Christy O'Connor: Cork need hurlers who offer something different to change the championship script

A FEW days after Cork played their opening league game against Clare in February, the former Galway hurler Aidan Harte and the former Offaly player Brian Carroll were discussing Cork’s hurling style with Colm Parkinson on his Smaller Fish GAA show.

The debate on Cork’s defeat was mostly focused around their tactical and strategic plan on the day, beginning with their decision to bring so many of their own players into their own half on their own puckout, especially in the first half.

Cork have to be complimented for trying something different, especially when what they’ve done in the past hasn’t worked.

But were they just adopting another form of the same principle that will struggle to fully work in the modern game?

“It’s back to Cork again,” said Harte. “Sometimes, you’d compare them to a team you’d be controlling on a Fusball table.

“They just keep doing the same thing, over and over again. They just don’t seem to make any on-field decisions. It’s just so structured in their play at the moment. It can be vexing to watch at times.”

Carroll was in agreement. “It’s more of the same, and more of the same from the same players,” he said.

“Something has to change. They are really close, but Cork are almost doing too much thinking. There is too much puckout structure and not enough off-the-cuff stuff. 

Of course, there has to be elements of it, but Cork always seem to be trying to play PlayStation hurling.”

A huge part of that is encrypted into Cork’s DNA now, through the legacy left by the great Cork team of the 2000s, combined with Bernie O’Connor’s vision with Newtownshandrum in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

O’Connor created the disc that patented modern possession hurling before Cork expanded on the style even further under Donal O’Grady and John Allen.

It was revolutionary because it was so heavily based on the optimal use of possession, but then Kilkenny established a new world order, which was aimed at contaminating that possession through the governance of turnovers, gang tackling and claustrophobic intensity.

The increasing and expanding S&C culture has naturally shaped the current template, but Limerick have adapted and evolved Kilkenny’s style to a new level because they have married that power, skill, class and brilliance with such tactical ingenuity.

And Cork have continually struggled to keep pace with those changes.

Pat Ryan, like all the Cork managers before him, is trying to win an All-Ireland with the players at his disposal. Yet getting the players to adapt and evolve to suit the modern demands has been a consistent challenge for over two decades when that style is so intrinsically hard-wired into the Cork mentality and playing style.

SAVAGE

Cork’s main aim has been not to get sucked into what whirlpool of savagery and brutality that Limerick proper in. Yet only so much possession can be protected anymore with such heat in the tackle, especially with close to 20 bodies in the middle third.

That’s a culture and mindset change that needs to happen across the board in Cork before it can materialise at senior level.

Cork may not have that same physical profile as Limerick but in Denis Hurley’s excellent two-part interview with Séan Óg Ó hAilpín in these pages recently, it was refreshing to hear Ó hAilpín’s take on what needs to change in Cork, particularly when he was such an integral part of Cork’s success under that revolutionary style.

It was all the more energising again given how heavily involved in coaching Ó hAilpín now is, having spent the last year with the Na Piarsaigh senior A team, the Cork minor hurlers, the Gaelcholáiste Mhuire An Mhainistir Thuaidh Dr Harty Cup outfit, and UCC’s Fitzgibbon Cup side.

Having reflected on why Cork struggled with Kilkenny in the latter part of his career, Ó hAilpín has tried to use those learnings to form the cornerstones of his coaching philosophy now, and how that may help Cork teams going forward.

“The reason Kilkenny won games was because they were able to go one-on-one and win the majority of those battles,” said Ó hAilpín.

Towards the end of our years, the amount of thought that went into it — pull someone there, get someone to run in there — you’re doing that all game, using unnecessary energy.

“I just came to the realisation years later…the reason they (Kilkenny) were able to keep going was because it was a very economical game that they played.

“They didn’t have to cover as much Ks running off the ball, trying to free up a puck-out that mightn’t work. It’s the same with the Limerick team today. It’ll come to a stage where an opposition team can compete in the air with the half-forward line.”

DIFFERENCE-MAKER

Can Cork be that team, now or in the near future?

A player like Seán Twomey offers Cork more of a physical ball-winning presence than Cork have had, or have entrusted their faith, in recent years. Last year’s Cork U20 team was stacked with big, powerful men who could win their own ball.

A culture won’t change overnight but a culture can only be altered if change happens across the board. In that interview, Ó hAilpín referenced his preference for the type of group he loves to coach.

“Give me a team that can win their 50-50 ball any time of the day,” he said.

The game is highly technical and tactically demanding now, but if more coaches in Cork adopt that attitude, especially with underage teams, it will be much easier for Cork in the future to be more physically and mentally equipped to prosper in that vortex of physicality that defines inter-county senior hurling.