Playing Nick on edge of square is a real gamble

SO is it a bird, a plane or a kite being flown by Cork coach Conor Counihan and his selectors?

Will Nicholas Murphy start at full-forward in tomorrow’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park — indeed, will he start at all. All in all, very un-Counihan like and a tactical gamble I’m not wholly comfortable with.

It isn’t the complete dearth of inter-county game time Murphy has under his belt this season that bothers me, though that is obviously an issue too. It’s more the fact that if Murphy is sited on the edge of the square that shunts Donncha O’Connor out of full-forward at a stage of his career when he is really flourishing there. Given the number of injuries Cork have had, it is clearly a ploy that has been forced by circumstances. Therefore I presume there has not been much work on Nicholas at full-forward at this late stage of his career.