Sunday sees Kilkenny and Tipperary meet in the All Ireland Hurling Final in a re-match of last year’s encounter while Saturday sees the annual curtain-raiser to the big game, the Kilmacud Crokes’ All Ireland Hurling 7s.
Organisation key to Kilkenny success
The raw talent available to Kilkenny means the county will always be capable of producing teams that are tough to beat but there’s a difference between being an elite team and being unbeaten in Championship play since August 2005.
Essentially Brian Cody has taken the concept of organisation to unprecedented levels in inter-county Hurling. Kilkenny’s players are relatively interchangeable with their replacements in terms of roles, obviously there are talent differences but be patient, as no team can match the Cats for their ability to have players moving to the right place at the right time. Plenty of inter-county players know where the right place to be is, the difference with Kilkenny is they operate as a single-minded 15-man unit with the same idea of what that right place and move is.
Doing this takes a specific kind of preparation and player. The latter is easy to define, they need to be rather good and not divas. Competition certainly aids Cody in this respect, as has his ruthless approach to selection. Only a county with depth like Kilkenny can afford to take such steps without risking civil war. Winning obviously helps but a club-like approach to team-building certainly makes a difference. Kilkenny’s training is legendary for its intensity but Cody should receive better credit for how he prepares for opponents. Aside from imposing its on game on teams, one of Kilkenny’s greatest strengths is its ability to target and exploit weaknesses in opponents. Lots of counties have tried to out-Kilkenny the Cats by trying to show the disciplined approach on the field but time and again Cody has found a weakness and attacked without mercy.
Chaos gives Tipperary a chance
So if Kilkenny are so good then why did Tipperary nearly beat them in 2009? Well the easy answer is they also have a lot of good players but that only scratches the surface of Tipperary’s greater killer instinct under Liam Sheedy.
Coming from a club that was starved of success and often talent, Portroe, Sheedy grew up having to find ways to beat opponents with greater resources than those around him. This has served him well developing into a tactician, finding ways to take some unconventional approaches to beating what’s in front of him.
The most visible element of this is in how Tipperary utilise Lar Corbett. The best description for Corbett’s role is that of a bomber, a powerful weapon that is prone to being in the wrong place but when he makes the right call its dangerous. Against Kilkenny such a weapon is particularly effective, largely because of his own chaotic approach to the game. This is not to besmirch Corbett as a player, he is undoubtedly talented but it’s the wildness of his moves that make him a threat. Order is at the heart of everything Kilkenny do, Lar Corbett is essentially the Joker in the Dark Knight when it comes to order. As a serious goal threat, he only needs to end up in the right place 20% of the time to be effective while the numerous moves to nowhere he makes drag defenders out of position thus creating greater space for Tipperary’s other forwards to operate. Basically Corbett is as dangerous when he’s doing the seemingly wrong thing as when he’s in the right place.
The Corbett factor is really part of a greater plan from Sheedy. Like Cody he is astute at targeting weaknesses, even if the weakness is ostensibly a strength such as Kilkenny’s great organisation, without sacrificing his own team’s approach to the game. If you don’t have Kilkenny’s players then it makes little sense to try to play like them, finding an approach which is less conventional might not be victorious but it greatly improves the chances of victory.
And the winner is…
…going to be picked at the end of this paragraph. Kilkenny’s apparent recovery from its injury crisis means the Drive for Five is still alive. There certainly have to be questions asked about the durability of Henry Shefflin and the other recovering bodies heading into this game. Tipperary have not played as well in 2010 as they did in 2009 but at the same time they are more battle-hardened and that certainly will stand to them. This should be a tough game with both games showing defence starts with the front line. It will be high scoring, it will go down to the wire, and to stick my neck out I’m saying we’re in for a repeat of 1945, a season where Tipperary stopped another five-in-row attempt albeit earlier in the season as they defeated four-in-a-row winners Cork. Your 2010 All Ireland Senior Hurling Champions will, by the narrowest of margins, be Tipperary.
Experience matters in 7s play
I can’t let All Ireland Hurling weekend go without giving a mention to the All-Ireland Hurling 7s, being hosted by Kilmacud Crokes and sponsored by Meteor (there I gave the sponsor a mention so PR folk can’t give out). The beauty of the small-form of the game is in the different demands it makes on players.
Last year Donal Óg Cusack had an unhappy time in the quarter finals, conceding three goals to eventual winners Moycarkey-Borris. That leads nicely to the first tactical point, how a team uses its goalkeeper. A proficient shot-stopper such as Cusack is not as vital as a keeper who can gain greater distance and accuracy with puck-outs. Speed is also an issue, attacks start from the man at the back so quick turnarounds after dead-balls, be they wides or scores, is a must.
Moving out the field the easy option for teams to take is to divide play up 2-2-2 to defence, midfield, and attack. This puts far too much value however on midfield play, in truth having one man committed to the middle is often too much. Instead the triangle defence, like that used by Moycarkey-Borris and many recent 7s winners, is more effective. Teams which willing invite opponets to go for points by crowding the route to goal tend to enjoy more success. Unlike the full-sized game where a team conceding a run of points can turn a game, in 7s goals are how games are won. Effective 7s teams focus on reducing goals more than reducing all scores. Also by adopting this strategy in defence, the chance of wides from increases dramatically and thus gives good keepers more opportunities to engineer attacks up the other end.
Finally management of personnel is critical to succeeding in Stillorgan. Teams on their first trip to the 7s often over-work their best players, failing to give them adequate rest throughout the day. This is a day-long event where teams must play six or seven times, depending on the group they are in, in order to win. Having a big name like Joe Canning, as Portumna will, is only valuable if you don’t run him into the ground early.
The 2010 Meteor (see two sponsor mentions) All-Ireland Hurling 7s take place on Saturday 3 September at Kilmacud Crokes. Details on times and venues can be found here.
Filed under: Analysis, General by Emmet Ryan
Tags: « 7s - all ireland hurling championship - brian cody - final - kilkenny - kilmacud crokes - liam sheedy - tipperary »
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