Sheedy can get special display out of Tipperary
IT WAS a tough lead-in to the start of the Championship with questions asked about whether inter-county action should carry on with the country at Level 5 restrictions. Then, in Offaly, we had Covid issues ourselves, which was tougher again for everyone affected. But I never lost faith that making this unique Championship happen was the right thing to do.
With the minor and Under 20 competitions postponed, the Championship field at senior level will reduce fairly quickly.
Inter-county activity is so much more limited when compared to club action. In Offaly, we had 41 clubs active during our club championships, so many matches at underage and adult level. This is much more manageable.
Good, bad and indifferent, the talk after the first weekend was all about the games – which was refreshing in its own way.
As usual, the matches threw up their fair share of controversies. The big one in hurling, one which really seemed to generate a negative response, was the high scoring, with Dublin beating Laois 2-31 to 0-23 and Limerick seeing off Clare 0-36 to 1-23.
Because modern players’ skill and fitness levels, strength and conditioning as well as accuracy under pressure are constantly improving, the scoring rate is rising and a focus has come on the weight of the sliotar.
However, there were clearly other new factors at play with the action taking place behind closed doors. What was lacking was the intensity that a crowd brings.
What differentiates a Championship match is how players are able to handle the whole occasion, the pressure of being able to operate in front of 30,000 to 80,000 fans. That’s now removed. It might suit some players to have that training-ground, challenge-match feel when there is a bit more relaxation. And when you have 50,000 people baying for blood, it does affect the action on the field – that manic application.
Limerick-Clare had that trainingground atmosphere last weekend. You could see it with the two Limerick wing-forwards Gearóid Hegarty and Tom Morrissey drifting back deep – and no hits going in.
The scoring tallies of Tony Kelly for Clare and Dublin’s Donal Burke were off the charts – but the contests were lacking the usual Championship physicality.
And so the focus turned on the sliotar, which is now uniform. But it’s not just about the weight of the sliotar – as a I said, look at the skill level, the power, of the modern player, the quality of the custommade hurls – there are so many elements at play.
And the visual nature of the yellow sliotar is new. On Saturday I tweeted that I was struggling to see the flight of the ball in the DublinLaois game. Maybe that’s old age, some might say. Now that was looking on in normal definition. On Sunday, I watched Clare-Limerick in high definition, and I could see it better.
Maybe under lights I can understand the logic of going with a yellow sliotar but why not use the traditional white version in daylight? I got a detailed message from a high-profile player and he said his team were struggling with it at different times – on a sunny day, in the grass, he found it hard to see, which is very interesting. That’s coming from a top player. Under lights, in winter, there is a logic to using it.
I hoped that the Championship would bring more aggression. As a spectacle, both of last weekend’s matches featured some lovely scores and, while I don’t like being negative about hurling, it was a strange feeling with no crowds.
It did lack that Championship intensity.
It must be very strange for the players in this setting, on national television but in an empty ground. Players seemed to have way more room and time on the ball.
We’ll have to reserve judgment. If the spark is missing from Limerick-Tipperary in today’s Munster semi-final, maybe it will be time to be worried. But I don’t think that will be the case.
After winning the National League last year, Limerick were hot favourites for the All-Ireland. Liam Sheedy worked his magic with Tipperary and these are the two leading contenders – the newly crowned League champions against the All-Ireland champions.
Having no match for so long puts Tipp at a disadvantage.
Sheedy showed great faith last year – he went back to the tried and trusted – but it’s hard to know if the same approach will work this time around.
I certainly don’t see Limerick getting the same room. Defending your own goal and putting a free defender in front of your full-back line to protect against the threat of Aaron Gillane is not much use if Hegarty and Morrissey are scoring for fun from distance and Limerick are putting up 30-plus points.
The great thing about hurling in the 1990s was the continuous passages of play. We all spent a bit of lockdown looking back at old games and the fitness and skill levels were not the same but it was shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip – and the ball was in play around goal more. There was a great skill in finishing close to goal.
Now it can be all about working the ball through the lines and popping a point.
It feels regressive to just say make the sliotar heavier. Let’s not make a snap judgment. And rather than stopping players expressing themselves, particularly in terms of going for and creating goal chances, I think there should be more onus on managers and coaches.
I watched our Offaly footballers play Derry last weekend. Every time Derry lost the ball, the whole team sprinted back to play 15 behind the ball. You might as well be watching paint dry.
Coaches and managers need to take responsibility – why would you want to play like that? Maybe that’s me being naive.
If Liam Sheedy puts Pádraic Maher on Gearóid Hegarty for example, the odds of him scoring five from play are much reduced. Whatever about your centre-back dropping back to cover, Tipperary can’t afford to let Limerick’s halfforward line just do their own thing.
I was at the first League match last year when Limerick destroyed Tipperary. Sheedy had the team flying by the Munster final – only to be hammered.
Limerick’s game plan is based on that link play through the middle. You have the hurling of Declan Hannon, the brain and speed of hand and pass of Cian Lynch, the workrate and engine of Will O’Donoghue.
It’s all very intricate and requires a huge level of skill.
Clare tried to man-mark Lynch but he was still linking everything so well.
Hegarty and Morrissey play so wide – nearly a yard from the sideline – that they create the width all the time.
Cathal Barrett was missing though for Tipperary in last year’s Munster final – he is key to attacking the ball from the fullback line.
Limerick are also missing Mike Casey and Richie English from the full-back line, two defensive stars. And Tipperary have the capacity to make them pay when you look at the scoring power of Seamus Callanan and those around him.
Sheedy has this ability to get the best out of Tipperary. I think this could be one of those days.
Tipp can’t afford to let Limerick’s half forwards do their own thing