You've heard of the plus one in defence, Cork's plus one in attack has yet to be solved by opponents

PLUS ONE IN ATTACK: Darragh Fitzgibbon after Cork's victory in the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

There’s a crowded field vying for the title of Cork’s top-scorer from play this championship.

Heading into Sunday’s concluding afternoon of fare, three players sit deadlocked at the head of proceedings. The identity of two of the three is easily guessed, the other not so.

Hurler of the year contender Shane Barrett is of course among the three-way tie. His total stands at 2-16.

Alan Connolly is up there too. The 4-7 he stitched across the provincial round-robin proved an enduring bounty when illness impacted his Offaly and Dublin showings. Two outings where he failed to fire a single shot, never mind raise a flag. Three points against the champions was a timely end to his mid-summer drought.

Where Barrett and Connolly are obvious and expected names at the top of the scoring list, their chief rival for the crown is maybe not as obvious.

Guess 1: Hoggie, surely?

Way out in front as the team’s overall marksmen with 5-62. Subtract the 2-51 from placed balls, though, and his 3-11 from play has him just off the pace.

Guess 2: Séamus Harnedy. The 34-year-old has been lifting this summer, and we don’t just mean as the favoured puck-out target of Patrick Collins. His 1-16 contribution leaves him three shy of the leading pack.

Guess 3: Brian Hayes's 1-4 against Limerick brought his bottom line to 2-11. Requires a repeat of his semi-final pyrotechnics to challenge for top spot.

The last of the joint top-scorers is not a forward. He’s a midfielder. He’s Darragh Fitzgibbon. And he’s having a simply awesome summer.

Where Barrett and Connolly’s totals are supplemented by two and four goals respectively, Fitzgibbon has reached 0-22 exclusively with the less glamorous white flag. For a midfielder, it is unrivalled shooting and unrivalled accuracy.

Fitzgibbon has never been a midfielder to sit and hold. He’s never been a midfielder to prioritise protection of his half-back colleagues. His penchant for ghosting forward and getting himself unmarked into scoring positions is why a debate has long been had over his most effective position. It was a debate still raging on the eve of championship.

The question asked was would management push Fitzgibbon into the No.11 shirt nobody had yet claimed.

“It is irrelevant,” said Fitzgibbon of his best position ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final.

“I play a lot of my club hurling in the forwards. I think I played most of my hurling now at this stage with Cork at midfield and it's probably where I'm most experienced and where I take most confidence from. I'm very happy out there.

“It is a really, really difficult position because you could get 10 or 12 possessions, or you could end up getting nothing.”

It was exactly 10 possessions he had during the season-saving win over Limerick in mid-May. If the All-Ireland semi-final showcased Fitzgibbon’s ceaseless energy, then the earlier Limerick upset demonstrated the efficiency a midfielder must possess.

Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon and Sean Finn of Limerick battle. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Of his six first-half possessions, he struck two points and assisted Horgan for a third. But for Nickie Quaid, he’d have assisted a Connolly goal. Of his four second-half possessions, all bar one saw him split the posts.

Arguably his most insightful involvement was on 11 minutes when he drifted unchecked inside the cover. Had Hoggie spotted him, and not shot for his own score, it was Fitzgibbon versus Quaid.

Fifty-five minutes into the semi-final, he was spotted. Nobody had followed his run to the Cusack Stand side. Goalkeeper Patrick Collins pinged him a restart. Point.

From 19 possessions, he struck 0-3, sent a fourth wide, and was fouled or assisted for another 0-7.

Three points came off his three puck-outs won, and it’s this ability to keep running and keep finding space that has Irish Examiner columnist Seánie McGrath predicting deep-lying roles for the Clare midfield pairing of Cathal Malone and Ryan Taylor in order to cut out the unfenced paddocks where Fitzgibbon can feast.

We sought the view of the midfielder's union. Former Cork middleman Tom Kenny likened the “all-action” Fitzgibbon to his old partner Jerry O’Connor.

“If you got one or two points a game from midfield, you’d be delighted, but he’s up there similar to Jerry where he’s getting three, four, and five points.

"It’s a huge addition to the team performance when you’ve someone out the field contributing this much. His conversion has really improved this year. That’s something that could have come from the training ground, or maturity.”

Fitzgibbon being more concerned with what is in front of him, rather than behind, added Kenny, is reflective of management’s “proactive approach”.

“You can look at a midfielder as a plus-one in defence, what Cork are doing with Darragh is looking at him as a plus-one in attack, to move into the space when it opens up, and then to get him the ball. This is what Cork have identified going forward and it is a serious asset.”

So how do Clare negate the midfielder averaging over three points per game?

“They will look at how Cork pulled the Limerick defence around and they’ll have to decide whether they go man-on-man, or go zonal and pick up the red shirt as it comes into their area.

"But that is easier said than done when you are in the middle of an All-Ireland final. It’s a big decision for the Clare rearguard.”