Gardiner believes ‘man-marker’ Murphy will start for Cork
Murphy has been out of action since suffering a collarbone injury in June and was expected to sit out the rest of the season. But the Bride Rovers man has made a quicker than anticipated return to training and is in the reckoning for a recall to Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s line up for Sunday’s decider.
“It would make sense to bring Brian Murphy back in because of the job he did on Tony Kelly in the Gaelic Grounds at the start of the summer,” said Gardiner.
“I’d imagine he’ll come back in but, look, I don’t know who’s going to lose out. Christopher Joyce is playing centre-back for Cork and he’s been doing grand for his first full season, he’s been doing very well. If they’re going to do a man-marking job on Tony Kelly, is he the man that’s going to lose out? It’ll be very harsh if that happened.
“But you’ve all seen Brian Murphy playing. As long as I’ve seen him, you know that any forward isn’t going to get much change out of him. If there’s a man-marking job to be done, he’s the best in the country at it.
“He marked John Mullane, he marked Eoin Kelly, he marked Joe Canning, he marked all of them. He knows the drill and he’s come out the better side of it in most one on ones. I expect that if Brian Murphy starts next weekend, he will come out on top of whoever he is marking.”
Gardiner had expected to be part of the Cork squad himself until his surprise omission by Barry-Murphy while, looking in from the outside, he has been surprised to see the team go as far as they have.
“I think it’s a huge surprise and I think they’re surprised themselves as well,” he said at the launch of the Aer Lingus Etihad Airways International Hurling Festival, which takes place in Galway from September 18-21.
“But, look, they’re there now and they’ve got the opportunity to win it. I know it’s difficult to play the same team in the Championship twice and beat them again. And I think Clare have progressed slightly more than Cork have.
“But Clare are coming from a slightly lower base judging by that match at the Gaelic Grounds. So it’ll be a very intriguing game. And the tactical battle will be good to watch between Davy Fitzgerald and probably Ger Cunningham in the Cork side.”
The Na Piarsaigh man expects Cork to prevail but revealed his admiration for the job done by Fitzgerald with Clare this season.
“When I saw them against Cork in Munster, I thought they were very restricted by the game plan that was imposed on them,” he said. “But they’ve grown into it now. Back then, they got fellas into position with the short passing but they just took the wrong options at the time.
“I think the sweeper system that he is employing is working for them, where they have the extra man at the back and they try to run the ball out and get the free man then in a forward running position, going beyond the half-way line, and he has the choice of whether to play the long ball or the short ball.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
