Above every other player, Cork need Collins to play smarter

Both Collins and Cork are suffering from repetitive strain.

NUMBER ONE: Patrick Collins

The goalkeepers’ union was out in force on The Sunday Game this past weekend. Cork coughed up 3-26 but Dónal Óg Cusack wasn’t putting that on Patrick Collins.

“There’s a lot of talk in Cork at the moment around puck-outs, tactics, maybe putting Patrick Collins under a bit of pressure and stuff like that,” said the former Cork netminder. 

“I’d put those things down fifth, sixth, seventh. There are basic fundamentals of the game that are more important like their discipline, that you finish with 15 players…” 

Cusack’s point about discipline and earlier critique of Cork’s collective reluctance to track back for Shane O’Donnell’s goal were spot on. Discipline also applies to how the defenders allowed themselves to be distracted by David Reidy’s gamesmanship in the closing stages. Clare went fishing and Cork allowed themselves to be reeled in.

Nevertheless, Cusack’s solidarity for Collins doesn’t absolve the goalkeeper. He might not have been wholly responsible for Cork winning less than half of their long puck-outs in the second half against Clare but he was at the very least an accessory. Of the 11 puck-outs that went awry, Clare scored 2-5.

The second of those goals was conceded as Tim O’Mahony required treatment and was later replaced. As supporters pointed one finger at James Owens, three were pointed back at their own. Collins is around long enough to know that he shouldn’t have sent a ball out to a field that at the time was populated by just 12 team-mates against 14 Clare men.

As Mark Landers pointed out on the Irish Examiner hurling podcast this past week, “If you were Patrick Collins in that situation, what would you have done in that situation? Would you have just downed tools? Refused to puck it out and say, ‘I have a man over there. He’s injured. I’m not pucking out the ball. Come in and book me if you want to book me.’ 

DISCIPLINE: Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins gets a yellow card from referee James Owens

“I don’t know what you do, tip it out for a 65 or puck it out over the line. Leaving the ball come in and play when you’re a man down (two, including red carded Seán O’Donoghue) it’s wrong, it’s 100% wrong.” 

Cusack mightn’t say it but he wouldn’t have sent out the ball as O’Mahony was on the ground and another Cork player was checking on his well-being. Ditto Nickie Quaid. Same Eoin Murphy.

The new rule aimed at stopping the likes of Quaid and Murphy cooling the momentum of the opposition didn’t apply to the situation faced by Collins. In such a vulnerable moment for Cork, allowing Owens to be the judge and jury of the severity of O’Mahony’s injury was indeed a mistake. It can’t happen again.

Even if Ryan wanted to make a change in goals, throwing a man without championship experience in Brian Saunderson into Saturday’s game would have represented a risk. Last year, Eamonn Foudy was the fall guy for Clare’s opening round defeat to Tipperary in Ennis last year when five goals were conceded but as Anthony Daly stressed this week they had their previous first-choice goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan to call on for the Limerick game.

Midway through their forgettable 2022 Munster SHC and coming off two opening defeats like Cork, Tipperary swapped Brian Hogan for his namesake Barry who had been between the sticks the previous season. Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald took the opportunity of their dead rubber against Tipperary last year to restore Shaun O’Brien in goal and transform Billy Nolan into a sweeper.

Cork may not sense matters are so dire but something has to give. In their last five Munster SHC round games, they’ve conceded an average aggregates of 31.8 points per game. In contrast, Limerick have coughed up exactly seven points less per match (24.8 points), Clare 25.2, Waterford 26.8 and Tipperary 29.2.

Against both Clare and Waterford, Cork’s forwards have to answer for their pitiful return from long puck-outs that weren’t won clean (i.e. second ball). They have had success with the strategy of synchronising Collins’ deliveries and targets’ runs into space but that requires far more effort than claiming contested dropping ball and yet more of those will be demanded against the phalanx of five or six totem poles Limerick plant on their 45.

Against them last year, Collins struck 43 puck-outs. Last Sunday week, the ball was in his hands 37 times for restarts. Both he and Cork are suffering from repetitive strain but above every other player, they need him to play smarter.