I have to say, it’s a long time since I watched something happening tactically on a hurling field that got me thinking as much as Wexford’s first 50 minutes last Sunday.
Joining the lads on the The Irish Times ’s Added Time podcast on Monday morning, I described it as being beautiful to watch. So fluid, so free-flowing, so much off-the-shoulder running. It reminded me at times of the Dublin football team, the way they used the width of the pitch, creating space and making chance after chance.
I’ve said plenty of times, here and elsewhere, that I’m not a fan of the sweeper system. But this made me think again. If you’re not reassessing what you think about hurling after watching that, I think you’re too set in your ways.
Okay, Wexford didn’t win but I came away feeling that there must be a future in that way of playing. I couldn’t wait to sit down and pick through the video to see how it all worked.
There was nothing too surprising in the way they started the game. After 14 seconds, Paudie Foley planted his foot in the ground and launched a monster of a point from just inside his own half. On watching it back, it's noticeable while the ball is sailing over the bar, it passes over the heads of wing-back Shaun Murphy and corner-back Simon Donoghue, both of whom have got ahead of him as running options.
That’s natural enough, in fairness. We’ve seen it from Wexford before and if they’re ever going to do it, the start of the game is the time. Adrenaline can take you places you wouldn’t normally go and there’s never more adrenaline than just after throw-in. You don’t want to be there waiting on the game to come to you.
But the really striking thing about Wexford on Sunday was that time and time and time again, especially for the rest of that first half, their defenders showed a massive level of commitment to attacking. This wasn’t just chancing it the odd time when the ball broke loose. This was systematic, deliberate and relentless. And an absolute joy to watch.
Watching it back, there were times when I was honestly shocked at the bravery of it. Remember, they weren’t just playing anyone here. They were playing Tipperary and they were marking – or were supposed to be marking – the best set of forwards in the game.
Murphy was on Bubbles O’Dwyer, Donoghue was on Niall O’Meara. But there was no sense of battening down the hatches and keeping things tight until the game settled itself.
New level
Instead, here they were, in their first All-Ireland semi-final, bombing on any time they got the chance. Okay, they had a safety blanket in Kevin Foley that allowed them go for it but plenty of teams have played with plenty of sweepers in the past five years. None of them used it like this. It was taking the maxim, ‘Attack is the best form of defence’ to a whole new level.
I loved it. It was so refreshing to see on the day and even more to watch back. I found it almost challenging to go through it, watching it unfold and trying to keep tabs on who was doing what or where they were coming from. In that, I was joined by the Tipperary forwards who had to shadow their runs.
Less than a minute later after Foley’s score, Lee Chin had a shot half-blocked down, causing it to land near the Tipp endline. The flight of the ball deceived everybody but as it dropped down, Diarmuid O’Keeffe was on his own in 30 yards of space with only Tipp goalkeeper Brian Hogan in front of him. Unfortunately for Wexford, it deceived O’Keeffe as well so he had to take an extra couple of seconds to get it up into his possession.
When he got his head up and started cutting in on goal, Rory O’Connor had got up in support and O’Keeffe tried to find him with a looped ball into the centre but he overhit it.
At the time, everyone naturally followed the ball and saw O’Connor chase it out to the corner before cutting back inside to knock over Wexford’s second point. But watching it back, when O’Keeffe played the ball across, there was actually another Wexford body bursting into the Tipperary square.
It was Donoghue again. When Chin was taking his shot, Donoghue was in midfield standing about four yards goalside of O’Meara. But as soon as it was half-blocked and spun up into the air, he took off sprinting straight for the Tipperary goal. He took a gamble, left O’Meara for dead and was actually the better option for O’Keeffe cutting in.
A deflection off an attempted shot can go anywhere – it’s pure luck. But seeing the opening and blazing forward to take advantage of it when everybody else is back on their heels, that’s not luck. Donoghue was there by design. He knew he had that licence to get into positions Tipperary wouldn’t be expecting to see him in. And he went for it, right from the start.
They all did. From the resulting puck-out, Liam Ryan won the aerial duel and drove out of defence. A scrappy one-two found him driving into the Tipperary half and next thing you knew he was pointing a brilliant off-the-hurl strike over the bar. You’d know he had relations in Kilkenny!
He started that move 30 yards from his own defence and at no point did he hesitate or worry about who was minding the house. That’s the beauty of the system – Ryan could go ahead there and show he was comfortable in that area of the field, able to show off skills that are usually alien to full-backs and not worry about getting caught out.
Same question
Just past the three-minute mark, Conor McDonald played a sideline cut diagonally across the Tipp full-back line that was gathered up by Paudie Maher. He was 24 yards from his own goal and who’s the first man up to give him a hard tackle? Donoghue again! For the third time in the opening three minutes, he had offered himself as an attacking option by bursting forward and leaving O’Meara standing.
Think about the position this put O’Meara in. Three minutes into the game and his man had made three runs into the Tipp full-back line before O’Meara had even seen the ball. Straight away, he has to be asking himself, ‘What’s my job here? Am I trying to win ball and score points? Or am I trying to stop this lunatic from getting in for a goal down the other end?’
They could have had three more goals in that first half but weren't cool-headed enough to bury Tipperary
Go around the Tipperary attack and they all had to be asking themselves variations of the same question. After three minutes and 22 seconds, Matthew O’Hanlon won a foot race from his full-back line and drove out of defence, popping the ball to Jack O’Connor in midfield. As soon as O’Connor took possession, you could see Murphy haring off at the bottom of the screen. And a split second later, you could see Bubbles realising he was gone and he started chasing back.
They hadn’t even reached their own 65 with the ball at this point and already Wexford were away and gone. O’Connor soloed out with it and meanwhile, Murphy was sprinting up the pitch and had put six or seven yards between himself and Bubbles. O’Connor drew two Tipp players and played the handpass into Murphy, who stopped to allow Bubbles chase past him before jinking inside him and heading straight for goal.
Unfortunately for Wexford, Murphy shot for the net instead of slipping Conor McDonald in at the back post. Ronan Maher made a great block and the ball went out for a 65, which Chin scored to put them 0-4 to 0-1 ahead.
It was a good scoreline but it could have been so much better for Wexford. Less than four minutes gone on the clock and they should have had two goals by that stage.
The pattern continued. Tipp were in a spin, all over the place and nobody knowing exactly what to do about it. They weren’t covering the flanks, they weren’t tracking runners from deep.
Between the 15th and 25th minute, Wexford scored 1-05. In each case, one or other of Foley, Murphy, Donoghue or Ryan either scored, set up the score or won the free that resulted in the score. Of the 1-13 Wexford scored in the first half, 1-9 came from defenders scoring or setting up the attack all in the Tipperary half. Freestyle hurling. It was beautiful to watch.
Massive credit
All they needed was a bit more ruthlessness. They could have had three more goals in that first half but weren’t cool-headed enough to bury Tipperary when they had them.
I know 1-13 is a big score to put up in the first half of an All-Ireland semi-final but considering the way they had Tipp in such a spin, they could genuinely have made it 3-11. They could have killed the game there and then.
As it was, Tipperary deserve massive credit for hanging in there and finding a way back into the game. They started to make a few subtle structural changes. Seamie Callanan came out to the half-forward line and Noel McGrath dropped about 20 yards deeper as well. It meant they started cutting off some of that space that Murphy and Donoghue were steaming into from the start.
They went long with their last 14 puck-out and lost 10 of them. Tipp scored 0-9 from Mark Fanning's puck-outs.
As well as that, the Tipp forwards gradually became more alive to those runs and tracked them better.
The John McGrath sending off suited Tipperary more than Wexford. Combined with the fact Kevin Foley started to drop a bit deeper behind his full-back line, it meant more space opened up in that area between the midfield and the Tipp full-forward line. That’s where the Tipp subs did most damage when they came on – Willie Connors, Mark Kehoe, Ger Browne all scored from possession in this part of the pitch.
Shaun Murphy’s injury was a big moment too. Also, the Wexford puck-outs didn’t make use of their numerical advantage. They should have been going short and working the ball out. But maybe the sheer amount of physical effort they put into that opening half took its toll and they felt they couldn’t do it.
Either way, they went long with their last 14 puck-out and lost 10 of them. Tipp scored 0-9 from Mark Fanning’s puck-outs.
But most of all, Tipperary’s comeback was born out of a refusal to give in, out of character and heart. And now Wexford were reacting to them as the momentum shifted. Tipp players stood up everywhere. Their forwards were like bees buzzing. The Tipp half-back line of Brendan, Paudie and Ronan Maher were a wall. Ronan Maher refused to beaten any way, high or low.
It was a stand of defiance from them. Wexford struggled in that environment and their high-octane game of running from deep started to wane on them. It was a magnetic performance for 45 minutes from Wexford but they just came up short against a Tipperary team that refused to wilt.
At the end of it all, you could only say hats off to both teams.
