A look back at the game between Cork and Clare in the second round of the Munster Championship gives a small indication of what we might have to look forward to on Sunday.
On that day 14 of the Cork team that started the semi-final started. Clare had similar consistency, with Conor Leen getting his Championship debut as a sub that day and Tony Kelly added into the mix since.
Cork v Clare in Munster: what we can learn
The meeting between the two sides on April 28th was a classic, Clare winning out by 3-26 to Cork 3-24. It hasn’t been widely talked about as it was hidden from many on GAAGo, but it was a brilliant game which ebbed and flowed. In fact, there has only been one higher-scoring game all summer, and that also took place in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, when Cork beat Limerick 3-28 to 3-26 just a few weeks later.
It must be caveated that this game was impacted by the sending off of Sean O’Donoghue in 51st minute, at a time when Cork were leading by a point.
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The game was played a week after Cork performed poorly against Waterford, and Pat Ryan rang the changes, making six switches in personnel. This was a large departure from what he felt was his first 15 after the league campaign, and the team has remained consistent since.
The player who missed out against Clare was Mark Coleman. If he plays on Sunday he could potentially be a chink for Clare to expose. Limerick got joy off Coleman in the semi-final, as he fouled three times in the second half in contests for possession against physical Limerick men.
Ciaran Joyce was centre back that day, while Tim O’Mahony struggled badly on the wing with Peter Duggan who got man of the match with a colossal display. Joyce is well suited to Duggan and is likely to be deployed on him, with Rob Downey having made the centre back berth his own since. This is where some questions come into team selection for Cork. Do they move Coleman to midfield to cater for Tony Kelly? It would be a good match up, and Coleman could equally do damage off Kelly going in the other direction too.
A string that Clare have added to their bow since that early season encounter is moving Shane O’Donnell out to centre forward for periods of games. He did this effectively against Wexford, as Clare raced into an early lead with the Wexford shape being pulled around, often dictated by Damien Reck becoming unbalanced.
O’Donnell’s positioning asked Kilkenny some challenging questions in the semi-final, but without much impact on the scoreboard. O’Donnell is likely to do damage wherever he is positioned, and Cork just have to try to minimise this. In the Munster fixture, he was highly effective, scoring 1-1, assisting 1-3 and winning another three frees which were converted. A direct 2-7 impact on the game. Kelly positioned at centre forward and O’Donnell at full forward for periods could ask questions of Cork their defence may not have the answers to.
There will be similar questions for Brian Lohan at the other end in terms of defensive match-ups. There are several match-ups that suit, and then others that possibly don’t. The big one is can John Conlon manage to stem the effectiveness of Shane Barrett for the contest. Barrett pulled Conlon wide for a lot of the Munster game, and another interesting part of this duel will be the puckout battle, which we will explore more shortly.
Alan Connolly and Adam Hogan is a standout contest – the first day Hogan managed to curb the influence of the Connolly, who sniped two points off Conor Cleary in the 22nd (play) and 24th (free won) minute before Hogan took over with a more regimented man-marking job. Hogan was irate as he was adjudged to have conceded a free in the 66th minute, which Patrick Horgan dispatched to the net while Clare argued the decision.
What will Clare do with Declan Dalton dropping a little deeper and creating that distance shooting option? It also creates space inside for the full forward line, and leaves a gap for Fitzgibbon to gallop into. Do they get Diarmuid Ryan to push on a bit more and get Dalton on the back foot? Ryan has played in more progressive attacking roles previously in the Fitzgibbon Cup with Mary Immaculate College and could revel in an expansive role.
Another option for Clare would be to get John Conlon to step on Dalton and for Ryan to play the centre back role and mark Barrett. In the closing stages of the Clare/Wexford game, Ryan finished as the plus-one player, but this was against 14 man Wexford.
Cathal Malone will likely be tasked with trying to curb Fitzgibbon, a job that will fully occupy him. The initial match ups are likely to stay in line with what we’ve seen, but in game adjustments will be crucial for both teams.
Cork’s puckout
As highlighted in a previous column, Clare really managed to dismantle the Cork puckout in the second half of their Munster meeting, as Peter Duggan was instrumental in clogging the space for the Cork runners. In the second half of this game Clare won 11/21 of Cork puck outs, scoring 2-5 directly from these.
This success may be something that comes back to hurt Clare, as subsequently Cork started to successfully utilise their puckout down the centre, a play which managed to cause Limerick such problems on the two occasions they met this summer. Clare have been good in terms of puckout defence throughout the championship with their powerful half back line and deep lying forwards. How will they fare against the upgraded multi-faceted Cork puckout?
Clare’s puckout
As mentioned above, Duggan was man of the match in the Munster Championship clash, and was a key target for Clare goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan throughout the game. Duggan won five Clare puckouts himself and another nine were targeted at him with Clare winning 4/9 breaks. So that is a total of 9/14 (64%) of puckouts directed at the big man.
That is a big return considering the area of the field they are hit into. Clare managed to isolate him well with a puckout in the 23rd minute as they brought eight men back deep inside their own half; Cork followed their men and left Duggan completely isolated with Tim O’Mahony. But Clare’s puckout outside of targetting Duggan is not one of their strengths, and is an area Cork will look to try and profit from.
Bench impact
Before his ACL injury last year, Ryan Taylor was a key component of the Clare attack, in that he carried the ball a lot and was a worker for others to feed off. In fact in the Munster championship in 2023 before his injury, he carried/soloed 77% of all of his possessions.
In the semi-final when introduced against Kilkenny he carried the ball on three occasions, creating two scores in his first two possessions, and he was then willing to carry the ball out of defence in the final play of the game from under the corner of the Hogan Stand. He represents a new dynamic which will add to Clare in possession when introduced.
Ian Galvin has been playing further advanced and has contributed on the scoreboard, scoring 1-6 when introduced. How Clare utilise Aron Shanagher and the different threat he brings is another string to their bow.
Cork though have their own firepower on the bench, and the players they bring on can ask very different questions to the players they are replacing. For instance, while it didn’t bring real rewards against Limerick in the semi-final, Shane Kingston replacing Dalton and Robbie O’Flynn replacing Seamus Harnedy, is not a case of like-for-like.
Their introduction is something Brian Lohan and his management team are likely to have thought out also. Kingston made a huge impact the first day against Limerick and the pace of both is scary – they’ve scored 1-10 between them in the Championship from limited minutes.
Outcome
Both teams have attacking threats that the other may struggle with. The scores for and against for the entire Championship highlight Cork are the top scorers per game, while Clare would be top three also if it wasn’t for a poor shooting day against Kilkenny. They also both have the worst defences on average of the six teams that progressed from the provincial groups. This would indicate that we have a high scoring thriller in store.
Personally, I can see Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly proving too hot to handle for Cork, with Clare landing Liam by a narrow margin.
Paul O’Brien is a performance analyst with The Performance Process (twitter.com/NoPlanBGAA).
