So... how DO you stop Tony Kelly?
Puzzle has stumped so many but Tipp may have the answer
WATCHING opposition teams try to deal with Tony Kelly feels like one of those magician’s tricks. The type that escapologist Harry Houdini made famous: where you put him in a straightjacket, wrap him in chains, put him in a box and drop him into a tank of water – before he magically frees himself to gasps of amazement from a disbelieving audience.
The long line of shackles and chains and various tools to tie down hurling’s most elusive player have been tried out by various management teams down the years. It has all been to little discernible effect.
Take last winter’s Championrguably, no opposition manager understands Kelly’s game more than Davy Fitzgerald who has watched him up close in Clare for years. And yet, when Fitzgerald brought his Wexford team for a seasondefining All-Ireland qualifier to O’Moore Park last November, the Ballyea wizard performed another of his straight-jacket escapes.
The 1-15 that he put together had a bit of everything, featuring a scorcher of a goal, eight convertede frees, a 65 and six quality points from play, some of which seemed to defy the laws of physics.
Even with a designated manmarker and a team that played with a sweeper, packed the defence and hit on the counter, Kelly still found a way to make hay. It’s rare for a player knocked out at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage to make the three-man shortlist for Player of the Year but Kelly’s scoring rate and all-round game was off the charts. In four Championship games, he averaged 14 points and finished as the second highest scorer.
Limerick represent the ultimate stress test for any team. Particularly in trying to break down a cleverly conceived tactical set-up that involves wing-forwards Gearóid Hegarty and Tom Morrissey marauding deep down the wing channels, Will O’Donoghue doubling up as an extra defensive general to go with brilliant out-and-out defenders like Sean Finn and ballwinners like Diarmaid Byrnes and Kyle Hayes. And yet, in the opening round of the Munster Championship last year, Kelly pinged 17 points, eight from play.
If there is another team who has the equipment on paper to tie Kelly down, it’s arguably Tipperary. Brendan Maher has been a linchpin of this Tipp team for a decade and more, primarily as a front-foot midfielder or wing-back who delivers so much going forward, but he did a superb job tracking Kelly everywhere he went in the 2019 Munster round robin, as Tipp stormed the Cusack Park fortress.
If Kelly heads for the inside line from the start as he did against Waterford last weekend, playing off the bullish, target-man presence of Aron Shanagher in a twoman inside line with Aidan McCarthy drifting deep, then Cathal Barrett looks the perfect match given his status as one of the best manmarkers in the game. And yet the latter found Dessie Hutchinson more than a handful in the last round League game at Walsh Park. The former soccer professional’s movement and jet-heeled pace allowed him to pocket two goals – the first in hanging loose at the far post and thumping Jack Prendergast’s pass to the net on the volley; the second in taking down a ball on his hurl and flicking it into his own path in the one motion before his speed took him away to hit a topspin shot to the net. Kelly has spent his entire senior career trying to extricate himself from the various shackles presented by the opposition who know that limiting his influence is key to limiting Clare’s chances.
But with his old midfield partner Colm Galvin parachuted back into the team, Clare have the simple option of lining out as per the official match programme last weekend and teaming up like it’s 2013 all over again. That year the pair lit things up as Clare won the All-Ireland and Kelly became the first player to scoop Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year.
And if Barrett decides to tail him all the way, Clare know that Tipperary’s best man-marker will be least comfortable furthest from his own goal while caught up in all the traffic and blurred action of the middle third.
Another afternoon then when Kelly will try to deal with all the challenges presented – and somehow find a way to emerge unscathed and lead Clare to a Munster final.
‘HE HAS SPENT HIS CAREER EXTRICATING HIMSELF FROM SHACKLES’