Where was the Senior hurling final replay won and lost?

BRAY EMMETS must have spent the last week wondering how they didn’t close out the drawn game. Last Sunday they left no question unanswered.

The champions were clinical, the champions were tigerish, and the champions were ruthless.

Playing with a stiff breeze, Bray went straight for the jugular, 1–03 to no score. The goal brilliantly orchestrated by the sublime Christy Moorehouse.

Carnew opted to deploy extra men to the middle third of the field, crowd this area and exploit the space in their forward line. It backfired and backfired dramatically.

The one thing a team cannot do when you play the shut down game Carnew did is concede goals. The idea of crowding the middle third is to not concede goals, win a high percentage of breaking balls and distribute the ball to your forwards intelligently and exploit the space; Carnew achieved none of the above.

Playing with only two forwards inside the 45, Carnew never created even a glimpse of a goal threat. John Henderson manned the square like a stalwart and Diarmuid Masterson mopped up ball after ball in open spaces.

Carnew did deploy the sweeper in their backline but a lot of the middle third men were so at sea that it actually created huge space for the enigmatic Bray forwards.

John Henderson Snr must receive a massive clap on the back, he allowed Carnew crowd the middle, he knew he had the more tenacious team, he knew his players would use the ball intelligently. He trusted John Jnr to repel the Carnew attack from full-back.

I remember the 2013 county semi-final as manager of St Pat’s, Bray simply put us to the sword. I went into the Bray dressing room after to offer my congratulations and the one thing I remember saying is how impressed I was with their tackling and more importantly their appetite for work.

They completely outworked Carnew in the middle third; they won more primary and secondary possession and created calculated attacks from their possessions.

Bray Emmets have developed exponentially since 2013; their tackling has gone to a new level. Their tackling is so accurate, it’s physical, it’s aimed at the ball and it’s clinical.

The Bray management made a very calculated call in starting Ronan Cunningham and placing him at wing forward.

Cunningham was hugely effective under the puck out and won some very important primary possessions and Carnew struggled to deal with this all day.

On the other side I felt myself ready to scream at Bob Fitz in the Carnew goal. You simply cannot keep targeting puck outs into crowded areas against the wind, only one time did he opt to hit a short puck out and allow Carnew to work the ball up the field.

In fact, Carnew’s dead ball plays were poor all day. County finals are days when you need free takers to come to the fore, scoreable frees have to be converted, it’s as simple as that.

Enda Donohue failed to convert three very scoreable ones in the first half at a time when Carnew needed to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

For Bray, Christy Moorehouse simply gave a masterclass in how to play centre-forward, he was at the core of every Bray attack; he covered every blade of grass in the forward line. Moorehouse set up scores with accurate stick passes and at one point offered up a hand pass to a colleague that people would be raving about if Joe Canning had of executed it. Bray Emmets three–in–a–row, Wicklow kingpins, and will be for many years to come.