Pass mastery will go long way towards deciding this

The Ciotóg side: The 42nd minute of the 2004 All-Ireland final: Michael Kavanagh picks up a ball in the left corner back's precincts.

The St Lachtain's man assesses his options before striking, seeking a colleague for a percentaged clearance. Nothing is on in that vein. Kavanagh has to sky a ball into his half-forward line, where the sliotar is batted down by Diarmuid O'Sullivan and cleared away by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín to the Rebel attack.

Reducing a team's later fortunes to a single moment is a risky gambit. But journalists, from time to time, must indulge this fiction, so as to gain some purchase on a side's governing dynamics.

For this observer, that passage of play represented the end of what Enda McEvoy in the Sunday Tribune memorably termed "demolition derby hurling". A productive mode - fetching half-forwards, able to winnow possession out of blunt clearances - had become more of a muddle.

There was a lot of talk about the 2002-'03 Kilkenny team's greatness after the latter title was won. Such assessments evinced media preference for hype over serious analysis. Even people who should have known better lost the run of themselves. Anticipating the 2004 season, Nicky Cashin, newly installed as a Waterford selector, held that Noreside would win seven of the next 11 championships. Nobody, at the time, demurred.

There was scarce little reason to reach this verdict. At the most generous count, and including James McGarry, there were no more than six outstanding hurlers on 2003's combination (a side that included two grip-changers and two cack-handers in their back eight). 1975's champions from the same county included 10 outstanding hurlers on the most parsimonious count (and a grip-changer, admittedly, in centre forward Pat Delaney, as is rarely noted).

The governing issue for any outfit's pattern of play is how they attempt to create space for themselves. This element is each side's DNA, as 'twere. Particularly relevant is how their defenders go about making space for their attack.

There are many fascinating elements to the meeting of Cork and Kilkenny in nine days' time.

As was flagged in the very first instalment of this column, the most gripping aspect of all will be how the Noresiders manage (or do not manage) to gain latitude in Leeside's defence.

The fact that Cork come at this stage with a transparent gameplan is neither here nor there as regards stopping it.

The only recent nuance is Red and White favoured a more direct approach for stretches against Waterford, moving the ball with greater alacrity into their full forwards.

Black and Amber have rejigged at the back, not just through natural attrition, such as Peter Barry's retirement, but so as to strike clearances with more finesse. Very likely, this rationale determined Tommy Walsh's relocation to wing back.

It also fostered the emergence of John Tennyson, usually clever with possession, at centre back. Following 2004's denouement, the benchmark for defenders became Ronan Curran's beautiful angled ball in the final's 49th minute, a delivery that allowed Kieran Murphy to escape Noel Hickey and pick off a crucial point, one that ultimately won the title for Cork.

The men in stripes had been playing too much in straight lines, had become too predictable even for a crew so long on the road. This 2004 trait re-entered their play at times in 2006's semi-final. While Cha Fitzpatrick was tremendous at midfield against Clare, some of his deliveries stuck too closely to a groove along the middle. Against the current Rebel backs, the 40-yard switch-ball will be more effective than the 70-yard drive through the centre.

There was a glimpse in the 40th minute of last weekend's under-21 semi-final against Galway of what the Marble men will need in two weekends' time. Fitzpatrick won a broken puckout, took off, deftly sidestepped a tackle back on to his left side and arrowed a flat diagonal ball towards Maurice Nolan, over on the left wing. Nolan gathered and smartly pointed.

Typing is easy. Hurling is difficult, particularly against a team as good as the current Leesiders. People often speak in awed terms of the point with which Kilkenny drew the 1993 Leinster final. All craft and calculation, all coldness in the head: Liam Simpson to Bill Hennessy to Adrian Ronan to Éamonn Morrissey. It has been hailed as the score of the decade.

Give Cork their proper due. Most admirably, they seek to score several such points in each contest. A notable example was the aftermath of Eoin Kelly's penalty in the 2005 Munster final. The ball was brought out by Pat Mulcahy, having received from Dónal Óg Cusack. The current captain then placed a short pass to John Gardiner. The Na Piarsaigh man came further and transferred to Kieran Murphy, who soloed off and pointed. If not of quite so startling a standard as that effort in 1993, it was tailored from the same cloth.

To suppress these surges, you have to nip the scud by preventing Rebel backs feeding midfield. Deliveries forward are therefore doubly important. Cork have been leading the way by punishing unthinking deliveries by the opposition's back eight with unusual severity. How good a target Michael Kavanagh will have for his clearances will go a long way towards deciding this clash.