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?

Playing Nick on edge of square is a  real gamble

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.

If Murphy does start on the edge of the square, it’s likely that Paul Kerrigan will be given a roving commission and will drift out the field, leaving Donncha to work as a foil off the Carrigaline man. It should be interesting and if it does work, it gives Cork’s semi-final opponents — presumably Kerry — something to think about.

There’s no certainty at this point that Daniel Goulding will be ready for August 21 so all options have to be considered. With the loss of Colm O’Neill, Ciarán Sheehan, Goulding and Barry O’Driscoll Cork’s attacking alternatives are down to Fiachra Lynch, Mark Collins and David Goold — none of whom you would be expecting at this stage to dig Cork out of a hole in a high pressure situation in Croke Park.

Not that it should matter this weekend. I’m sure it’s politically incorrect to say it but I was relieved with the quarter-final draw. I didn’t fancy Donegal and especially Dublin. James Horan has Mayo going in the right direction and the early indications are that they will be a lot more resilient under his stewardship. But they don’t have enough going forward to trouble a Cork defence that got stronger and tighter as the Down game went on last Saturday.

That refers, in particular, to Eoin Cadogan who needs as much fast and furious action as he can get now that his inter-county hurling duties are at an end for the season.

There is always that caveat with Mayo — they are capable of an occasional big one, but if Cork were to be suckered by an outsider, it was more likely to be last weekend than this.

Kerry will advance too, but a lot of neutrals will watch today’s third quarter-final between Donegal and Kildare with that extra bit of interest. As a Cork man, I was well pleased that Kildare were on the same Qualifier route as the champions. When Kieran McGeeney manages to unearth a couple of truly natural forwards, they are All-Ireland winning material. Therefore, they’ll also make the last four this time around and won’t be afraid of who they’ll meet in the semi.

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