Christy O'Connor: Underdogs tag is ideal for Clare, who fully believe they're good enough to lift Liam MacCarthy
Clare’s David Fitzgerald celebrates scoring his side's third goal against Cork in April. Picture: INPHO/Ken Sutton
Whe Ben O’Connor was interviewed by TG4’s Micheál Ó Domhnaill after the 2023 Munster U20 final win against Clare, O’Connor spoke with the authority and attitude of his time.
O’Connor was an intrinsic part of a group and a culture where that elite standard was always the ultimate measurement of a Cork hurler.
“We’re Cork men and we want Cork to be winning everything at every age group,” said O’Connor.
“There is a massive step up from U20 to senior, but we’re hoping to get Cork hurling back to where it should be.
Underage success doesn’t guarantee anything but when Cork went on to win a third All-Ireland U20 title in four years after beating Offaly in the final 16 days later, it added to the belief that it was only a matter of time before Cork returned to the place O’Connor and the Cork hurling public are desperate to arrive at.
At the time of that O’Connor interview, two days before Cork played Clare in round 3 of the Munster round robin, Pat Ryan’s teams appeared to be on track and rapidly speeding towards that ultimate destination, having accumulated three points from their first two games in that championship.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a Cork team that hits form,” said former Cork player Lorcán McLoughlin that week before the Clare game in Ennis 14 months ago. “As long as I can remember, Cork can beat anyone on their day. It’s as simple as that.”
Except that it wasn’t that simple anymore. McLoughlin was right.
Cork can beat anyone on their day. But Munster and All-Ireland titles are no longer won on one day, as Cork routinely managed in the past.
Clare beat them that day in Ennis last year. And Limerick knocked Cork out a week later.
After losing their first two games this year, Cork admirably turned it around.
The hype and excitement is now at fever pitch around the county.
The Cork public fully believe that the pain is nearly over, that the famine will finally end on Sunday. And they believe it even more with this team looking so dangerous after having found such a rich vein of form. Yet that doesn’t necessarily mean that Cork will get what their public expect.
Can Cork reach those levels again? Cork backed up their brilliant win against Limerick in Munster with a devastating performance against Tipperary a week later.
Yet this Clare team are a far different proposition to the Tipp side Cork rolled over that afternoon. Clare were poor in the first half against Kilkenny, but that match was all about just getting over the line, especially after losing the previous two semi-finals to Kilkenny.
Clare will need to eradicate the lulls that have hurt them during games, but if they consistently perform over the 70 minutes, this match looks as set up for Clare as it is for Cork.
The match-ups will be key. Ideally, Clare would prefer Conor Cleary on Alan Connolly but they may have no option but to put Cleary on Brian Hayes to cope with his power and aerial threat, especially under long puckouts.
Cleary was physically able to deal with Lee Chin in the All-Ireland quarter-final and Chin is stronger than Hayes.
Connolly does have a physical advantage on Adam Hogan but so did Eoin Cody in the semi-final and Hogan cleaned him out in the second half. Hogan may also be earmarked for Patrick Horgan.
If Tony Kelly starts at centre-forward, Cork will trust Robert Downey in that role, especially when they’ll surely have Ciarán Joyce in mind to match up on Peter Duggan, particularly when Duggan was Clare’s most effective player when the sides met in Munster.
Seán O’Donoghue will pick up O’Donnell but his form needs to be better than in the semi-final when Aaron Gillane caused rack on O’Donoghue; as well as scoring 0-6, Gillane could have had three goals, while he set up another goal chance, and nearly scored the rebound.
Goals will be decisive. When the sides met in April, Cork created nine goalscoring chances, but only took three. Cork have only scored one goal in their last two matches but there are goals in this team.
Clare’s biggest conundrum is in stopping the Darragh Fitzgibbon-Shane Barrett axis through the middle. That may require a complete tactical reconfiguration and a sitting centre-back in John Conlon.
Clare not want to go down that road but going man-for-man is a risky strategy with the threat in this Cork attack. Cork have played their best stuff this year as underdogs.
In recent years, Cork have been underdogs more often than ever in the past but they still didn’t play with enough of that bark and bite. But they are now.
A Cork side in form and with momentum is a dangerous animal but being the underdog is more a part of Clare’s culture, something that they will embrace even more in an All-Ireland final. Whatever happens, both defences are bound to come under pressure, no matter how much they try and stop the other crowd from causing damage up front.
Cork are going to put up a big score. But so can Clare. It has the makings of a classic.
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