TIME MACHINES

Difference between the Cats and their rivals is measured in their split seconds of excellence

IN 2002, former Tipperary goalkeeper Damien Young decided to demystify hurling in a small way by studying the All-Ireland hurling final between Kilkenny and Clare in freeze-frame. The tale of the tape made for fascinating viewing.

Turns out the official Man of the Match, Henry Shefflin, only had possession of the ball for a total of 22 seconds. If anyone wanted a lesson in the speed of the game, then this was it.

When the 2010 All-Ireland final was put under the microscope, Lar Corbett’s tour-de-force in bagging a hat-trick of goals to thwart Kilkenny’s bid for an unprecedented fivein-a-row was even more eye-opening. That year’s Hurler of the Year only had five possessions in the entire game, in which he found the net three times, won a free and had one other unsuccessful shot.

In January, Young was a guest speaker at the GAA’s annual games development conference and this time, the strength and conditioning lecturer in Limerick IT gave a cutting edge analysis of last September’s final between Kilkenny and Galway in a talk titled ‘So many decisions, so little time’.

With the sides due to meet this afternoon in a League rematch, both management teams would do well to study the fine-print, the forensic detail for each individual player helping to give an understanding as to why Kilkenny won their 36th senior All-Ireland.

The player for the champions with most possessions? TJ Reid, Hurler of the Year, with 17. Total time in possession? Forty-two seconds, an average of just 2.5 seconds per possession.

His crucial first-half goal which kept Brian Cody’s team within touching distance of Galway was significant for another reason: it was his fastest possession, taking the pass from Walter Walsh and slipping it low to the net in 800 milliseconds, or 0.8 of a second.

Much has been made of Kilkenny’s work-rate and intensity in the tackle and how they have underpinned the Cody era, to the extent that sometimes the individual skill level and speed of striking under pressure from players like Reid is downplayed.

With Kilkenny trailing 0-14 to 1-8 at half-time, Reid’s influence on the game in the second half grew with Kilkenny’s dominance. A sign of a great player is how he can impose himself at key periods, and Reid was on the ball 13 times, Young’s presentation showing how he covered both sides of the field rather than sticking to any one position.

‘What were the Galway players doing?’ he asks. Quite a lot actually to try and curb him. Ten times there was a Galway player within one metre of him when he won the ball. Three times there was more than one opposition player within that tightest of marking areas when he gained possession.

‘From a visual point of view, from simply observing the game, we know that it is faster,’ says Young. ‘The All-Irelands over the last five years have been played at incredible speeds.

‘As the game evolves, the ball is going to change, even the hurleys. The physical make-up of the players are going to get better. That’s a natural evolution of the game.’

Another example of the speed of the game is that All-Star wing-back Cillian Buckley had eight posses- sions for Kilkenny and was on the ball for nine seconds – that’s a frighteningly fast average of 1.1 seconds per possession.

Young is quick to point out that these particular statistics only give one portion of the picture. ‘For example, the Man of the Match. How is that given? Michael Fennelly only had 12 possessions but maybe it was his influence at that particular time that those choosing Man of the Match gave it to him on that.’

After the 2014 drawn All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Tipperary which set all sorts of scoring records, Richie Hogan was asked if hurling has hit its own glass ceiling or if it still has room for improvement.

‘Of course it has. When I started I thought it couldn’t get any better; the players were so good and the game was so fast. But the game is faster and the skill of the player is far superior now to even 10 years ago.’

Young says a different type of ceiling has been reached. ‘There is going to be a breaking point shortly. Players physically can’t train any more. At the moment, some counties and some players are training six, seven times a week.

‘So there is a breaking point coming in terms of the amount players are doing. It’s the counties and players that are going to train smarter who will advance.

‘If I run five miles in training, and then every other county runs five miles, then there’s a levelling off.’

For Galway last September, midfielder David Burke stood out – on the ball longer and with more possessions than any other of his teammates. In fact, his total of 20 was the highest on the field and it was no surprise when he was honoured with an All-Star.

If Reid was Kilkenny’s top performer in that respect, Galway needed more from Joe Canning, whose seven possessions were built around his team’s first-half dominance.

Last summer’s Championship was defined in many ways by defensive systems, the tactical revolution led by Waterford. Young understands why others have followed suit.

‘The more counties that see the Waterford set-up being successful are bound to think: “well if they’re successful, we’ll try and do that”. It’s a copy-cat approach until someone comes up with something else in terms of how to counteract it.

‘They have come with this system. It will be very interesting to see if counties can break it down this year.

‘It goes back to decision making on and off the ball. If coaches are trying to make decisions for players, in the heat of battle in Croke Park, they won’t even hear the coach. Are they prepared for that? The only way to prepare them is put them in that situation.’

He hopes that creative players are given free rein rather than being shackled by a team’s programmed style of play, as was a feature of last year’s Championship.

‘Take the likes of Podge Collins, Tony Kelly in Clare, these brilliant players need to be let off the hook to express themselves. It’s their creat i vit y that will break down defences.’

The claustrophobic nature of Kilkenny’s decider with Galway was in keeping with the general mood of the summer. ‘It’s shocking or it’s different than other years, because of the tactical set-up,’ says Young of how hurling is following football’s lead. ‘It’s good or bad, depending on where you’re standing.

‘People go and expect high scores. From a high-scoring point of view, they are not getting that. The new systems are about trying to deny more scoring opportunities.’

He points to how Kilkenny have moved with the changing times in terms of formation and tactical setup. ‘Kilkenny played all last year with Eoin Larkin gone out of cornerforward to out around the middle. So they only played with one or two in the full-forward line themselves.

‘There will always be a counteraction or a counter-revolution because Waterford have now challenged the rest of the country: this is the problem we’re creating for you – you have to come up with the solution.

‘Teams will come up with a solution. And that will create another problem for the rest of the country.’

Finding the right answers when it comes to beating Kilkenny remains beyond most counties.

Galway get another chance today to show they are on a sharp, learning curve.

IT’S THE SIDES WHO TRAIN SMARTER THAT ARE GOING TO

ADVANCE