Cork hurlers embracing the All-Ireland Final hype

By John Harrington

The hype train has left the station in Cork and with each day that passes between now and Sunday’s All-Ireland Hurling Final will only pick up more steam.

The nature of their win over Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final has the county buzzing and all anyone is talking about down in Rebel land is the prospect of ending their long 19-year wait for the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

Does that sort of expectancy heap pressure on the players? Team manager Pat Ryan, doesn’t believe it should, and wants his team to embrace the buzz rather than try to shield themselves from it.

“I don’t think you do protect them; I think you just have to embrace it, to be honest with you,” he says.

“That’s the way I’m looking at it. As I said to the lads there a while ago, there’s no pressure here. This is where you want it to be.

“We’ve had lots of fellas who gone under the knife, gone to England for hamstring injuries and knee injuries and all that type of it. That’s where pressure is, that’s where you get down a bit.

“Our fellas…embrace it. It’s a brilliant two weeks. We’ll be back in Mallow in November in the pissing rain again and that will be more hard than the next two weeks.”

The fact that Cork halted Limerick’s bid for five All-Ireland titles in a row probably makes them slight favourites going into Sunday’s Final, but only a bluffer could call this game with any degree of confidence.

Clare’s record against this Cork team is good, with the most recent reference point for the rivalry the Banner’s 3-26 to 3-24 victory in this year’s Munster SHC in a match that turned on Sean O’Donoghue’s second half dismissal for Cork.

What lessons have the Rebels taken from that game that they can use to good effect on Sunday?

“Keep 15 players on the field is the first thing anyway,” says Ryan. “There's loads of things you can talk about Clare, look, they're fantastic players. They're fantastic forwards. I think their movement inside is very, very good.

“The way that they can interchange between players and stuff like that is fantastic, and look, they're really, really physical. I suppose they're the one team that that are very, very athletic.

“They have a lot of pace around their team. Ryan Taylor is a huge player back to them. He had a very good game in Ennis against us last year. So from their point of view, great to see him back from a nasty injury he got last year.

“But maybe a bit of a pity (for us) he didn't wait for another couple of weeks.”

Cork did really well against Limerick to stifle their short-passing game and limit the sort of angled deliveries from the middle third into players like Aaron Gillane and Seamus Flanagan that are normally so effective for the four-in-row All-Ireland champions.

Tactically, Ryan is expecting Clare to pose a different set of problems than Limerick did.

“I suppose they probably play a bit more direct in Limerick,” he says. “They're probably they get the ball from back to front a bit quicker, whereas Limerick will create those triangles and those extra men and get scores from outside.

“But look they bring you huge physicality in the half-forward line as well, where there's probably more movement in the Limerick forward line from puckouts.

“The Clare forward line, they're doing an awful lot of that pod puckout down on top of Peter Duggan, and it is easy to say you know it's coming, but it's another thing to defend it. That will be something that we'll have to really work on. He's a phenomenal player.”

Cork also utilise pod puckouts themselves to great effect with Brian Hayes their target-man for them.

He’s a brilliant ball-winner and even if he doesn’t win it cleanly Cork’s strategy of having multiple players running on to any ball that breaks off him is very effective.

“Look it's something we've been trying to do, that we get the ball in direct more and it there's probably a double edged sword in that, you're also set up in the backs a bit more," says Ryan.

“Sometimes when you're working it out, you're actually expending a bit more energy, and we feel that's made us a bit defensively securer, in that lads are already set up for that ball coming back in and we have a bank of players that are there.

“So look Brian has added a huge dimension to us and, but look, it's obviously Brian is able to get into those situations, but we have other fellas that can get into those situations, but you have to win the breaks.

“I thought we won the breaks a bit more, we hit the breaks a bit harder in the second half against Limerick than we did in the first half, and that was the difference. Brian was in the right area, was doing his job. Patrick was doing his job.

“But look, we showed way more intent in getting on that ball in the second half.”

The speed of Patrick Collins’ restarts from puck-outs was also a feature of their semi-final win over Limerick.

Last year Pat Ryan suggested that goalkeepers should be prevented from taking quick puck-outs after wides, but clearly now has embraced this tactic himself.

“To be honest, I think it's been happening for three or four years,” he says. “I suppose from my point of view it punishes defenders a small bit. But, look, we just have to play to that game. I think we probably got caught last year in a couple of games. I would have made that comment last year.

“In fairness to Patrick, it's all about Patrick, and we have set it up that our lads know the minute the ball is gone wide that you're set up and you're ready to go and you move that quick. Look, in fairness to the referees, it makes a great game. I think there's 99 shots (agains Limerick) or something. It makes a great game, a great spectacle.

“Sometimes giving out about it, that, oh my God, we're breaking our arse over there to make a hook or a block and all of a sudden the ball is...we do a great thing to get a score or it's a wide and then someone is out there the other side and they get a score.

“Look, it's the same thing for every team and one area that we really, really trained was that our backs would get back out. So your backs really have to push themselves back outside the 21 because they won't leave that puck-out go if your own defenders are inside the 21.

“We've worked an awful lot on that because we felt it was an area we felt we got caught on last year. It was an area that Clare caught us on last year and it's an area we'll need to be tight on them again.”

Whatever about the result, Ryan is confident that his players will produce a performance that they and the county’s supporters can be proud of on Sunday.

“I read an article or listened to a comment that John Kiely said as regards the game about how the players really dedicate themselves to the game, how their whole life revolves around it, where they live, where they go to school, where they work...and that's the same with our fellas, it's just so important to them,” said Ryan.

“We try to express to our lads all the time since we came in that it's about representing that jersey. I think all the fans in Cork, if you represent that jersey well, win or lose, because of course you want to win, but if you represent that jerey properly and fellas see real effort and real fight, then there will be none of that social media stuff or negativity that comes with it if fellas see real fight for the jersey.

“I think our fellas are giving that and I would expect the exact same in the All-Ireland Final. And, obviously, we're confident we can go out and put in a performance and it will take a huge performance to beat Clare.

“But we know that the lads will perform and if the lads perform and really give that effort, we'll be very, very close and I think the Cork public will be happy with that.”