Cork v Limerick countdown: The switch that transformed Shane Barrett
VERSATILE OPERATOR: Shane Barrett keeps his eyes on the sliotar for Cork. Pic: Tyler Miller, Sportsfile
Pat Ryan took a scalpel to his team after Cork's Munster campaign began so limply. Six changes for the visit of Clare. Changes in every line of the field.
Cork had a couple of injuries coming into the Waterford opener. It saw Brian Hayes used off the bench rather than used from the start.
For Clare’s Round 2 visit, Ryan wanted Hayes part of the inside line from the off. He wanted to utilise the “size” and “variety” that the Barrs man offers as a puck-out target.
The inside line for the Waterford defeat was Shane Barrett, Patrick Horgan, and Alan Connolly.
The latter pair were neither going to be dropped nor deployed out the field. Connolly’s goal form and Horgan’s unflappability in choppy championship waters saw to that. That left Barrett.
But surely the Blarney forward could not be relegated to the bench, not after being one of the few Cork players to leave Walsh Park with credit in the bank.
He escaped the manager’s scalpel. He instead received a promotion. Barrett to No.11 for Clare’s visit.
Of his seven previous championship starts, only one had been at centre-forward. That was the Munster round-robin stalemate with Tipperary last year, a game where Barrett was whipped after only 43 minutes.
The move could therefore have been perceived as a gamble.
Not in the eyes of his manager.
“Shane can play anywhere from eight to 15,” Pat Ryan told the this week.
“It was an area we had looked at during the year. We could put Shane back into that 15 role, we could put him back inside, wherever Shane is, not a bother.”
The Clare defeat was a middling start for him in the central role. No score from play. He did, however, have a direct impact in 0-4 through two frees and a 65 won, and an assist for Horgan.
Against Limerick, he contributed 1-2 from play. He contributed so very much more than that. Another eight white flags came off him. From 12 possessions and a possessed work-rate, he had his fingerprints on 1-10.
He heads to Croke Park on Sunday as the team’s joint top-scorer from play with 2-13.
“He’s after having an unbelievable year,” said Austin Gleeson of the Cork frontrunner for an All-Star forward gong.
“He looks like he’s just humming. He’s bouncing off the sod. He’s fit, he’s fast, and I just feel like he’s after getting a bit more aggression in his game. Even in his tackling, his tackling is after improving a hell of a lot.
“His hurling has always been there, but he just has that confidence at the moment, so it’ll take a lot to hold him down and the way he roams around, he kind of floats as a centre-forward as well which is so hard to deal with as a centre-back.
“Declan Hannon will have to be talking to his two midfielders, whoever they are, to try and cover a small bit at the weekend as well.”
Barrett took Hannon from stand to stand during their last dance. On 56 minutes at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Barrett helped to turnover the Limerick No.6 on the North Stand sideline. He snapped up possession and was fouled for a converted free.
A minute and a half later, he ran onto a Patrick Collins puck-out along the same North Stand sideline. Possession was again snapped up, Hannon was comfortably turned, and the posts split.
If the Treaty captain is determined to sit on Sunday, then someone else in green will have to be detailed onto a 23-year-old confident to roam and ravage.
Back to Pat Ryan. For the Cork boss, it is not Barrett’s top-scoring against Limerick or Offaly that stands out. It is instead his penchant for the unglamorous.
Hand over a couple of euros to GAAGO to rewatch Cork’s Munster round-robin outings and the evidence is there staring you in the face.
His first involvement in this year’s Munster championship was to force Tadhg de Búrca to spill possession. Seven minutes later, he forced Darragh Lyons to spill possession. Darragh Fitzgibbon pointed from the turnover. He was fouled for three converted first-half frees at Walsh Park.
Against Clare, his forcing of David Fitzgerald to overcarry resulted in a white flag.
A little over 90 seconds into the Limerick win, he forced Cian Lynch to overcarry. Hoggie nailed the resulting free.
Against Dublin, he forced a turnover for a Hoggie white flag and intercepted a Seán Brennan restart for a Harnedy white flag.
Work, work, work.
“Shane is a very cerebral player,” Ryan continued. “He is very mentally strong. He buys into the stuff we are trying to do and is a great leader on the stuff we are doing. He is going great for us.
“Realistically, Shane’s greatest aspect is his ability to turn the ball over for us. He’s leading in those stats for us all the time. That is great that your centre-forward is doing an awful lot of that.
“It inspires the other lads in the sense that yes, he is getting a lot of scores, he is winning balls, he is being a playmaker for us, but it is his workrate that is highlighted inside by the lads. From his fellow players, that is really respected.”
If Limerick don’t pay Shane Barrett the respect he merits… well they don’t need a reminder of the torment the No.11 inflicted on May 11.
A not obvious switch, a very obvious player transformed.
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