All-Ireland MFC final: Four of Cork and Tyrone's finest to watch
Cork goalkeeper Rory Twohig in action during the quarter-final clash between Cork and Meath. Pic: Diarmuid Brennan/Sportsfocus.
Who else to begin with but the Kilmeen kicking machine.
How incredibly rare it is to see a team’s scoring chart led by a goalkeeper on All-Ireland final eve, especially when that team has been scoring as lavishly as the 3-18 and 2-19 that Cork posted against Kerry and Derry in the Munster round-robin and All-Ireland semi-final respectively.
Cork have raised 11 orange flags on the road to Sunday’s minor decider. Their goalkeeper is responsible for seven. He’s also nailed four 45s, as well as four frees from inside the arc, for a current total of 0-22.
Phenomenal kicking and phenomenal craft when you consider the age group we’re dealing with here. Such early placed-ball mastery for one so young.
On the primary duty of shot-stopping, Twohig continues to score handsomely. Only six shots have successfully passed him across Cork’s six-game campaign.
He was superb on the night of the Munster final, producing a series of early saves to deny Kerry both momentum and entry into the game.
The latest Canavan arriving on the Tyrone conveyor belt. Nephew of Peter the Great, Conan has been Tyrone’s leading provider. 4-21 is his current total. 4-8 of that was fashioned from open play.
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When Cavan forged 11 ahead in the Ulster semi, it was Canavan who started raising flags of all colours to save them from championship exit. He was equally prominent in yet another second-half burst in their subsequent Ulster final outing.
That he was twice denied with three of his goal attempts in said Ulster final, allied to the above scoring stat showing his four green flags across the championship, marks Canavan out as a nuclear threat in and around Rory Twohig’s goal that Cork will be at pains to curtail.
Tom Whooley, Eoghan Ahern, Ben Hegarty, and Joe Miskella have all been such regular contributors on the scoresheet that each of the four were in contention for mention here.
But, ultimately, the second Cork pick was a Beara battle. Conor Downing of Adrigole and Urhan’s Kieran O’Shea have been so consistently towering at centre-back and midfield for Keith Ricken’s side. We’ve gone with O’Shea, albeit we could so easily have gone in the Adrigole direction.
O’Shea is the chief long-range restart target for Twohig. He is the one to avoid for Tyrone ‘keeper Ronan O’Neill. His athleticism and ability to cover between the respective 20-metre lines is of almost equal importance.
There’s an impressive collection of runners in the wider O’Shea family. Kieran’s wheels will be central to Cork’s bid for a 12th minor crown.
His is a performance graph that has been trending in the right direction in recent weeks. The authority imparted by the Eglish centre-forward is growing game-by-game. 0-4 in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare backed up his 1-3 quarter-final contribution against Galway.
“Last year I had a few bad injuries, and probably lost a lot of confidence in myself. I knew I had the ability to come on, but I feel this year I’m playing with a lot of freedom, going past my man more and feeling more confident in myself,” McGuckin said this week.
A member of last year's All-Ireland winning panel, his match-up with Conor Downing will be a collision of two of the most talented kids on the field.
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