Jim Gavin may have doubled back from calling Sunday's opposition "the most defensive Cork team he had ever seen" but no one is being fooled into thinking this Allianz Football League final will be won on attacking flair alone.
When the teams last met, on an icy beginning to February, Dublin were held to 0-16 as Cork out-scored them by five points to one in the closing minutes, finishing with 1-15. Since then, however, Dublin have actually proved far more defensive-orientated, averaging 1-14 in their eight games, while conceding an average of only 0-13 (Cork, as it turned out, were one of only two teams to put a goal past Dublin, with Monaghan being the other).
Defensive record
Cork, meanwhile, went on to average 2-15 in their eight games, while conceding an average of 1-14: indeed Cork ended up with the second worst defensive record in Division One, conceding a total of 7-90 (only Kerry conceded more, 9-90).
So, while Gavin came out this week reappraising Cork as “being in a league of their own this year”, Cork’s immediate challenge may well be to become the most defensive Cork team he has ever seen. And not far from the memory of either team is last year’s league semi-final meeting, when Cork’s defence completely fell apart, allowing Dublin to recover from a 10-point deficit to win by seven.
If, however, part of any defensive strategy is having an innate understanding of the player next to you, then Cork may have a possible advantage. Because Colm O’Driscoll, who typically plays as a sweeper or else mans the space between the half-forward and half-back lines, has for most of this season being playing alongside one or both of his brothers.
Sixth sense
While younger brother Brian will miss out on Sunday’s final because of a hamstring injury, it’s almost certain manager
Brian Cuthbert
will once again name Colm and Kevin in the half-forward line. They may not share a sixth sense, but they can probably sense each other’s positioning better than most.
“I’ve been playing with him [Kevin] since he was seven or eight years old, so that’s the bones of 16, 17 years now,” says Colm O’Driscoll. “If you don’t know a fella after that much time, I don’t think you’ll ever know him. It’s nice to look across and see a familiar face on the other side, your own flesh and blood, playing 30 yards away from you.
“But all intercounty players are intelligent fellas. They know when they need to defend and when they need to attack. I think that’s down to communication around the field. and fellas seeing each other a few times every week. The more you get to know a fella, the more you understand how he plays.”
Dynamic players
Although two months shy of turning 27, O’Driscoll is still a relative newcomer to the Cork senior set-up. He was not cut from the long, rangy cloth that previous manager
Conor Counihan
favoured, and it was only when Cuthbert came in and starting looking around for smaller more dynamic players that O’Driscoll, who had won an All-Ireland under-21 back in 2009, got his chance.
"I didn't get a lot of a look in back then, to be honest," he says. "It was a different management. They had a lot of very, very good players at their disposal. It was a very tough team to break into, to be fair. I don't think many fellas broke into it. I think Aidan Walsh and Ciarán Sheehan, who were exceptional athletes, were the only two to break into it. There were a lot of big men on the team at that time and when you're standing at 5'8, you wouldn't be classed as a big man."
It may or may not have helped that O’Driscoll, who plays his club football with junior side Tadhg MacCárthaigh, once played hurling alongside Cuthbert with the Bishopstown club (back in 2006); what is certain, however, is that his style of football fits neatly into what Cuthbert is looking for.
Nature of the opposition
Cork certainly can play a defensive game, and ended up with 251 hand passes in their semi-final win over Donegal
That, says O’Driscoll was partly down to the nature of the opposition. “When you have the ball, you’re not going to be giving it away, certainly not to top sides.
“I think that was an unfair reflection, to be honest. In the last five or six minutes, we just tried to keep the ball as best we could, so that definitely bumped up the hand-passes. You try and work scores as best you can, especially against a blanket defence like Donegal.”
Cork may have another possible advantage in that they have never actually lost a league final to Dublin, winning the previous four finals, in 1952, 1989, 1999, and 2011.
“You sit down, and you look at the opposition, and the management decides what way you play,” says O’Driscoll. “And you just implement that.”
Defence, perhaps, being the best form of attack?
