Goulding fixing his faults

HIS clinical free-taking was the toast of Cork in last year’s All-Ireland final and last week’s Allianz Division 1 opening win over Kerry but Conor Counihan has found fault with Daniel Goulding’s game — his tackling.

“I should be putting in more of them,” he said with a wry smile. “Conor is probably not too happy with my tackle count.”

It’s refreshing to listen to Goulding these days. That wasn’t always the case. Three years ago, he was like a rabbit in headlights when put in front of the press before the Munster final against Cork. In a similar position yesterday to promote Saturday’s Allianz League Division 1 game with Dublin, he was honest, confident and assured.

He is bound to be after following an All Star winning season in 2009 with an All-Ireland winning one last year. He should have had another personal gong to his name in 2010 but he’s not all that bothered by the All Star snub.

“It’s probably disappointing for Cork that there wasn’t any forwards recognised but we got two the year before and we had no All-Ireland medal. We’d rather have the All-Ireland medal than the recognition.”

Goulding tends to agree the Cork attack was overlooked because of the amount of frees they scored compared to those from open play.

“The year before we scored most of our scores from play, there are six good forwards there and they all chip in with a couple of scores a game rather than one stand-out fella.”

Goulding and Donnacha O’Connor carried on in Austin Stack Park where they left off last year when their free-taking ultimately saw off the Kingdom. The Eire Óg man’s long-range efforts were especially impressive considering the poor underfoot conditions. But he makes light of his expertise. He usually takes between 10 to 20 kicks in training but wouldn’t be “be one of these fellas who’d be there for an hour, hour and a half because I think it takes the freshness out of it“.

That said, he’s believer in routine, taking inspiration from England out-half Jonny Wilkinson’s pre-kick habit which the rugby star outlined in his autobiography.

“He talks about taking the pressure out of the kick by creating a routine,” explained Goulding. “What you’re trying to do is forget about the situation and concentrate on kicking the ball. It’s not the situation you worry about, but kicking the ball.”

The victory over Kerry proved to Goulding that Cork were “back in the groove” while the late fightback was another of their character traits from last year.

“If you look at 2009 we were the opposite — we hit the field running. I don’t know how to control that. It’s something to work on. We’d want to adapt to it more.”

Finishing the last few weeks of a six-month rotation working with Bord Gáis in Dublin, Goulding has been training at Na Fianna’s grounds on Mobhi Road — just a short trip from Croke Park. The forthcoming fixture doesn’t just bring back good memories from last August but a fine example of how Cork were able to think on their feet during championship games.

As he explained: “We’ve had a belief, an inner belief, that no game is over (until the final whistle). The qualifier games last year, the Limerick game in particular and even the Wexford game when we were in big trouble at half-time, have taught us how to adapt to situations. You could see in the Dublin game we didn’t panic. In the All-Ireland final before (against Kerry), we did panic in the same situation. We just stuck at it rather than changing, panicking and shooting from outrageous positions. We stuck to what we’re good at — running the ball, trying to create openings and we got the frees that won it.”