Shane Dowling column: Cork-Clare will be the highest-scoring All-Ireland final ever
Look at the Cork-Clare round robin game earlier in the Championship. I don’t believe it will have any bearing on tomorrow’s result, but the scoreline of 3-26 to 3-24 tells its own story.
I can't imagine that too many people were predicting a Cork-Clare All-Ireland final at the beginning of the year. Limerick were odds-on to complete the five-in-a-row and after starting the Championship with a comeback victory over Clare and a hammering of Tipperary, there was no reason to doubt that.
Moreover, the commentary was that if they were to be caught, it would happen in the Munster Championship. There would be no stopping them in Croke Park. Well, so much for all of that. Every team is beatable, especially when coming up against a Cork side on a roll.
They did it the hard way. They were all but out of the Championship, 100/1 to win the All-Ireland before playing Limerick at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, 50/1 after winning that game and now 4/5 favourites.
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I believe this will be the highest scoring All-Ireland final ever. It’s going to be an absolute shootout.
I’d love to be privy to the referee briefing. For example, has Johnny Murphy been told to continue in Thomas Walsh’s vein, thereby allowing rapid-fire puckouts? Or has he been told to slow things down? Or has he been told nothing at all?
But if the puckouts flow at the same rate as the Cork-Limerick semi-final, the 99 shots that were hit that day could be surpassed.
Look at the Cork-Clare round robin game earlier in the Championship. I don’t believe it will have any bearing on tomorrow’s result, but the scoreline of 3-26 to 3-24 tells its own story.
While Nickie Quaid is the standout goalkeeper just now, both Eibhear Quilligan and Pa Collins have been exceptional at getting their puckouts away quickly.
Being in the full-back line tomorrow will be a thankless task. The space afforded to and pace of both sets of inside forwards will make it impossible to hold your opponent scoreless. It will just be about limiting the damage to manageable proportions.
Clare’s run to the final has been solid, without being spectacular. They haven’t played for 70 minutes this year, and in the periods where they have a lull, they could be severely punished.
So, let’s get to the thick of it.
GAME PLANS
Clare’s game plan is very very straightforward and because of the errors that Brian Lohan has made in the last few semi-finals, I don’t believe for a second that he will make any drastic changes.
He will stick with what has got them there and that is to go man-on-man.
For a lot of tomorrow’s game you will see David McInerney, John Conlon and Diarmuid Ryan in the middle of the field following their men. And that will leave 50 yards of space for Brian Hayes, Alan Connolly and Patrick Horgan. A dangerous scenario.
I was at a talk a number of years ago given by Tony Robbins (I’d advise anybody to look him up, a class fella).
He rails against the saying ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’. He says it’s the worst thing he’s ever heard. His mantra is ‘if it ain’t broken, fix it’. Essentially, he’s saying that you have to keep evolving and don’t wait until something is not working before fixing it.
In that context, my point is that leaving space for those Cork forwards, in the manner that Clare have done throughout the Championship, could be fatal.
Am I advocating that Clare play a sweeper? Not at all, but one of the half-backs needs to sit and project the full-back line.
Cork’s gameplan is simple too. Launch puckouts down on top of Brian Hayes at the edge of the ‘D’ and get runners coming at pace for the breaks.
It’s risky, but when you work hard at it and get your positioning right, as Cork have, it works well.
It won’t if there is a strong breeze but that’s not likely in July.
If you sit off and retreat, Collins will go short and get it back before sending it even deeper.
Other than that, as I’ve said, both ‘keepers will be rapid with their puckouts as long as they get away with it.
Cork are the only team that keep three players in the full-forward line. Pat Ryan has devised a new way of playing the game.
Well, a new old way.
BATTLE OF THE BENCHES
It’s unlikely that this game will be done and dusted come the 50-minute mark.
Having said that, if Kilkenny had taken their chances in the first half of the semi-final, they could have been out of sight before then.
But it’s most likely that it will go down the home straight and, in that scenario, it’s not about who starts the game but who finishes it.
Ahead of the 2018 final, much debate surrounded whether I would start or not and I couldn’t avoid it.
You get wrapped up in it and I warmed to the possibility that I’d be starting, maybe believing too much of what I was hearing.
The phone call eventually came from John Kiely on the week of the game and I would be staying on the bench, though he warned me not to presume that I’d be coming on after 50 or 60 minutes because someone could get injured in the warm-up or early on in the game, so you prepare yourself for all eventualities. He was dead right.
Lohan has similar options to weigh up. Start Ryan Taylor and/or Ian Galvin after they’ve done well off the bench? Taylor could be suited to Darragh Fitzgibbon in midfield.
The temptation must be there to throw them in but I’d hold onto them. Better know that you have lads to come on and make an impact rather than hoping someone else will.
Ryan has similar dilemmas. Shane Kingston wont start, but he couldn’t get going when he came on the last day. Robbie O’Flynn, Ethan Twomey and Luke Meade all proved their worth when coming on in recent games. It will be about which bench can get into it quicker once they are unleashed.
VERDICT
So, to call it, I’m going for a Cork win.
If both teams play to their potential, I expect them to win and even if both sides underperform, I’d still back them.
Having said that, if the Clare backs, who are used to one-on-one battles at this stage, get on top early on it could be a different story.
But I don’t expect that will happen. The Cork forwards will get enough space to win a high-scoring game for them.
PERFECT ENDING FOR HOGGIE?
Rewind to the very first round of the Munster Championship.
Cork-Waterford. Waterford won. Big shock. Allegedly.
And what was the commentary afterwards? Out with the old and in with the new.
Hoggie, Harnedy, Lehane, get rid of them all. You won’t win an All-Ireland with these guys in the forward line. They still may not, but they have gotten them this far.
Hoggie made his debut on March 9, 2008. Just imagine, playing all that time, with more heartbreak than glory.
And just imagine, 16 years later after all that, getting that Celtic Cross while also landing on top of the charts as all-time top scorer. As it stands he is two points behind TJ Reid. He will pass that tomorrow.
And if he collects Liam MacCarthy and hangs up the boots, wouldn’t that just be dreamland stuff?
REF WATCH
The only Limerick man who will have seen a positive in them losing two weeks ago was Johnny Murphy.
He had no chance of reffing any final in the last few years with Limerick on a roll, but now he is getting his chance.
There is no arguing that Johnny has improved a lot over the last few years. And I think the physicality of this game could be a bit below what it would be if two other teams were playing. It will be a pure hurling match, which should make it easier for him.
Quick puckouts and pulling and dragging off the ball from both sides will be the two big areas; don’t blow for throws unless you are certain and, after that, play what you see.
Like all games, we want to be talking about the spectacle afterwards, not calls that were made.
Johnny Murphy won’t get all the decisions right, no more than any ref in any game, but hopefully the wrong calls will be minimal.
THIS SHOULD BE A WEEKEND THAT CELEBRATES HURLING
Tomorrow will be a great occasion, as All-Ireland finals always are.
At 3.30pm, the colour, noise and atmosphere will be at fever pitch. But it shouldn’t be such a slow burner.
The place should be brewing nicely long before 3.30pm. The minor final is a huge loss and though the GAA has lined up various events in and around the stadium, let’s wait and see if they have the desired effect.
But the whole weekend should be a festival of hurling in Dublin. There’ll be an American football college game in the Aviva in a few weeks’ time. There will be a series of events built around it in the city all weekend. Same with the Europa League final in May. Why can’t we do that for our own national game?
This should be a weekend that every hurling person in the country looks forward to, regardless of their county allegiance.
There is no doubting that the players will provide top class entertainment once the ball is thrown in but there is so much more that could be done to supplement All-Ireland hurling final weekend.
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