With red mist in rear view, Barrett's focus turns to dismantling Kiely's well-oiled green machine

Barrett will need a red chaos rather than a red card to the table. 

Shane Barrett of Cork is chased by Kyle Hayes of Limerick. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Munster final Saturday. We should and will look forward to this evening, but Shane Barrett is in our company and willing to reflect upon his moment of lapsed judgement. And so we'll begin with the opening day of Munster rather than the closing.

The second-half at Cusack Park was 20 minutes old. Cork were nine clear. There was no danger. The potential danger sparked by Clare’s resurgent second-half start had been dealt with and quenched.

One red card later and a contest was reignited. It was a contest 14-man Cork were incredibly fortunate to come away from with a point.

Barrett had been on the field when Damien Cahalane and Seán O’Donoghue’s respective sending-offs had derailed their opening two championship bouts of 2024. And yet here was Barrett now engaged in a similar act of irrationality, of senseless behaviour. His off-the-ball lashing out at David Reidy was spotted and sanctioned.

It would be four weeks before we’d again see sight of the All-Star centre-forward. It would be four weeks before Barrett had the opportunity to restart his championship and begin anew.

“Look, it happened, and I was thankful we got out of Ennis with a point. If we had lost up there, we would have been under a lot more pressure and I would have been feeling a lot worse, but once we got a point, and Tipp and Limerick also drew, no team was worse off,” Barrett rationalised.

“It cost us a point in Ennis and I was very regretful, but we weren’t any worse off than when we got up there.” 

The subsequent Tipp fixture was Barrett’s first championship match since the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to sit out. A self-inflicted benching and so no sympathy was held or sought.

“Yeah [tough to watch], but it was my own doing so I couldn’t really give out to anyone else. I probably hadn’t watched a game like that in ages, so it was an experience I hadn’t got since I was about 18.

“I didn’t think much of it before the game but at the game it was horrible. The lads were brilliant on the day and put the game to bed in the first half. So, I enjoyed the second half.” 

Barrett was in the conversation for hurler of the year on the eve of last year’s All-Ireland final. And yet the 24-year-old says there were no guarantees he’d reclaim his starting spot for the May 18 trip to Limerick. 

In spelling out the competition for the three half-forward jerseys, he lists Seamus Harnedy, Declan Dalton, Diarmuid Healy, Conor Lehane, Brian Roche, and Darragh Fitzgibbon. Robbie O’Flynn and Shane Kingston are others for that conversation too.

“That keeps you on your toes. You have to come into training every night firing – doing the things the manager wants and doing the things that work for us.

“Pat always talks about us having to represent the jersey, because it is such an iconic jersey in GAA. He always says you have to really cherish it when you put it on because you don’t know when the last time you’ll get to wear it will be. You could get injured, dropped, go out of form or whatever.” 

Suspension served, the Cork vice-captain and KPMG audit associate was restored to his new wing-forward berth for the Gaelic Grounds trip. The trip became a massacre. They go back up the road this afternoon for redemption and restoration of their bigger picture credentials.

“Everything really,” replied the Blarney clubman when asked where they left themselves down last time out. “There wasn’t anything we could have taken as a positive. They blew us completely out of the water. We had no answer for them whatsoever.

“They’re an unbelievable unit, a well-oiled machine. They know each other inside out. It’s about weathering the tough moments against them, and trying to impose your own game-plan on them.” 

One of the reactions to that 16-point thumping was to switch Darragh Fitzgibbon from No.11 back to midfield for the subsequent Waterford visit. 

It was the first time since March 1 that Fitzgibbon, at midfield, and Barrett, at centre-forward, lined out in the positions they thrived in on the run to the 2024 All-Ireland final. 

That selection has been maintained for Munster final Saturday.

Barrett’s task so is Kyle Hayes and significantly reducing the impact of the man of the match from their opening instalment. 

Barrett’s task is to ensure his own impact at the close of Munster is far more positive than that of the province’s opening day. Red chaos rather than red card.