WHEN THE MIND wanders back to that happy place for Cork hurling fans this week last year, the numbers game still stands out in their seismic defeat of Limerick.
It wasn’t the first time Limerick were beaten in their drive for five. But it was the first time they had conceded 3-28. More to the point, it was the first time they had made a concession of that scale under John Kiely.
How they did it was the stupendous thing. Of all the hints and clues scattered around like breadcrumbs when Limerick were ran close or beaten, Cork ignored most of them and went bold; they would ram the ball down their throat as much as possible.
Facing a defensive and midfield as physically imposing as Limerick’s, most teams had decided long ago that it wouldn’t be prudent to seek to get something off a long puckout against the trusty hands of Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes, William O’Donoghue and company.
And yet Cork in the first half scored 2-6 off their own puckout. They also spoiled 10 of Nickie Quaid’s 18 puckouts in that period, which they turned into 0-5.
Limerick’s philosophy was well established when it came to worrying about goals: we will take more shots than you and make it count.
By the break, they had 15 shots. Cork had 25. Astonishing. Limerick then did a little copying and pasting. They retreated their forward ranks for their own restarts to isolate Aaron Gillane on Sean O’Donoghue. The Inniscarra man thrived in the contest, winning six Limerick balls sent long.
And yet, Limerick came back. In the first 25 minutes of the second half they had 2-12 to 0-8. Gearóid Hegarty came alight. Seamus Flanagan grabbed three goals. With nine minutes left, Limerick had come from a position of eight points down to three up.
Cork took action, sending on Shane Kingston to match up with Kyle Hayes, who had just scored his first point of the game. He set up Darragh Fitzgibbon for a point, hit a wide and then converted from play. And then the emphatic play when he went skating at unreal pace towards the Limerick goal. He was pulled down by Hayes, and referee Sean Stack adjudged it to be a goal-scoring opportunity. Penalty. Hoggie time. Patrick Horgan buried it. Cork win. Cue unbridled joy.
On day 10 of #GAANOW Christmas, witness Patrick Horgan’s crucial penalty that kept Cork’s championship dream alive in front of a massive Cork crowd! 👏⚡ pic.twitter.com/euDe7yTQId
By the final whistle, Cork had more shots than Limerick; 41 to 39. And now it’s all ancient history. The only thing that matters is what happens this Sunday in the TUS Gaelic Grounds when Cork come to town, with Limerick looking to avenge that, and the All-Ireland semi-final defeat last year.
So what do they do, if all their ancient pillars are no longer the sources of strength they once were? The former Limerick footballer and underage hurler Stephen Lavin has some thoughts. His GameSense Coaching company is formed out of his experience of coaching with the Limerick football academy, a venture he joined the year after he retired as a county footballer to get on board in time for 2014.
Signing up at the same time was Paul Kinnerk. His talents as a hurling coach tends to eclipse his grounding in football and his years spent playing for the county in the big ball. “Paul was there from 2014 until about 2022,” recalls Lavin, a teacher at Scoil Naomh Iósaf in Adare.
Paul Kinnerk. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“I’d say you could count on one hand the amount of times he missed a session in the eight years. That’s a fact, now.
“He played football for Limerick, he was there for us a lot of years. Just injured a lot, the hamstrings killed him. But he has a real soft spot for football, Limerick football in particular.”
Others have gotten involved in the Academy. Lavin would draw up plans for each Saturday morning session and on a Thursday, forward them to Kinnerk. Some healthy feedback would be teased out in order to get the best possible session for the young lads, based on guiding principles.
Another was Stephen Lucey. He might have played an All-Ireland hurling final for Limerick, but he helped out with football. “Well, there’s probably enough people looking after Limerick hurling. A very small crowd looking after the football,” laughs Lavin. He wouldn’t baulk at the description of being a coaching disciple of Kinnerk.
“Paul was doing a PhD,” recalls Lavin, “and his PhD was on the effects of a game-based design, against what we will call a more traditional linear training, or drills.
“Look, he took us through an awful lot of the theory and stuff. Up to then we would always have handed in our sessions to Paul and he would always have given us feedback on our sessions. He was guiding us from a design point of view of the sessions.
“The general idea of a game-based session is that the games have a purpose. The games in general would encourage principles of play.
“So like, basic stuff like the game might encourage width, or looping play. Or some defensive moment in the game or support. Whatever it might encourage, it would be a principle.
“The way to look at a principle, it’s like an instruction. A good habit when you play the game.”
How then have Cork closed that gap to Limerick? Is it a case that every serious team have adopted the Limerick coaching principles? He doesn’t claim to have any inside line on the Cork training field. But he knows what he can see with his eyes.
“For me, if you want to see something in a match, you must perform some version of it in training,” he says. “I will just go with Cork’s puckouts. When I am looking at it, they bring every single player back inside their own 65 and leave the three boys deep inside the 13. Then they have a number of options off that set-up.
“They have a short puckout to the full-back who will give it back to the keeper who will put a massive drive of a ball in on top of Brian Hayes. And you have the half-forward line running into that.”
He continues: “Another one they have is a short puckout, you have Darragh Fitzgibbon and Shane Barrett lined up in the middle of the field with loads of space on either side.
“You saw what they did last year when they had Declan Dalton going very deep, trying to isolate Shane Barrett on Declan Hannon.
“You cannot hope for that to go well in a game if you haven’t done it in training extensively.
“And then in my opinion, to have the movement required I think you have to play smaller-sided games first to expose you to more repetitions of the general idea. Then you get into larger-sided games in training to expose you to represent the game more. It’s more like the game, basically.
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“That’s how I would do it. I just don’t know how Cork do it but it is clear that they have a very set way to play with Cork.”
Which is fine and well. But strategy alone will not butter the parsnips. Cork have a supreme group of athletes. Serious speed. They have options.
“If you were looking at Cork, you’d have to say they pass and move the ball very well. That’s a principle. They use the space on the field. How you use the space on the field is massive,” says Lavin.
“Is it width? Do they spread teams out as much as possible? Do they leave the boys deep inside? Depth is another principle. I’m not sure if they use that vocabulary. But it’s all there.”
As a hurler with Adare, Lavin is entirely familiar with the charms of clubmate Declan Hannon as a player. But injuries have been his lot this season. The later deployment of Kyle Hayes to centre-back all the same looks like a switch made with Cork in mind.
Perhaps if Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins looks to play a give and go from a puckout to gain the extra 20 yards or so, before raining down ball on top of Brian Hayes, he could have Dan Morrissey chasing behind him with Hayes directly in front. Who would want to be the ham in that particular sandwich?
“That might not be enough though,” says Lavin. “You could have the most principled and well drilled team. And if you come up against another team that have a supreme group of athletes who can play hurling, that might not be enough.
“It makes for great intrigue this week, to see what happens between the two of them. It should be an absolute cracking match.”
For excitement, emotion and tactical appreciation, in every way.
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The Dropzone: How will Limerick and Cork wage the puckout wars?
WHEN THE MIND wanders back to that happy place for Cork hurling fans this week last year, the numbers game still stands out in their seismic defeat of Limerick.
It wasn’t the first time Limerick were beaten in their drive for five. But it was the first time they had conceded 3-28. More to the point, it was the first time they had made a concession of that scale under John Kiely.
Facing a defensive and midfield as physically imposing as Limerick’s, most teams had decided long ago that it wouldn’t be prudent to seek to get something off a long puckout against the trusty hands of Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes, William O’Donoghue and company.
And yet Cork in the first half scored 2-6 off their own puckout. They also spoiled 10 of Nickie Quaid’s 18 puckouts in that period, which they turned into 0-5.
Limerick’s philosophy was well established when it came to worrying about goals: we will take more shots than you and make it count.
By the break, they had 15 shots. Cork had 25. Astonishing. Limerick then did a little copying and pasting. They retreated their forward ranks for their own restarts to isolate Aaron Gillane on Sean O’Donoghue. The Inniscarra man thrived in the contest, winning six Limerick balls sent long.
And yet, Limerick came back. In the first 25 minutes of the second half they had 2-12 to 0-8. Gearóid Hegarty came alight. Seamus Flanagan grabbed three goals. With nine minutes left, Limerick had come from a position of eight points down to three up.
Cork took action, sending on Shane Kingston to match up with Kyle Hayes, who had just scored his first point of the game. He set up Darragh Fitzgibbon for a point, hit a wide and then converted from play. And then the emphatic play when he went skating at unreal pace towards the Limerick goal. He was pulled down by Hayes, and referee Sean Stack adjudged it to be a goal-scoring opportunity. Penalty. Hoggie time. Patrick Horgan buried it. Cork win. Cue unbridled joy.
By the final whistle, Cork had more shots than Limerick; 41 to 39. And now it’s all ancient history. The only thing that matters is what happens this Sunday in the TUS Gaelic Grounds when Cork come to town, with Limerick looking to avenge that, and the All-Ireland semi-final defeat last year.
So what do they do, if all their ancient pillars are no longer the sources of strength they once were? The former Limerick footballer and underage hurler Stephen Lavin has some thoughts. His GameSense Coaching company is formed out of his experience of coaching with the Limerick football academy, a venture he joined the year after he retired as a county footballer to get on board in time for 2014.
Signing up at the same time was Paul Kinnerk. His talents as a hurling coach tends to eclipse his grounding in football and his years spent playing for the county in the big ball. “Paul was there from 2014 until about 2022,” recalls Lavin, a teacher at Scoil Naomh Iósaf in Adare.
“I’d say you could count on one hand the amount of times he missed a session in the eight years. That’s a fact, now.
“He played football for Limerick, he was there for us a lot of years. Just injured a lot, the hamstrings killed him. But he has a real soft spot for football, Limerick football in particular.”
Others have gotten involved in the Academy. Lavin would draw up plans for each Saturday morning session and on a Thursday, forward them to Kinnerk. Some healthy feedback would be teased out in order to get the best possible session for the young lads, based on guiding principles.
Another was Stephen Lucey. He might have played an All-Ireland hurling final for Limerick, but he helped out with football. “Well, there’s probably enough people looking after Limerick hurling. A very small crowd looking after the football,” laughs Lavin. He wouldn’t baulk at the description of being a coaching disciple of Kinnerk.
“Paul was doing a PhD,” recalls Lavin, “and his PhD was on the effects of a game-based design, against what we will call a more traditional linear training, or drills.
“Look, he took us through an awful lot of the theory and stuff. Up to then we would always have handed in our sessions to Paul and he would always have given us feedback on our sessions. He was guiding us from a design point of view of the sessions.
“The general idea of a game-based session is that the games have a purpose. The games in general would encourage principles of play.
“So like, basic stuff like the game might encourage width, or looping play. Or some defensive moment in the game or support. Whatever it might encourage, it would be a principle.
“The way to look at a principle, it’s like an instruction. A good habit when you play the game.”
How then have Cork closed that gap to Limerick? Is it a case that every serious team have adopted the Limerick coaching principles? He doesn’t claim to have any inside line on the Cork training field. But he knows what he can see with his eyes.
“For me, if you want to see something in a match, you must perform some version of it in training,” he says. “I will just go with Cork’s puckouts. When I am looking at it, they bring every single player back inside their own 65 and leave the three boys deep inside the 13. Then they have a number of options off that set-up.
“They have a short puckout to the full-back who will give it back to the keeper who will put a massive drive of a ball in on top of Brian Hayes. And you have the half-forward line running into that.”
He continues: “Another one they have is a short puckout, you have Darragh Fitzgibbon and Shane Barrett lined up in the middle of the field with loads of space on either side.
“You saw what they did last year when they had Declan Dalton going very deep, trying to isolate Shane Barrett on Declan Hannon.
“You cannot hope for that to go well in a game if you haven’t done it in training extensively.
“And then in my opinion, to have the movement required I think you have to play smaller-sided games first to expose you to more repetitions of the general idea. Then you get into larger-sided games in training to expose you to represent the game more. It’s more like the game, basically.
“That’s how I would do it. I just don’t know how Cork do it but it is clear that they have a very set way to play with Cork.”
Which is fine and well. But strategy alone will not butter the parsnips. Cork have a supreme group of athletes. Serious speed. They have options.
“If you were looking at Cork, you’d have to say they pass and move the ball very well. That’s a principle. They use the space on the field. How you use the space on the field is massive,” says Lavin.
“Is it width? Do they spread teams out as much as possible? Do they leave the boys deep inside? Depth is another principle. I’m not sure if they use that vocabulary. But it’s all there.”
As a hurler with Adare, Lavin is entirely familiar with the charms of clubmate Declan Hannon as a player. But injuries have been his lot this season. The later deployment of Kyle Hayes to centre-back all the same looks like a switch made with Cork in mind.
Perhaps if Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins looks to play a give and go from a puckout to gain the extra 20 yards or so, before raining down ball on top of Brian Hayes, he could have Dan Morrissey chasing behind him with Hayes directly in front. Who would want to be the ham in that particular sandwich?
“That might not be enough though,” says Lavin. “You could have the most principled and well drilled team. And if you come up against another team that have a supreme group of athletes who can play hurling, that might not be enough.
“It makes for great intrigue this week, to see what happens between the two of them. It should be an absolute cracking match.”
For excitement, emotion and tactical appreciation, in every way.
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Cork GAA Limerick Munster hurling