KILLINAN END - Can Cork sustain current approach?

KILLINAN END

Whatever the eventual outcome of the League and its potential to wane in competitiveness with the championship impossibly close, there was considerable intensity to some of the exchanges over the weekend.

Liam Cahill will be happy with the night’s work in Cork where it was evident that going toe to toe with Cork on any day is now well within Tipp’s scope - no great need to be at full tilt to do so. Tipp’s team is well capable in the physical exchanges and has exceptional skill levels.

It was remarked that the row, perversely, took the steam from the game and maybe there was an unspoken sense that in early February it just wasn’t worth it. At the half-way point of their round-robin League campaign it leaves Cork already on the threshold of a final. That will take place just two weeks before the opening round of the championship in which Tipp meet Cork. What might that mean for say a Tipperary-Cork League final? Presumably to some extent at least cards would remain close to chests.

Should Limerick and Cork meet in the final it would see them meeting three times in seven weeks including the regulation league game and the Munster Championship. You suspect all concerned need this like a hole in the head.

Cork appear to be operating at full steam ahead, perhaps in the manner of their manager who is quickly becoming a journalist’s dream. While Ben O’Connor has plenty of experience at Cork under-age and club level he is, to apply quite literally that Séamus Brennan comment from a political context, ‘playing Senior hurling now’. Given the profile of Cork generally and current interest in their county senior hurling team the new manager has a sense of a powder keg about him already. To what extent he will tire of giving trenchant opinions on the state of the sport remains to be seen. While opinion-makers and opinion-givers bring an element of entertainment, this has the potential to corrode the man's own energy and bring unnecessary spotlight on his team.

Certainly, it is a very interesting turn of events to see a firebrand in charge of one of hurling's flagship teams who stands in very stark contrast to previous incumbents such as Jimmy Barry Murphy, Kieran Kingston, and most recently Pat Ryan who were very much in the safe-pair-of-hands category. Some of his comments do not necessarily stack up either such as his implied criticism of Darragh McCarthy's free-taking routine. A clip did the rounds earlier in the week of Ben O'Connor himself taking nearly a minute over a free early in the 2005 final against Galway. Glass houses can be precariously delicate places for people inclined to lash out. As with all managers in the end results will dictate the success or otherwise of this approach. In the meantime, it should at least make the hurling landscape a little more interesting.

Notwithstanding the time-pressure that might emerge in the future it is notable that Cork now enjoy a three-week break before heading to Nowlan Park and then just six days later to the Gaelic Grounds - two games to test the mettle of the team and its manager.

The Limerick-Kilkenny game was perhaps the game of the weekend. There is little doubt about how formidable Limerick can still be when in a full cry. However, the age-profile must leave a little doubt about their capacity to jump hurdle after hurdle convincingly. If only they enjoyed the potential path to the latter stages of the championship of their most recent opponents in Black & Amber.

Kilkenny have many wrinkles to iron out over the league not least their central defensive positions. The ploy of playing Eoin Cody on the forty is interesting and in theory at least it does make sense to get your scorers to an area of the field where they get on the ball quite consistently. However, it may have the unintended consequence of reducing their goal threat. Robbing Peter to pay Paul creates imbalances. Some of their short-passing game was an impressive nod to the more modern style of play which Kilkenny haven't always embraced. Whether this survives further contact with reality is another matter. When Reid is back at full-forward the temptation to lump high ball on him will return.

One point is worth making in relation to a comment of Dónal Óg Cusack at the weekend. He showed a clip of Jason Forde giving a clever hand pass during the Tipp-Kilkenny semi-final as an example of one of Jason's many talents. Dónal Óg then spoke about people complaining about the hand pass as if this bit of cleverness was the ultimate counterargument. But this an imagined argument - the complaints aren’t really about the hand-pass per se, but more about the illegality of hand passes. Let us not confuse the two.