Jerry O’Connor and Aodán MacSuibhne Key Figures in Cork Victory
At first glance, analysing the All-Ireland hurling final is quite straighforward. Kilkenny failed to translate their first half dominance into a decent lead which would have given them a second-half cushion and created anxiety in the minds of the Rebels. Their complete inability to discommode the magnificent Cork defence in the third quarter, despite breaking fairly evenly in territorial possession, saw the psychological advantage pass to a Cork team that had the edge in freshness and desire. As the gaps appeared in the closing stages Cork got their running game into full gear and that was that.
An Moltóir’s analysis of individual plays clearly reflects this overall perception of the trend of the game, while also throwing up some interesting angles. An Moltóir defines a ‘play’ as any case of a player playing the ball to effect i.e. in a manner which actually or potentially works to his side’s advantage. This includes block, flicks, knockdowns and situations where a player is fouled in possession. It excludes cases where players gain possession but fail to get the ball away, unless they make significant ground in a solo run. It also excludes situations such as throw-ins and ‘schemozzles’ where players may make contact with the ball, but to no clear benefit to his team. Clearly, this is not an exact science, and it gives equal value to the shot which goes over the bar and goes wide, but it does give some basis for comparing the contributions of individual players to the overall team effort.
In the first half of the hurling final, Kilkenny (72) had significantly more plays than Cork (61). However, Cork’s domination of the second half was even more pronounced – 84 to 62. When the game itself finished, An Moltóir’s initial view was that Seán Óg Ó hAilpín was man-of-the-match, mainly for this achievement in obliterating Kilkenny’s main danger man, Henry Shefflin, but also for his general defensive play. RTÉ, of course, gave the award to Niall McCarthy, continuing a long tradition of rewarding players for a few eye-catching or inspirational plays rather than focusing on those doing the real hard work in the engine room. Other Cork players to attract media focus were Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Ronan Curran and even Brian Corcoran.
However, having watched the match video several times, An Moltóir is inclined to identify midfielder Jerry O’Connor as the real hero of Cork’s win. O’Connor played the ball more often than any other player on the field and, crucially, his involvement was constant throughout the game, including when Cork were struggling in the first half. In that half, O’Connor and Ó hAilpín both played the ball ten times. The next highest Cork player was John Gardiner with just five plays. In the second half O’Connor played the ball nine times, equalled by Gardiner and only surpassed by The Rock with ten. Ó hAilpín’s second half contribution fell to five plays.
Despite Cork’s greatly improved second half performance, in fact six of their players (not counting Brian Murphy and John Browne) played less of the ball in that half than before the break. These included all three full forwards as well as the peripheral Timmy McCarthy (who played the ball three times in both halves) and the aforementioned Ó hAilpín and Jerry O’Connor. However, this does not mean that the Cork full forwards were outplayed by their opposite numbers. A fascinating feature of this game was how little ball was played in this part of the field. In total, the Cork inside line played the ball 17 times, while their markers almost unbelievably only played the ball ten times between them, Contrast this with the 31 times the Cork full backs (including both Murphy and Browne) and the 26 times the Kilkenny full forwards played the ball (although the shifting around of the Cats forwards renders the latter figure less meaningful). This confirms a recurring feature of this Cork team – that they win their games by scoring points from out the field and offer little goal scoring threat.
The match statistics also throw cold water on some other initial impressions some commentators got from the game. In ‘The Irish Times’, Seán Moran wrote that Ronan Curran’s second half distribution from centre back was “tremendous”. In fact, Curran only played the ball four times in the second half, although even this was an improvement on his two first half plays. By contrast, in a very hardworking game, his opposite number John Hoyne played the ball 14 times, the same as Ken Coogan and Peter Barry (who, despite Niall McCarthy’s heroics, had a very good second half). Not surprisingly, JJ Delaney was Kilkenny’s main player with 16 plays (eleven in the first half).
Some criticism has fallen on Brian Cody for his poor or non-decisionmaking in the second half. In fairness, it was not until the last fifteen minutes that the game started to go away from Kilkenny, and had Henry ShefFlin’s 57th minute shot not struck Donal Óg Cusack there could have been a different result. Yet, the replacement of Cha Fitzpatrick looked like something you would see in a junior match where a team is getting beaten out the field and take off the corner forward (as recently featured in a thread on this website). The fact is that very little ball was played into Fitzpatrick’s area of the field – between them, he and his marker John Browne played the ball just three times in the second half. Cody’ substitution of Ken Coogan late in the game was poor recognition of his hardworking performance and the disappearance of his partner Derek Lyng who only played the ball twice after the change of ends.
Many contributors to this website have given a positive appraisal of Aodán Mac Suibhne’s refereeing performance. In An Moltóir’s view, he was atrocious – lacking in authority and decisiveness, and repeatedly giving wrong decisions or missing fouls altogether. He seemed to have forgotten the rule that, for a throw-in, both players must have their hurleys on the ground [when is the GAA going to replace this unedifying and downright dangerous method of starting play with a safer alternative such as a hockey-style bully-off?]. He completely ignored the free-for-all slashing that went on prior to the throw-in to start the game.
Why did he not act on the advice given by one of his umpires on an off-the-ball incident in the 58th minute? Could it be that it would have required the sending off of John Gardiner, who was already on a yellow card? While both sides suffered from his erroneous decisions, it struck An Moltóir that Cork benefitted significantly more from these errors. This will not surprise those who have monitored Mac Suibhne’s performances over the years. In a game like last Sunday’s, where the scores were tight up to the closing stages, these errors could have had a decisive bearing on the final result.
Some examples. In the first half, Henry Sheffn was struck illegally across the chest by two Cork players before being pulled up for overcarrying. DJ Carey was illegally tackled after he flicked the ball over a Cork player in the 25th minute (as Carey was not in possession when tackled, it was a third man tackle). Timmy McCarthy threw the ball twenty yards in front of himself in the 30th minute and ended up getting a free from which Cork scored. In the 37th minute John Gardiner took ten steps with the ball in hand without being penalised. This was surpassed by Ben O’Connor who took eleven steps in the 64th minute (earlier he took eight steps without penalty). In the 60th minute, Ronan Curran fell on the ball to prevent Kilkenny getting possession – this was clearly illegal. And in the 44th minute John Gardiner caught the ball three times in a solo run which led to Cork’s equalizing point (shades of Setanta Ó hAilpín in last year’s semi-final against Wexford, also refereed by Mac Suibhne).
A few final observations. An Moltóir counted 27 cases of players losing their footing while playing, or attempting to play, the ball during the course of the game. During the week, Seán Kelly was trying to downplay complaints about the Croke Park surface. This is another case of the GAA failing to face up to reality. Tight games are being won and lost on this basis alone. Maybe they should transplant the Semple Stadium surface to headquarters. A lot of attention has been drawn to Kilkenny’s failure to score from play in the second half. In fact, they also failed to score from play in the last 16 minutes of the first half. How far back would you have to go to find a case of a team which failed to score from play for 52 minutes in an All-Ireland final? And finally, if the inept Eddie Brennan had left the ball to the better-placed DJ Carey for that first-minute chance, would there have been a different result?
Go to Top
