‘You can get information on everything during games’
Full-back legend O’ Sullivan fears inside job could sc upper Cork
MUCH of talk before Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final between Cork and Limerick has surrounded the Treaty’s use of highly-regarded sports psychologist Caroline Currid and her role in their rise, but Rebel legend Diarmuid O’Sullivan identifies someone else behind the scenes who could have an even bigger on proceedings.
While Currid can document involvement in All-Ireland wins with Tyrone’s footballers (2008), Tipperary’s hurlers (2010) and Dublin’s footballers (2011) in a star-studded CV, few will have heard of Seán O’Donnell or be familiar with his work.
A long-standing performance analyst with the Rebel hurlers, including when O’Sullivan served as selector under Kieran Kingston from 2016/2017, O’Donnell brings an intimate knowledge of his native Cork into the enemy camp this weekend.
O’Sullivan outlines how Limerick had unsuccessfully tried to poach O’Donnell on a number of occasions, but when Kingston walked away last autumn, he also exited stage left and Treaty boss John Kiely acted quickly to secure his services, “a major feather in their cap” in the Cloyne man’s view.
IMPORTANCE
People of O’Donnell’s ilk are at a premium in the numbers-driven GAA world and O’Sullivan, fondly known as ‘The Rock’, can’t overstate his importance in a huge Munster derby where an All-Ireland final place awaits.
One of his many roles when involved with Cork was to analyse Anthony Nash’s puck-outs – in real time during games as well as preand post-match – and O’Sullivan believes the Rebel goalkeeper will be keen to turn the tables after being well marshalled in their epic round-robin draw in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“He’s a fair idea of what Cork’s puck-out strategy has been and he’ll know different types of set-ups,” Paddy Power GAA ambassador O’Sullivan says.
“So I presume Cork have been working away trying to change different patterns and different styles of play from their puck-out over the last number of weeks just to throw Seán off the scent because he’s excellent at his job.
“I don’t think you could find a better guy in hurling to provide you with the kind of detailed information he can provide you with, and real time information at that so Seán will be alive and Anthony will know that.
“Anthony is the type of guy, he won’t like someone to get the better of him so he’ll be working diligently over the last few weeks and going forward for the rest of the week to get this thing right.”
Modern-day GAA management
teams are wired into ‘eyes in the sky’ to assist with decision-making and offer them a different take on proceedings and the four-time All-Star has seen its benefits first-hand.
“You can get real-time information as to who is struggling under puck-outs, who’s winning most puck-outs, where are you strongest. After 15 minutes of a game if you’re after a number of puck-outs, where is your strongest position to go to on the field. It’s real-time information,” the three-time All-Ireland winner says.
“You can transfer that info straight down to Nasher, ‘Anthony look we’re getting a little bit of success here maybe try one or two more’ if it’s working or if it’s not, ‘You have to change it up’. You can get information on everything, not just puck-outs.”
While acknowledging that Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Seán O’Donoghue and Shane Kingston are still learning, O’Sullivan is excited about Cork’s future, if not wary heading to GAA HQ this weekend.
He views Limerick as “a serious threat” and feels that John Meyler’s men can’t afford to “leave the back door open” and allow the likes of Seamus Flanagan and Graeme Mulcahy tear the Cork defence to shreds like Clare did in the first half if the Munster final.
O’Sullivan hopes the younger brigade can exorcise last year’s semi-final demons and right some wrongs en route to a first final appearance in five years.
“There were questions put to us after... did we do the right thing in leaving the young lads on? They struggled for long periods, but absolutely we did the right thing. We knew that this group of players had the ability to get back up on the horse and contest for AllIrelands.”