Old school hurling wins the day

I was on duty as a panel guest on Sunday for Tipp v Kilkenny with the great Henry Shefflin alongside me.

Anyone that knows Henry will know he is very calm and collected, regardless of what is going on, and it probably helped him to deliver time and time again as a player, and he was as such in the media area on Sunday despite what was unfolding in front of us out on the pitch.

I, on the other hand, was quite a different story and I believe there is a clip going around which proves this.

I really did try to keep it under wraps but as soon as Oisín O'Donoghue’s shot rattles that net I just had to let it all out and then try to return to media mode but it was too late for me at that stage and I just got lost in every play after that.

It’s who I am, I make no apologies for it. Some can keep it all under control but I am just not one of those, especially when my own place are involved, and I hope many who watched got a good laugh out of it.

It was just epic at Croke Park on Sunday. It had it all as we expect when these two teams clash: passion, belief, skill, nervous mistakes, a hurley broke for the first time in a while in championship hurling – love that sound by the way – and some wonder scores by both sides.

Then add in the drama of the sending off and the scoreboard, and you just had all the ingredients for what will go down as another brilliant chapter in the story of this famous rivalry between these two counties.

Saturday didn't live up to the same expectation, but what I did admire so much about Dublin was the bravery shown by their management and players in terms of their set-up and structure.

I feel Dublin knew that this was going to be a step too far this year for them to try and beat Cork, so the mindset possibly was: if we sit back and drop numbers to try and curb Cork, the chances are they will just work the ball up with the extra guy in defence, get it to a scoring zone and beat Dublin that way. If we follow and go man-on-man, yes, we will leave space, but at least we are going for this, and that was brave by Dublin, and I admire them for doing it.

What happened was that those 50 yards of space in front of their lethal full-forward line was just too much for the Dublin full-back line to try and deal with, and I actually feel that it would be too much for most full-back lines to try and deal with, such is the form those three inside for Cork are in right now.

So that’s the big question Tipp will need to ponder on in the coming days: will we sit or will we attack this and trust our three boys inside will get the job done?

What was common in both games was that age-old saying that goals win games, but quite literally, goals won the games over the weekend.

And the manner in which the goals were scored was so welcome to many of an older generation of hurling fans – three inside in the full-forward line, ball pumped in over the defensive half-back line, players working off breaks and taking chances when they appear, pulling on balls first time with one or two hands.

We have gone back in time and it is very welcome for us as fans to watch this. We had a game for a long time whereby the vast majority of balls were worked through the lines or to a delivery zone and sent into space vacated by a half-back who was forced to follow a wing-forward, and the quality of that ball would be more often than not 80/20 in favour of the attacker.

At the weekend, of the 11 goals scored by the winning teams, the source of the supply more often than not was a long ball in, making sure to beat the half-back line and land down on top of the 3 v 3 battle around the D.

Less is more and it's just fantastic for us as fans and spectators to watch this type of delivery become more and more prevalent in games.

It’s hard to defend no matter who you have with so many bodies in around, and it is even harder still when you have a man mountain like Brian Hayes of Cork having no interest in catching that ball and is more than happy to touch it down to an onrushing support player. That is so tough to defend against no matter who you are in the opposition full-back line.

Hurling to some has become the poor relation of football in terms of excitement, something I thought I would never say in a solid state of mind, but with the way Tipp and Cork are playing the game right now, I think we will be in for goals and lots of them in the final, and the tactics will not be needed to be drawn up on any software or broken down with moving magnets or iPads.

It will be quite simple: get that ball into the full-forward line and let's see what happens.

As neutrals it will be a joy to watch; as vested supporters, our hearts will be in our mouths as it drops on our goal, and I just hope, if I’m on duty in the media area, that I can keep it together when it does – ah, who am I kidding, there’s no hope of that.

Final word goes to the man I mentioned at the start of this article, Henry Shefflin.

My son, Seán Óg, made his way over to the media area in Croke Park after the final whistle along with his heavily pregnant mother, who definitely should have been under more pressure than me after the game, but I was the one that nearly needed a hand down the stairs after it all.

But Henry stood in for a photo with my son and had a lovely few words with him too.

Seán Óg won't appreciate that photo today or tomorrow, but someday I’ll be gone and I just hope he takes out that photo and goes, 'What a day, what a game, what a memory!'

I feel we have set the bar way too high for him for his first time seeing Tipp play in Croke Park.

I’ll remind him this week it won’t always be like that, but we pray it could be at least once more this year anyway.

We’ll chat on that next week. Leave us some tickets, Cork people.

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