Fenton didn’t just have a powerful shot, he was very accurate as well. He was able to put them exactly where he wanted them to go, and he was definitely the hardest to face, of all the players I faced for penalties and 21-metre frees.”

Any reference to Fenton’s shooting invariable calls the incredible long-range goal he scored against Limerick in 1987 to mind.

“Those are the ones you’d least expect,” says Cunningham. “God rest Tommy Quaid, who was in goal for Limerick that day, that was probably what happened to him — the last thing he’d have expected was a ball to come across him from 50 or 60 yards out, and hit with a load of top spin and dipping in. It’s very hard to cope with unexpected shots.

“It’s different with a guy standing over a ball 21 metres away, by the time he throws it up and makes contact he’s a few metres nearer, and in that context Fenton had by far the hardest shot.

“Paul Flynn is a great man to put swerve on the ball,” says Cunningham. “The shot he’s perfected is one of the hardest of all to save. He puts this kind of topspin on it, which is very hard to do — you see tennis players doing it — and that requires a huge amount of practice, but he’s got a natural talent for it.

“When he connects properly, as a goalkeeper you think you have it and then it dips in suddenly beneath you. His goal in the 2004 Munster final was a good example of that — I spoke to (Cork goalkeeper) Donal Óg Cusack after that, and I think he was unsighted as well, but Flynn goes for crossbar height with those shots. Sometimes you’ll be able to deflect them over, but other times they dip down, and that was the case in that Munster final.

“Flynn seems to be the most natural at putting that dip on it. It’s very difficult to do — you have to put a break in the wrist, and it’s hard to do if you’re not a natural forward.”

While it might be a bit early to put Joe Canning in that company, many have commented on the venom he put into his first-half penalty against Cork. The men used to standing on the goal-line acknowledged its quality.

“What I noticed from Joe last Saturday week was that he went for Martin Coleman straight away with his penalty,” said Cunningham. “Now in some ways that was an obvious move, because Martin was fresh into the game, but Joe put some force into that.”

Christy O’Connor concurs: “There were people commenting that maybe Martin Coleman should have ‘stood tall’ when Joe took the penalty.

“That’s bull, though. When you’re trying to stop that kind of shot it’s unconscious, you’re reacting to it. Ger is right — Martin Coleman was only just on the pitch, and there’s no way you could be properly warmed up.

“For a comparison, against Cork, Brendan Cummins was able to swat away Paudie O’Sullivan’s penalty, but against Clare, when he saved Niall Gilligan’s penalty, that was a pure reaction save.”

Ken Hogan, who soldiered for many years in the number one jersey for Tipperary, agrees on velocity being all-important from 21-metre frees and penalties.

“If you’re watching a game from the stands and you can see the ball in flight from a 21, you know it’s going to be saved, or that it should be saved. A well-hit 21 should only be visible when it hits the net, and that’s what you get when a top-class forward makes the proper connection from a close-in free.

“Eoin Kelly has a great shot, and he’d fancy himself to score goals from a 21-metre free. But I think when it comes to a shot from the 21, whether it’s a penalty or a free, an inter-county hurling team should always have a player who can score a goal from it.

“Another man with a great shot — and I had experience of it — was John Fitzgibbon of Cork. He had a particularly hard shot off the ground. He got a lot of his goals that way — he could turn well and he had huge strength in the wrists. If players keep twisting their wrists while keeping the ball hopping on the stick they build up great strength in the wrists, and that’s the key to putting power in the shot.”

Decision: John Fenton of Cork.

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