Eight reasons why Cork won against Clare
There was a good deal of angst on Leeside when Cork were relegated from Division 1A to 1B (or the second division as most normal people view it).
Kingston outlines the attitude of the Cork management.
“It’s easy to say this now because we won, but I would have said this in the past as well about the league.
“The way we looked at the league was we wanted to try out as many guys as we could and to build a panel. We have a lot of young guys who needed hurling at this level.
“Unfortunately it didn’t work out for us and we got relegated. We didn’t think we were that bad in the league but we’d set out at the start of the year with that (approach) in mind.”
There were concerns aboutCork’s fitness when Clare overran the Leesiders twice in similar fashion. Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy rubbished those concerns after Sunday’s game, but his fitness trainer Dave Matthews gave an extensive interview last weekend in which he said the physical preparation this year had been more focused on strength.
“We didn’t do as much hard training as other teams did early in the year,” says Kingston. “That was by choice. Was it a bit of a risk? It was, to be honest, because people saw that Clare ran us off the field in extra time in Limerick in the relegation play-off.”
Harnedy offers the player’s-eye view: “In fairness to Dave and the other lads down the field, we've been getting fitter every week. Last year we were very fit at the start of the league but this time we geared it more towards the championship.”
Losing Paudie O’Sullivan,Lorcan McLoughlin and Pa Cronin wasn’t part of the Cork plan, obviously.
“With the three lads being out, it gave the others a chance to wear the jersey,” says Kingston.
“The likes of Seamus Harnedy and Stephen Moylan got their opportunity because Lorcan, Patrick and Paudie were out.
“But one thing we’d have stressed as well was the fact that it wasn’t as if we were going out to play with 12 men either! We were going out with15 and we felt that if the attitude was right that they’d have the hurling.”
Much has been made of the Cork underage hurling famine, but Harnedy points out that another stage in hurling development has been kind to Cork: the Fitzgibbon Cup, and UCC’s role in same.
“I think there were 10 represented from UCC in the Cork team today (Nash, O'Sullivan, O'Neill, Egan, Kenny, Kearney, Harnedy, Lehane, O'Farrell, Moylan).”
Cork were lauded for their attitude and workrate on Sunday, and Kingston says they didn’t have far to look for a good example.
“We saw the way that Limerick played against Tipperary and they were outstanding in that way — they turned the ball over, and balls that you’d say were 90/10 against them they turned into 90/10 balls for them because of their workrate. We felt we could emulate that. Now it worked on Sunday. There are other days that it doesn’t work, but on Sunday it came off and we got scores out of it.”
Clare were the popular choice because of their good win over Waterford and their recent history with the Rebels.
“Clare had beaten us three times, twice in the league and once in the Waterford Crystal,” says Kingston. “That was a spur.
“Everyone had written us off. That was a spur. In some quarters the character of the team was challenged. That was a spur. It all fed in.”
Cork had a plan before theball was thrown in. It depended on something they had no control over, though.
“We won the toss, which was a bit of luck, and we elected to play against the wind in the first half,” says Kingston.
“We said we’d do that and it worked out insofar as we were only three points down at half-time having played against it.
“It’s all about the way you play The way Clare play, with that running game into the breeze, we thought that it might suit them because they’d be able to carry the ball into it, but we were able to counteract that.”
Cork assigned Brian Murphy to mark Tony Kelly, who tormented the men in red in the league relegation play-off, and put Stephen McDonnell on the in-form Darach Honan.
“They were both outstanding, I thought,” Kingston notes.
“Stephen had his hands full early on with Darach Honan but he stuck to his task very well.
“In my view Brian Murphy is probably the best man-marker in the country. Second to none. I don’t say that lightly, because there are a lot of great defenders out there, but he’s outstanding, and he showed it on Sunday.
“Tony Kelly was a big threat for Clare but Brian was just superb on him from start to finish.”
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