Hard work as numbers don’t add up for DLS

JIMMY Barry-Murphy’s late father, John Barry, or John B as he was affectionately known in his club St Finbarr’s, had a saying when describing heavy defeats suffered by his club: “They were too numerous for us.”

Looking down from on high at the first half in yesterday’s AIB All-Ireland club SHC final I couldn’t help but feel that Portumna were just too numerous for an outplayed De La Salle outfit in a very one-sided game.

The Waterford club side opted to play against the breeze, having won the toss. De La Salle played their Waterford inter-county wing-back Brian Phelan as a holding player in front of their centre-back but the ploy didn’t work, as Portumna cleverly played their half-forward line deep, out around the middle of the field.

This left Damien Hayes, Joe Canning and Ciaran Ryan with oceans of space inside. They had plenty of room to operate in and their pace and movement from wing to wing caused huge problems for the overworked De La Salle defenders.

Against the breeze De La Salle needed to keep it tight and play possession-style hurling, to move the ball over short distances and pass it accurately up the field, if they were going to have a chance. They didn’t use that tactic, however, because their puck-outs were all driven long, bar one, and those all ended up as 50-50 contests.

As it happened, Portumna were able to win 12 of the 16 such puck-outs, and that imbalance provided the platform for the Galway champions’ first-half dominance.

De La Salle made no effort to bring a player to the wing for a quick puck-out, which would have varied their game, and they failed to get quality ball up to their forward line as a result.

By contrast, Portumna had five puck-outs in the first half and won all five, keeping the pressure on from start to finish in that period.

De La Salle’s Lee Hayes broke through early in the first half and had a goal chance, but he didn’t realise that he had a little time to set himself up for a proper shot, and he elected to kick the ball instead of striking it with the hurley.

De La Salle needed that early score to give them heart for the battle, while on the other side, when Portumna created goal chances, both fell to the speedy, experienced Damien Hayes and he buried them past De La Salle keeper Stevie Brenner, who had no chance with either effort.

HALF-TIME saw Portumna with 2-11 to De La Salle’s 0-2 and the game was effectively over. Portumna’s stars delivered big-time in a team that showed great skill, pace, commitment and — above all — work rate.

Though most neutral observers would associate the Galway club with Joe Canning, for me Kevin Hayes summed up everything you need to win at the top level. He worked hard all through, setting up other players and bringing them into the game and his industry meant De La Salle didn’t enjoy the same half-back platform as their opponents.

De La Salle’s intercounty players were well held on the day, though in fairness they couldn’t be faulted for effort. Clearly they didn’t want a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final defeat, and they tried mightily to rally their comrades until the final whistle.

However, in the final analysis the game was a mismatch and the pity about All-Ireland club final day is that most finals over the years have ended up as one-sided, uninteresting affairs. Often, in fact, the semi-finals provide far better fare than the actual deciders.

There’s not much that can be done about the quality of finals, unfortunately, so we’ll have to live in hope. Maybe next year . . .