Last weekend 48,360 watched the Clare-Kilkenny hurling semi-final in person. Clare were five points down at the half-time break. By the 54th minute they were two ahead. For the first 19 mins of the second half, they had a different intent. You could sense a different energy to them. Something appeared to have changed.
After the match, Clare manager Brian Lohan referenced a tactical shift at half time. Clare changed their plan, now playing with no sweeper. Meaning the Kilkenny backs had to mark six forwards. Unfortunately for Clare, they couldn’t hold this course and lost by three in the end.
This decision brought my attention to a couple of things relevant to this weekend.
You cut your cloth according to your situation. Meaning you make decisions on what you have, not what you would like to have. Supplemented by real-time data, these decisions are based largely on what your eyes are telling you. That’s what Brian Lohan and Clare did.
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Think of the four teams this weekend: Derry, Dublin, Kerry and Monaghan. This year, each possesses their own unique identity that suits who they are and what they are trying to do. The diversity to each style of play, specific set-ups for kick-outs, the way each side manages a game, who manages their game, man-marking tendencies, how each prefers to move the ball.
Take Derry. They are really fluid in a positional sense. You will regularly see their full-back line committing all the way to the opposition goal. Hanging around the opposition’s small parallelogram, bustling around inside the 21-metre line making forward-style runs to get on ball. And they’re well able to score too.
The crucial score in the quarter-final against Cork came from Conor Doherty. He wasn’t just in the forward line to fill space or be a decoy. He was an attacking threat – when he got possession, a practised skill and speed of thought were evident. His dummy bounce around the first Cork player caught the eye. Then he calmly finished to the net with two Cork defenders and the goalkeeper still to beat.
So that poses a question for anyone playing against Derry. If you are marking the likes of Doherty as a forward, do you track him as a forward? Don’t track him and it can compromise your defence, letting him in to score a goal like he did. Do track him and you are roughly 135 metres away from where you, as a forward, were hoping to do damage. What Kerry do here will be interesting.
Kerry normally prefer to move the ball at pace by the foot. They seek out opportunities to isolate their offensive players one-on-one in the space of Croke Park.
In their quarter-final two weeks ago, Kerry had 24 turnovers against Tyrone. Twenty of them were inside their own 45-metre line. This gives many opportunities for a Tom O’Sullivan coming from their defence, or Diarmuid O’Connor looking for an inside forward from their midfield area. All their players are accomplished kick passers with both feet, meaning there is plenty of space to find across the 88-metre wide Croke Park.
For Kerry it’s not just a kick pass. It’s the runners at pace that simultaneously come from two or three other angles – players like Paudie Clifford, Adrian Spillane or Seán O’Shea. They are found perfectly coming off the shoulder from the man who just received the ball inside the D.
If you look back to Mayo beating Kerry in Killarney this year, there are some clues to pick up on. I noticed a few examples in that game of the Kerry players out of control. Even back-chatting with each other. If Derry can disrupt Kerry’s pace of attack and have them running back towards their own goal, they will really frustrate Jack O’Connor’s team.
Dublin and Monaghan both go into their semi-final with many different reasons to have high confidence. For Monaghan, the belief they will have gained from going deep to carve out a result against Armagh is not to be underestimated. This will have nicely added to their levels of togetherness.
They have the layers experience too. Rory Beggan, Ryan Wylie, Conor Boyle, Kieran Duffy, Darren Hughes, Conor McManus and others know how to attack this type of game. Monaghan like playing against Dublin. Often their go-to players come to life and go for it when the stakes are highest.
Like Derry, their scores can come from many angles. In saying that, they scored just 12 points in normal time versus Armagh in their last game. You suspect they will need more regular umpire activity to distract the cohesion of the Dublin defence – especially from players of the calibre of Jack McCarron, Micheál Bannigan and Dessie Ward.
For Dublin, the momentum they generated in the second half versus Mayo is a timely reminder of the power and prowess they possess. The squad will be really looking forward to continuing where they left off, knowing only too well that one misplaced step could end their year.
Although players such as Colm Basquel are catching the eye, I sense there are a couple more just bubbling under the surface waiting to strike. Croke Park on Saturday would be the perfect place to explode.
This weekend we get to see individual players articulate innovative ideas and skill – think of David Clifford’s no-look over his right shoulder kick pass versus Tyrone. But these ideas and skills in a play are generated by communities.
Picasso is one of the worlds most accomplished painters. His individual creative intelligence led to paintings such as ‘Les femmes d’Alger’ – which was sold for $179.4 million (€159.8 million). They referred to him as a genius. Picasso stated many times that he didn’t act alone. He was a beneficiary of a fertile environment that had many contributors combining in unison.
The creative intelligence of a whole community is known as scenius. Everyone acting as one. In the two semi-finals this weekend, I feel scenius is a more accurate indicator of what might happen – how well are teams connected, left-to-right and right-to-left?
My best guess is that the teams that have trained all along to tap into the possibilities of that community-created behaviour will advance forward. Dublin have the potential and consistent connection of Con O’Callaghan, Niall Scully, Brian Fenton, John Small, Eoin Murchan and Stephen Cluxton, preventing many scores across 70 minutes of play.
Win this weekend and the prize is the most exciting of them all – July 30th, Croke Park.
