What we learned on Sunday
YOU HAVE TO go back to the 1960s to find such a sustained period of Tipperary dominance over Cork.
Tipperary’s fourth consecutive championship win over Cork was just about as comfortable as any they’ve experienced over the Leesiders in recent times.
From 1958-68, Tipperary completed seven straight wins over Cork. They’ve now beaten their old Munster rivals in seven of their last eight championship meetings.
Tyrone’s decade-long whip-hand over Derry was never under threat as they wrapped up their fifth win in five meetings this year.
Meanwhile Roscommon improved significantly from their close-call in the Bronx to see-off Leitrim in the Connacht SFC quarter-final.
The second big weekend of championship action offered us a few hints about where the year is headed. Here’s what we learned from Sunday’s action:
- Using a sweeper is not the way forward for Cork. Trailing by eight points after 49 minutes, Cork abandoned their defensive gameplan. Kieran Kingston’s players looked confused in the system, where William Egan dropped as a spare defender in front of Seamus Callanan. It’s a style of play that requires an awful lot of work on the training field, and Cork evidently didn’t have it done. Where it really hurt the Rebels was up front. Seamus Harnedy found himself swamped in attack. Scoring 13 points, and just eight from play, is an indictment of the paucity of their scoring threat.
- Tipperary are honing a gameplan to beat Clare and Waterford. Quite a lot was made about Tipperary’s increased focus on playing direct ball into the full-forward line during the league. But Michael Ryan is a shrewd operator and he saw how Kingston tried to double-team Seamus Callanan. Instead of playing into Cork’s hands, Tipperary were content to pick off scores from the perimeters. Brendan Maher said as much after the game: “We worked hard in training on how to get around that (Cork’s sweeper).” They’ll likely face the more refined defensive set-ups of Clare or Waterford (or both) somewhere down the line. That will be a better test of Tipperary’s ability to deal with a packed defence.
- Tyrone are back, and they look good. Granted, this was a below-par Derry team, but during that first-half especially, Tyrone oozed class. Mickey Harte’s men absorbed what the hosts had to offer in attack, and ripped them to shreds with a series of clinical counter-attacks. The Ulster favourites have ball winners in the full-forward line and were not afraid to hit Sean Cavanagh or Ronan O’Neill with a direct ball when it was on. The players look very comfortable with this system. They’ll have a big say in this championship.
- The weaker teams need more games. After today’s defeat to Roscommon, Leitrim have a four week break until they are out again in the first round of the qualifers. Lose that one and their season is over after two games. Their U21s lost in their first game in Connacht this year and that was it. These players are not getting enough exposure to games at this level. Inter-county teams nowadays are putting in more time and effort than ever before. Providing the lesser lights with more summer games would allow them experience the white heat of championship more often. That kind of experience is critical for the development of any team.
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Where do Tipperary now rank in Munster?
Following Tipperary’s convincing win over Cork, Eoin Kelly said on Newstalk’s Off The Ball that he places his county as the third best team in Munster.
Strange. Tipperary are reigning Munster champions and just demolished Cork at their ease. But impressive league campaigns from Waterford and Clare have seemingly placed them above the Premier County in the pecking order.
They’ll probably face a more traditional 15-on-15 game against Limerick in the semi-final. Beat Limerick and they’ll be underdogs for the Munster final. As mentioned above, Ryan appears to be fine-tuning a gameplan that will find ways around the packed defences that Clare and Waterford offer. His tactical nous will certainly go under the microscope in the upcoming games.
Tipperary’s focus will turn to improving before they take on Limerick. The hosts looked very sharp and accurate for most of the first-half. The challenge for Ryan is to get his team performing for 70 minutes. During a worrying spell in the second period, they went 16 minutes without scoring. It allowed Cork to stage a rally of sorts, scoring four points on the spin during that period.
There are still question marks over this team’s ability to win a tight game, but they’ll be glad to have gotten over this hurdle. They never threatened to score a goal and failed to force a save out of Anthony Nash. On the other hand, long-range scores were so easy to come by that they didn’t need to probe for a three-pointer.
There are plenty of positives too. There were whispers in the build-up that Cork might be planning an ambush, but it never materialized. Or rather Ryan’s side didn’t allow it to materialize.
In tough conditions they blooded four debutants (Seamus Kennedy, Sean Curran, Dan McCormack and John McGrath) — a significant number for perennial All-Ireland contenders.
Ronan Maher, Padraic Maher, Brendan Maher and John McGrath all impressed, while established forwards Seamus Callanan and John O’Dwyer hit 15 points between them.
This was a solid start for Tipperary.
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Did JBM take Cork as far as they could go?
On today’s showing, it’s easy to forget that this Cork side were 30 seconds away from winning the All-Ireland title in 2013. 10 of the players who featured today, started in that drawn game against Clare three years ago.
Clare moved on, brought in some new players and tweaked their system. Now they look primed for the big stage once again.
The argument could be made that Jimmy Barry-Murphy extracted the absolute maximum out of this group of Cork players. They won the Munster title in 2014 and the bulk of that team remains at Kingston’s disposal.
But league form doesn’t lie. Cork were abysmal for most of the spring, and survived by their fingernails. At the moment they are the fifth best team in Munster. So many players looked way off the pace today. They have plenty of soul-searching to do.
The qualifiers could offer a reprieve for the Rebels. It gives them chance for them to build form and momentum away from the bright lights. The players are not comfortable with the sweeper system, so Kingston needs to either spend a huge amount of time working on it, or ditch it.
It’s hard to shake the sense that Cork have found themselves at a crossroads. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess.
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Tyrone making all the right noises
“We have the players now who, as people say, have the legs, who can run at pace, who can carry the ball at pace. That’s what teams need (for them) to have the transition game. You can’t transition from back to front if you do it at five-mile an hour. It’s got to be something much higher than that.”
-Mickey Harte speaking after the game
In their first 35 minutes of championship football in 2016, Tyrone have scored as many goals from play as they did in their run to the 2015 All-Ireland semi-final.
Mickey Harte’s side look like they’ve added the threat of goals to their game, although that should be taken with a pinch of salt. Derry’s leaky defence conceded 9-105 in Division 2 this year. Only relegated Laois conceded more.
Still, for any team to beat Dublin this year they’ll need to put a goal or two past Stephen Cluxton. Tyrone’s system is perfectly suited to doing that.
While they soaked Derry’s pressure, Tyrone often only had Ronan O’Neill and Connor McAliskey holding their position in Derry’s half. But once Tyrone forced Derry to pass laterally and eventually turned the ball over, defence was turned into attack in the blink of an eye.
O’Neill’s two goals came from direct ball into the danger zone, while Harte’s goal on the stroke of half-time came from a deep break through a packed defence. They can mix it up and still do damage.
O’Neill continues to shine. Good forwards have the ability to survey their options under pressure and execute. His first goal, when he sold two players with a sidestep and rolled the ball into an empty net, wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Peter Cavanan highlight reel. That’s a big comparison to make, but O’Neill will need to bring his performances up to that level if Tyrone are to win their first All-Ireland in eight years.
McAliskey worked extremely hard and took his scores well, while Darren McCurry fitted seamlessly into the system on his introduction. That forward trio are key to Tyrone’s chances.
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