Nicky English: Cork are not comfortable with a sweeper

For anyone expecting the hurling championship to start with a bang, this weekend was a serious disappointment.

Not alone did it not start with a bang, it hardly got off the ground either in Croke Park on Saturday or in Thurles a day later.

The quality of Dublin-Wexford was poor, and Tipperary-Cork was a damp squib in every sense.

Everyone knew that Cork would set up with a sweeper but they didn’t seem at all comfortable playing in that style.

They might not have conceded a goal, which might have been the overriding intention, but Tipperary’s Séamus Callanan and Bubbles O’Dwyer rediscovered their championship form after a difficult league campaign and scored plenty, while Cork left themselves short up front.

They also got mixed up between the physical intensity required of a big championship occasion and niggling aggression, trying to upset Tipperary’s rhythm. Yet that petered out as soon as Barry Kelly began flashing a few necessary yellow cards to quieten things down.

With that sorted out, Tipperary moved smoothly into a decent, six-point lead, and you just couldn't see a way back for Cork.

There is so much focus on the use of sweepers that it can lead to confusion. Cork used William Egan as the spare defender. I thought his use of the ball was poor, and he was positioned too deep for the role.

I would also argue that Tipperary did not use a sweeper but simply had a spare man because they were playing orthodox, 15 on 15, and Cork had only five attackers so that left Ronan Maher free. Tipperary were willing to trust their forwards to go six on seven and in the end it was Cork’s seventh man who was marginalised.

There’s more to playing sweeper than withdrawing a player, and I thought Egan needed to play more around the defence and in general the team needed to pick the right ball into the forwards.

Outnumbered attack

You could see the confidence draining out of Cork. They had played it a bit short, coming out of the back, but then got a jumpy and hammered the ball long into an outnumbered attack.

Cork were also being dominated at midfield by Brendan Maher – he played his best game for Tipperary in a long while – and Michael Breen, and while Aidan Walsh made a bit of a difference when he came on it was too little, too late.

Michael Ryan brought in new players and they provided physicality and work rate, especially in the half forwards. Overall the team was simply better than Cork.

Anyone coming out of Croke Park two years ago after the All-Ireland semi-final would have said there was now a huge gap between the counties, and the reality is that has not changed.

The word was that Cork were going well in training and had played well in recent challenge matches but one of those was against Wexford and we saw where Wexford are on Saturday evening.

Sharp form

With that advantage at the back, the Mahers – Pádraic and Ronan – were giving really good ball into their attack and the half forwards were working hard. Most importantly, Bubbles O’Dwyer and Séamie Callanan showed that they were in sharp form and scores came.

Tipperary were also able to bring on very good subs, showing a panel depth that Cork – apart from maybe Aidan Walsh – were not able to match.

Cork’s touch wasn’t good either, and that was another difference between the teams. Even Séamus Harnedy, who is one of Cork’s best players, wasn’t assured on the ball and that comes against a team when half chances present themselves.

I never liked playing in the rain, and used to complain about wet conditions. Yet I remember older players from the 1960s saying that more skilful teams actually had even more of an advantage in that sort of weather, and I think we saw that in Thurles.

Tipperary’s hurling ability is much better than Cork’s.

I don’t think Cork should stick to the sweeper system in the qualifiers. It’s a hard tactic to play well.

I can understand that they might have been concerned about Callanan, and Kieran Kingston probably felt that keeping out goals should be a priority but look at it the other way: they didn’t concede a goal but the sweeper system directly influenced the fact they scored only 13 points.

How many championship matches will that win?

No team playing a sweeper has won an All-Ireland. Even in 2013, Clare went orthodox in the final.

Ryan has every reason to be happy with the display even if Cork were poor.

His team showed composure and were physically strong. Pádraic Maher looked leaner and physically fitter than I’ve seen him in a number of years.

Of the teams on view this weekend, Tipperary are the only ones with legitimate All-Ireland ambitions.