Modern game is more skilled but something is still lacking
IT’S HARD to talk about the games without discussing how hurling is changing in front of us. Long-range free-taking and the distance the ball is travelling is just one element of those changes, and it got me thinking back to the 2009 All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Tipperary and the moment when Benny Dunne got sent off for pulling under a dropping ball with wing-back Tommy Walsh.
Apologies to Benny for bringing it up after all these years but what’s worth remembering is that Henry Shefflin came down the field and scored that free from a long way out.
That was 12 years ago and nobody was complaining about the weight of the sliotar – or it travelling too far. That’s probably because there weren’t as many frees. It was a different style of hurling back then – more hand-to-hand combat.
That was Kilkenny’s style, too. They wanted to force you to put the ball in the air, make it a 50-50 contest which they won so often. That was especially the case when it came to that half-back line of Walsh, Brian Hogan and JJ Delaney.
Kilkenny’s approach was built on their workrate. For many teams, the only option was to launch the ball long because they had no time on the ball to get it away easily to a team-mate.
We have issues in hurling at the moment for all sorts of reasons – equipment, the conditioning of the players and the skill levels in the game. So we have to be careful what we wish for.
I played in a great era for hurling in the 1990s. It was different – manic, furious and physical.
Consider the score in the 1995 AllIreland final: Clare 1-13 Offaly 2-8. They beat us with 14 scores to 10.
That would barely make a halftime score now.
It’s interesting that a lot of the criticism of the game and refereeing right now is coming from Kilkenny’s past players such as Eoin Larkin, Richie Power and Jackie Tyrrell.
Maybe that’s because they played in a certain manner. I’m not saying
it’s a conspiracy but Kilkenny haven’t won the All-Ireland since 2015, so the way it is changing maybe hasn’t suited Brian Cody.
I thought much the same after retiring in 2001 when Cork came along with their possession/running game, but it really added to the development of hurling and they won All-Irelands in 2004 and 2005.
Then Kilkenny counteracted that. The small, tricky forward almost became a thing of the past. Eddie Brennan, TJ Reid and Richie Hogan struggled for a while because the Cody approach was man-on-man, win your own ball.
After that Tipperary developed a game plan based on movement and passing to find a way around this outstanding team, arguably the greatest ever.
It culminated in one of the great final displays in 2010 when it all came off to a tee. Who could forget the reverse pass from Noel McGrath to Lar Corbett, and the
hurl being thrown as the ball was fired to the net?
The Cork-Limerick clash last weekend was the perfect illustration of how the game is changing.
Cork took 15 short puck-outs in the first half; Limerick turned over 10 of them. They went long with 15. I’m not sure exactly how many were turned over but Diarmaid Byrnes gobbled up a number of them from his wing-back spot for Limerick.
I was being critical of Cork until I looked at it more closely. Your job is to find a way to beat Limerick – it’s no easy task.
Cork decided to go short, have done so right throughout this campaign and got some good results along the way. Limerick attacked them with sheer ferocity and took the ball off them repeatedly. They scored nearly every time and led 0-20 to 1-7 at half-time.
In fairness to Cork, they won the second half 1-12 to 13 points and could have had four goals as well. They varied the puck-out, ran at Limerick and caused them all sorts of problems.
So I’d say it was a very positive coaching change that maybe shows a chink in Limerick’s armour.
It’s a poor reflection when teams decide they can’t go long because they have no-one in the halfforward line who can win their own ball.
I always found Larry O’Gorman so difficult to challenge in the air. He might catch a ball or two – but you made sure by competing so hard that he didn’t win anything easily. Now we’re seeing teams just waving the white flag when faced with Limerick’s set-up and a halfback line of Byrnes, Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes. That’s a bit of a cop-out. You have to train teams to compete as well.
Cork had no Plan B in the middle of a game. They had to get in at half-time and change personnel, shake things up – and they adapted well. But training can’t be 99 per cent on the ground when a player has to go out and so many balls must be won in the air. You have to have ball winners to be competing at the business end.
The scoring rate at last weekend’s game in the Gaelic Grounds made it hard to analyse patterns. It means there’s little open play as hurling is becoming more about set-plays: puck-out, player off the shoulder, shot.
Are some teams abdicating defensive responsibilities by focusing in the main on not conceding goals while allowing for too many unmarked shots?
I look at someone like Limerick All-Star Seán Finn who is touch tight all the time. Every score off him is hard earned.
We don’t want huge shootouts. There’s a little bit of something lacking at the moment. Maybe it’s a Covid response and the intensity will ratchet up when big crowds come back.
What is worth emphasising though is the skill level of the players in all of this. Players are doing things that we couldn’t do.
The way they train, the nutrition, no drink. Often, the big thing after League games back in my day was ‘where are we going for pints?’
The players though have brought so many positive elements of the game to another level.
Ned Quinn of Kilkenny will chair a committee that has been set up by GAA president Larry McCarthy to look at the sliotar and where hurling is going.
We just have to be careful that there isn’t some knee-jerk reaction to what we’re seeing.
‘THE WAY IT IS CHANGING MAYBE HAS NOT SUITED BRIAN CODY’