In the zone: How Jimmy Barry-Murphy has rejigged Cork’s approach

If Jimmy Barry-Murphy didn’t know he was doing something extraordinary, he must surely have realised it when Dónal Óg Cusack lauded his changing of the script after the qualifier win over Clare last Saturday week.

Things between the pair just haven’t been the same since Cusack was dropped off the panel in 2013. But under the caption “Viva La Rebelution” on The Sunday Game a day after the Clare game, the former Cork goalkeeper said: “Their style has definitely changed and finally they seem to be applying a system.”

It was the second week in a row that Cusack saw fit to praise his native county after they had seen off Wexford the previous weekend. He clearly identifies with a style of play which has origins in what Donal O’Grady adopted from Newtownshandrum and Cusack and his fellow players embraced, particularly the short passing element.