In between days, as per one of the 1980s’ most gorgeous singles.
Hurling wise and January wise and everything wise. We are in an interregnum. So pull down that tune. Give it a go, if only for the joyousness.
Strange joyousness, right now. Certainties remain elusive as we edge into the 2020s. While vaccination is talk of town, there will be no smooth return to where the world sat in January 2020. The season before us is no less shaped by this pandemic than the season just gone.
Not all counts as negative, in fairness. The idea of playing off the season in two discrete blocks, intercounty and club, stuck and seems likely to survive this crisis. Better if such clarity had another source. But one effect may well be resolution of the GAA’s severest problem in recent years. The virus, with every irony, might end need for the CPA.
Scarce little certainty except Limerick domination for the next few seasons. This conviction settled three weeks ago, after the county dismissed Waterford in the second half of 2020’s senior final. Why demur? Limerick possess the best personnel and a canny way of hurling.
Sole caveat? Their approach is not a notably economical way of hurling. Last Thursday, Christy O’Connor wrote in these pages about the code’s most significant development during the 2010s. As he noted: “the modern reality is that hurling has become such a possession-based game that it is now often more comparable to rugby than its blood brother; every big hurling match now is heavily defined by rucks and turnovers, ferocious tackling, and systematically produced possession”.
Limerick, as O’Connor emphasized, saddled this development and are out in front. Yet so attritional a style, one so dependent on contact, might not be set for as long a road as people presume. A knife constantly in use is hard to keep sharp.
Still, Limerick enjoy possible advantage in 2021’s structure. Four games could form a route to title retention. The fewer outings, the less chance for slip ups via a dip in energy levels.
A Munster county, under the round robin provincial format, played four times merely to qualify. Lose your first round tie and the other three occasions turn into a knockout affair, which is a draining experience ever before the All-Ireland series commences. Limerick’s hope of multiple titles in the coming years probably pivots on the round robin’s absence.
More broadly, what carries into 2021 as material for reflection? I mark two games, both of which involved Limerick. The first one is their comprehensive Munster semi-final win over Tipperary, 3-23 to 2-17. The latter had lined up Alan Flynn as a marker for Cian Lynch, whom they presumed a midfielder.
A smart move sent Lynch to centre forward. Flynn accompanied him, which squeezed out Brendan Maher from centre back, where he had prepared to play. Suddenly Flynn is a hesitant central defender, not knowing whether to stick or twist, as Lynch rambles, and Maher an uncertain midfielder, out of his expected zone.
Advantage Limerick, twice over. Meanwhile Kyle Hayes gets newly grooved at left half back, where he proceeded to become a marauder. This crowd had set opponents a new set of problems.
Those moves likewise reaffirmed the eternal value of wit. Cut across your opponent’s preparation with whipcrack gambits. Champions, to stay champions, must produce these flashes, fending off staleness.
Wit is a natural partner for true sophistication. Reconceiving Cian Lynch’s role demonstrated John Kiely, Paul Kinnerk and colleagues are not slavishly given to system for mere sake of system.
Second game? The All-Ireland semi final between Galway and Limerick, when the latter won, not quite decisively, 0-27 to 0-24. This contest contains plenty of morals. Anyone fascinated by hurling should rewatch this meeting, pondering whether Galway lost in large part because they banished common sense.
Main item: they set up with Pádraic Mannion as a seventh defender (as an out and out sweeper, in the phrase). This decision necessitated playing with two attackers in the full forward line, Conor Cooney and Conor Whelan. The tactic ended up nigh predominant during the 2010s. I abhor the arrangement, except for specific circumstances, such as hurling against a gale.
Now, think in commonsensical terms. Limerick are fielding a rookie full back in Dan Morrissey and a rookie corner back in Barry Nash, alterations enforced by injury to Mike Casey and Richie English. Galway’s macro decision about deploying a sweeper left Nash a spare man at the back. This situation took pressure off Morrissey, in that much of his defending could be conducted on a two versus one basis.
Does that decision make sense? Why not put Conor Whelan, one of the game’s most potent forwards, on Nash as part of an orthodox six man attack? Brian Concannon excelled at wing forward but would have been even better deployed as the other corner forward.
Besides, the core demand when opposing this Limerick team is choking them between their own half back line and midfield. As matters stand, they are tremendous at establishing, via one or two lateral passes, a man in space who can make ground and point or deliver a killer ball. To allow such a team a free man in this area makes no sense. Kilkenny, pressing high up the field in 2019, set the template.
The seasoned call is that Limerick would have won, which or whether, sweeper or no sweeper. We might wonder. Three points adrift at the final whistle, Galway hurled nearly an hour without Cathal Mannion and the last ten minutes without Joe Canning. Although injury was not avoidable, the same is not true of self-inflicted wounds through poor logic.
The sweeper decision most baffled me because Galway are best fixed to take on Limerick in the physical stakes. Why did they pass up, effectively, this advantage? They could have deployed Gearóid McInerney, one of the few hurlers strong enough for the task, at wing back on Gearóid Hegarty. Fintan Burke, not started, looked well cut out for the other wing as Tom Morrissey’s marker.
Meanwhile, in this set up, David Burke stands centre back, mostly unmarked due to Cian Lynch’s peregrinations. Burke (or whoever) therefore provides cover for his full back line. What was the point of seeing two unmarked men, McInerney and Mannion, in the centre of Galway’s defence? The trade off with a two man full forward line proved too high a tariff (and was perfectly anticipatable as such).
Go further. Johnny Coen, say, could have been detailed to track Lynch in midfield, with one of the Galway half forwards, as and when, picking up Coen’s man. Joseph Cooney, rather than starting at wing back, could have been placed at right half forward, with a view to stymieing Kyle Hayes. Cooney ended up being given precisely this task after halftime, since he is one of the few hurlers with the requisite physique for engaging Hayes.
Most of all, setting up with a sweeper dictated Galway’s puckout strategy. They could not go long routinely to their half forward line. Obvious reason: numerical advantage conceded in advance. Éanna Murphy’s puckouts became like a fairground ride and Limerick swept most of the fluffy prizes.
Does this macro decision make sense on any front? Galway had not previously set up with a fulltime sweeper. Again, there was only a week between their All-Ireland quarter final with Tipperary and the All-Ireland semi final. How much preparation could be done for so altered a strategy in so short a time? Murphy, a promising shot stopper, was in his first season between the posts. Did it cohere to heap further pressure on his performance?
Maybe I am naïve. But surely commonsensical logic should have eliminated these errors and granted Galway optimum chance of victory? You need many qualities to joust with this terrific Limerick team. Banishing clear thought and percentage bets will never be a friend.
So I hope our in between days tighten into common sense years, a turn of events that would become (how can I resist?) a cure for many hurling ills.
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