It may seem almost sacrilegious to attempt a cold analysis of the mesmerising piece of magic which unfolded in Semple Stadium last Sunday.
The view has been widely expressed that this was one of the greatest hurling games of all time. So what is the basis for this view? In terms of its greatness, this was the proverbial game of two halves. The first half produced a magnificent display of the skills of hurling executed at a blinding pace. It was not just the quantity of scores (25 in all) but their sheer quality. An Moltóir identified fourteen of these scores as being of the highest quality, particularly some of those delivered by Waterford, such as Ken McGrath’s hundred-yarder, their two goals and Dan Shanahan’s point from out on the Cunnane Stand sideline.
Yet most of the good hurling in that half came from Cork, and their lower ratio of quality scores emanated from the fact that so many of their scores came from frees – a reflection of the pressure they were exerting on the Waterford defence. There are three essential ingredients in a successful game plan. First you have to get the ball; secondly you have to use it according to the plan; and thirdly the plan has to work. On all three counts Cork won hands down in the first half last Sunday. They were quicker, more focused and more determined than Waterford. This is demonstrated by the game statistics. Apart from free pucks, Cork played the ball 72 times in the first half compared to 57 for Waterford. And they played the ball well. A key tactic was the use of the handpass to find free players on the wings in defence who in turn played the ball into the space between the Waterford fullback and halfback lines. With the wind holding the ball up, this created a perfect supply for the Cork full forwards. A second key tactic was the low ball in from midfield. In that first half the Rebel full forwards played the ball sixteen times to just six by the Déise fullbacks.
With the Waterford midfield and halfbacks unable to establish a platform, the idea of a Déise game plan became irrelevant. Most of their attacks came from puckouts following Cork scores. That Waterford were so close at halftime despite Cork’s dominance is attributable to some superb score-taking from more limited possession, and especially the goals secured by Kelly and Shanahan. This was the obverse of last year’s final, where Waterford dominated the first half but Cork managed to stay in touch due to Setanta Ó hAilpín’s goal against the run of play.
So at halftime we were aware that we were watching a game of the highest quality. But this did not prepare us for the epic drama which unfolded after the change of ends. On the one hand, the quality of hurling declined as the tension mounted. We still had a share of quality scores, but they were greatly outnumbered by instances of poor shooting as the wide count mounted on both sides. What gave this game its epic quality was the closeness of the scores right to the end, the way in which the lead changed hands several times, the increasingly frantic nature of the play as the game entered the closing stages and, ultimately, the heroic manner in which Waterford overcame the misfortune which befell them at the beginning of the second half.
It is a telling statistic that, despite being a man short for most of the half, Waterford had more of the play after the change of ends – 72 plays to Cork’s 62 (and many of the latter consisted of free pucks by loose Cork defenders put in possession by Donal Cusack). The key figures here were Ken McGrath, the Brick Walsh and Seamus Prendergast, who played the ball 30 times between them in the second half. The entire Cork forward line (including substitutes) played the ball just sixteen times between them in that period, which is an extraordinarily low rate of possession. The Waterford defence had exactly twice as many plays in the same period.
We will never know how the game would have developed if John Mullane had not been dismissed. However, there is no doubt the Waterford team became galvanised as a result. The combination of having wind assistance and an extra man, plus the loss of territorial dominance in the middle third of the field, blew Cork’s game plan out the window. The decision to play the extra man in defence possibly reflected a combination of fear of the potency of the Waterford attack – even without John Mullane – and an expectation that, with wind assistance, the points would continue to flow at the other end. But, under increasing pressure and with anxiety levels growing, the Cork radar went badly askew. An Moltóir counted thirteen poor attempts at goal by Cork in the second half, compared to just six for Waterford.
In hindsight, instead of driving fruitless long balls into the Waterford defence, Cork should have used their extra man to create an overlap in the midfield area, thereby creating the openings for their speed merchants to run at the Waterford defence. The fact that Waterford were cooler on the field and more tactically astute on the sideline perhaps indicates a shift in the balance of power in Munster hurling. The relocation of Brick Walsh to midfield at halftime broke Cork’s dominance of this area. And when Seán Óg Ó hAilpín managed – belatedly – to counter Dan Shanahan’s aerial dominance (as Eamon Corcoran did in the semi-final), Waterford simply brought out Seamus Prendergast to provide an alternative, and very effective, target for Brenner’s puckouts.
Not playing Ó hAilpín on Shanahan from the start was an extraordinary gaffe on the part of the Cork mentors which is difficult to fathom. So also was their failure to bring out Brian Corcoran to attempt to counter Ken McGrath’s complete domination in the second half. One must also ask questions about the focus of some of the Cork players, who seemed more intent on getting their opponents sent off than on getting on with playing their own game. When will teams learn that getting an opponent sent off is more a liability than an advantage nowadays? In the end, one could say that Waterford wanted to win this game more than Cork, and that is exactly what they did.
A couple of final observations on events in Thurles last Sunday. For all his quirky behaviour, John Mullane is the kind of thrilling and spectacular player that all sports need in order to capture the public imagination. The GAA should do all in its power to protect such players from the attention they will inevitably attract from opponents on the playing field. In a key moment shortly before halftime last Sunday, Seán McMahon incorrectly penalised Mullane for overcarrying the ball. Such errors are understandable in a game as fast as hurling where the lone referee is frequently unsighted. However, after the free was blown, Jerry O’Connor shouldered Mullane in the back; thrown off-balance, Mullane was then tripped up by Tom Kenny and sent crashing to the ground. These were both bookable offences, but the referee did nothing about them, thus compounding Mullane’s frustration at being incorrectly penalised. Is it any wonder that he blew a fuse shortly afterwards?
Last Sunday’s game also raised the question of timekeeping once again. In the first half, there were four stoppages which An Moltóir reckoned lasted two minutes and 45 seconds between them, yet the referee played less than a minute and a half of added time. In the second half, there were three stoppages which added up to over three minutes, yet again only one minute and 25 seconds of added time were played. Given the tightness of the game, if the proper amount of added time had been played, there could have been a different result. What is stopping the GAA from following the lead provided by women’s football in rectifying this problem? An Moltóir makes no apology for devoting almost all of this week’s column to the Munster final. Even the pick of last weekend’s hurling qualifiers – the Tipperary/Limerick clash – was of a poor standard, a view An Moltóir formed even before witnessing the hurling extravaganza which ensued the following day in Thurles. Tipperary probably deserved their victory, as they were, overall, technically more skillful hurlers. Yet if Limerick had any belief in themselves, they might have prevailed on the day. In the end they were undone by a double whammy of bad defensive play by Micky Cahill, who first of all turned across his own goal to clear the ball, and then tried to lift when his first effort was blocked down. It was an expensive lesson for a young player who otherwise had a very good game. An Moltóir was particularly impressed by the display of Diarmuid Fitzgerald at wingback for Tipp. The same cannot be said for referee Aodán Mac Suibhne, who should have dismissed several players for committing bookable offences after they had already been given yellow cards. Given the general leniency displayed by hurling referees this year, both John Mullane and Conal Keany can consider themselves unlucky. This is another area requiring urgent attention from Croke Park
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