AFTER DERRY WON their third game on the bounce over Offaly in round 4 of the league, manager Ciaran Meenagh and the management team left Celtic Park and immediately went to the team’s training base in Owenbeg.
There, Meenagh laid it all out to his selectors. He had already been to see Cork twice this season, but he wanted everybody else on exactly the same page as to how they would spend the next eight days preparing to face and beat Cork.
While they were putting their plans in place, Cork still had to face Meath in the league the following day.
What Meenagh has with this team is the power of knowing he was wanted. Truth be told as he mentioned after the game, he thought this year he would still be in the Down background team assisting Conor Laverty.
But then word was sent to him that the Derry players wanted him back.
That gives him two things - power and loyalty.
Of course, we are talking about the changed rules here and more space than there has been in the game in decades.
But Derry broke all their scoring records in the win over Cork; before yesterday, they had never kicked more than 26 points in a game.
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Key to this was the dismantling of Micheál Aodh Martin’s kick outs in the first half, of which he had 15.
Coming into this game, there was a good old spin on the Cork football story. It wasn’t just the usual, local sources getting giddy, but others around the country.
Part of that was down to the variance of kick outs, which seemed to spread throughout the team to include a kicking game.
Last year, practically Cork’s kick outs were largely based on the tactic of loading the big units onto one wing. This season, there was ample evidence that they were looking for more variety.
With the wind at his back he got away his first short. The same with his third and his second and fourth were mid-range ones, all successfully completed.
Derry then implemented a press.
Martin’s next one drifted over the sideline. His next was a medium that Lachlan Murray turned over. That heralded a collapse, with six ending with Derry possession as they built their attacks with a variance of approaches.
They got level for the first time on 29 minutes, a kickout caught by Brendan Rogers converted by Murray, followed by another that drifted over the sideline and the same player fisted over.
Derry hit the front when Ethan Doherty snaffled a medium range kickout and Niall Loughlin pointed.
The last kickout of the half did serious damage, the ball looked to be bouncing into Cork hands, but Conor Glass cleverly used his body to shield the ball before Ruairí Forbes collected.
From the resulting move, Loughlin played to Glass who produced an Andrea Pirlo special to find Lachlan Murray heading towards Martin’s goal, who composed himself to power to the net.
Lachlan Murray blasts to the net. Lorcan Doherty / INPHO
Lorcan Doherty / INPHO / INPHO
Everything that Derry once did well was there in the cuteness of Glass, and the athleticism of Forbes. But the defence-splitting pass was brand new.
Speaking afterwards about the plans laid in Owenbeg around Martin, Meenagh said, “In the first ten or fifteen minutes of the game when we were trying to go zonal for the sake of going zonal against Micheál Aodh Martin. He’s unbelievable in terms of straight in front, and to his left-hand side.
“We were trying to be too smart. It was a situation where we had to get man-to-man in the first line, and then the further we got from him to be a bit more zonal; he’s not as strong to his right-hand side.
“We had all that work done, but we were very frustrated with the players early on in terms of their attitude to how they closed him down.
Derry's Paul Cassidy and Cork's Micheál Aodh Martin.
“So, we got that message on to the field, we got that rectified, and I think we won eight of their last ten kick-outs at the end of the first half. That gave us the platform then to build ourselves into the game and to be leading at half-time.”
If you think he’s sharing plenty about his thought processes there, then he also mentioned that they really went for the jugular in the first ten minutes of the second half, with Martin now kicking into a breeze that wouldn’t quit.
By the end of that ten-minute period, Derry were winning 1-20 to 0-10. It was a wipeout. Cork were knocked out by that stage, stumbling on with a team deprived of suspended midfielder Ian Maguire, their captain in club action yesterday due to last Sunday’s red card against Meath, while key defender Tommy Walsh and forward Mark Cronin were also absent.
Ciaran Meenagh speaks to the Derry players.
The job that Meenagh and his backroom team did in Owenbeg had to be somewhat on the hoof.
While Martin has been Cork’s established goalkeeper for the last few seasons, Knocknagree’s Patrick Doyle started this year in wins over Cavan and Louth. He also started against Offaly, but came off injured in the last quarter, Martin replacing him.
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Once he played against Meath last week, the Derry management knew where they were going with their analysis.
What this result does is not only put Derry into a situation where you cannot imagine them not getting promotion, but it severely damages Cork’s bid. They now have to rely on favours elsewhere, while they could have had easier tussles than Kildare at home and Tyrone away to see out the campaign.
“Someone was saying we could get one (win) and be promoted and get two and not be promoted,” said Rebels boss John Cleary, as he was hurrying out of the Celtic Park dressing room with a train from Dublin to Cork awaiting after a three and a half hour bus journey.
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Kickouts key as dominant Derry inflict major damage on Cork's promotion bid
AFTER DERRY WON their third game on the bounce over Offaly in round 4 of the league, manager Ciaran Meenagh and the management team left Celtic Park and immediately went to the team’s training base in Owenbeg.
There, Meenagh laid it all out to his selectors. He had already been to see Cork twice this season, but he wanted everybody else on exactly the same page as to how they would spend the next eight days preparing to face and beat Cork.
While they were putting their plans in place, Cork still had to face Meath in the league the following day.
What Meenagh has with this team is the power of knowing he was wanted. Truth be told as he mentioned after the game, he thought this year he would still be in the Down background team assisting Conor Laverty.
But then word was sent to him that the Derry players wanted him back.
That gives him two things - power and loyalty.
Of course, we are talking about the changed rules here and more space than there has been in the game in decades.
But Derry broke all their scoring records in the win over Cork; before yesterday, they had never kicked more than 26 points in a game.
Key to this was the dismantling of Micheál Aodh Martin’s kick outs in the first half, of which he had 15.
Coming into this game, there was a good old spin on the Cork football story. It wasn’t just the usual, local sources getting giddy, but others around the country.
Part of that was down to the variance of kick outs, which seemed to spread throughout the team to include a kicking game.
Last year, practically Cork’s kick outs were largely based on the tactic of loading the big units onto one wing. This season, there was ample evidence that they were looking for more variety.
With the wind at his back he got away his first short. The same with his third and his second and fourth were mid-range ones, all successfully completed.
Derry then implemented a press.
Martin’s next one drifted over the sideline. His next was a medium that Lachlan Murray turned over. That heralded a collapse, with six ending with Derry possession as they built their attacks with a variance of approaches.
They got level for the first time on 29 minutes, a kickout caught by Brendan Rogers converted by Murray, followed by another that drifted over the sideline and the same player fisted over.
Derry hit the front when Ethan Doherty snaffled a medium range kickout and Niall Loughlin pointed.
The last kickout of the half did serious damage, the ball looked to be bouncing into Cork hands, but Conor Glass cleverly used his body to shield the ball before Ruairí Forbes collected.
From the resulting move, Loughlin played to Glass who produced an Andrea Pirlo special to find Lachlan Murray heading towards Martin’s goal, who composed himself to power to the net.
Everything that Derry once did well was there in the cuteness of Glass, and the athleticism of Forbes. But the defence-splitting pass was brand new.
Speaking afterwards about the plans laid in Owenbeg around Martin, Meenagh said, “In the first ten or fifteen minutes of the game when we were trying to go zonal for the sake of going zonal against Micheál Aodh Martin. He’s unbelievable in terms of straight in front, and to his left-hand side.
“We had all that work done, but we were very frustrated with the players early on in terms of their attitude to how they closed him down.
“So, we got that message on to the field, we got that rectified, and I think we won eight of their last ten kick-outs at the end of the first half. That gave us the platform then to build ourselves into the game and to be leading at half-time.”
If you think he’s sharing plenty about his thought processes there, then he also mentioned that they really went for the jugular in the first ten minutes of the second half, with Martin now kicking into a breeze that wouldn’t quit.
By the end of that ten-minute period, Derry were winning 1-20 to 0-10. It was a wipeout. Cork were knocked out by that stage, stumbling on with a team deprived of suspended midfielder Ian Maguire, their captain in club action yesterday due to last Sunday’s red card against Meath, while key defender Tommy Walsh and forward Mark Cronin were also absent.
The job that Meenagh and his backroom team did in Owenbeg had to be somewhat on the hoof.
While Martin has been Cork’s established goalkeeper for the last few seasons, Knocknagree’s Patrick Doyle started this year in wins over Cavan and Louth. He also started against Offaly, but came off injured in the last quarter, Martin replacing him.
Once he played against Meath last week, the Derry management knew where they were going with their analysis.
What this result does is not only put Derry into a situation where you cannot imagine them not getting promotion, but it severely damages Cork’s bid. They now have to rely on favours elsewhere, while they could have had easier tussles than Kildare at home and Tyrone away to see out the campaign.
“Someone was saying we could get one (win) and be promoted and get two and not be promoted,” said Rebels boss John Cleary, as he was hurrying out of the Celtic Park dressing room with a train from Dublin to Cork awaiting after a three and a half hour bus journey.
A long route home, in many ways.
*****
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