Ben O’Connor has given a whole new dimension to a modern inter-county manager speaking his mind after matches, but I thought John Kiely’s post-match interview on TG4 yesterday was refreshingly frank and honest.
None of it was revealing or massively instructive but it smacked of common sense and the responsibility John expects his players to take.
If Kiely said after last week’s game against Waterford that his side were outfought, he didn’t need to go over that point with the group again this week. Because nobody knows more than the players what they didn’t do – and what they now needed to do. And Limerick just did it yesterday.
Even when John was asked about referees clamping down on the handpass, he didn’t go on about how hard it is for players to get off the pass in such congested areas before they’re pinged for overcarrying. He didn’t make any reference to the fouled throw that wasn’t pulled for Kilkenny’s first goal. Kiely’s answer to the question was that it’s the players’ responsibility to make sure there is a clear striking action with the hand.
I just felt the honesty and maturity of those answers was mirrored by Kiely’s players on the pitch all afternoon. Their attitude was excellent while Limerick’s intensity and execution levels were all on the money in comparison to last week.
Limerick had 0-14 on the board at half-time. They surpassed that in the second half with 1-12, all numbers Kiely would be happy with. Peter Casey was outstanding. Will O’Donoghue was excellent too but Mike Casey is a real steadying presence behind the number 6. Limerick also got a good bounce from the bench but the maturity of the performance was summed up best by Aaron Gillane.
After having hardly touched the ball, Gillane backed himself as soon as he got a sniff at goal – and buried it. Within seconds, he rifled another point. No panic. Patience. Maturity.
Kilkenny will be disappointed that they allowed Limerick too far in front of them in the fourth quarter but they will still take a lot of positives out of the game. They also brought a real high level of intensity, they used the ball very smartly around the middle, while they worked some excellent scores.
I still think that there are questions marks around numbers 3 and 6, even if Mikey Carey and Ronan Corcoran did a lot right. The jury is still out on those two pivotal positions but going up against a pumped up Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds was always going to be a serious stress test.
Saturday night in Cork was another entertaining contest, even if one of the main talking points was the huge melee and the red cards to Jason Forde and Shane Barrett. A lot of it was harmless stuff. It was tough on Barrett and Forde being singled out but I don’t understand why referees don’t just show more authority in those positions anymore.
Maybe it’s since Brian Gavin got a clip on the nose from Tommy Walsh’s hurley in the 2011 All-Ireland final but referees are reluctant anymore to barge into the middle of a row, push the two sides apart – or as many of the players as possible – like a garda and just get on with the action again.
Maybe it’s protocol now but I don’t see how standing back and allowing little bushfires to break out around the referee is going to dampen down the blaze. Unless the fire is immediately quenched, it’s going to stay raging as more players get involved.
It wasn’t a dirty game by any means. Cork were just more clinical and efficient but it’s hard to read anything into the match when the two sides are meeting in the first round robin match in Munster in just nine weeks.
I knew as soon as I saw the teams that, while both would want to win the match, neither would be too put out if they didn’t – especially Tipp away from home.
It was strange that neither team scored a goal or even created too many chances, especially when goals are what these sides trade on. But that was also reflective of the kind of evening it was.
Tipp never even had a sniff of a goal chance but I thought the Cork defence was very impressive, especially Robert Downey. Daire O’Leary was also very solid, while Mark Coleman and Eoin Downey both got 0-2 from play. Cormac O’Brien also did well off the bench and will be fighting hard to nail down a starting spot.
The biggest plus for me was the performance of Alan Connolly, who was busy throughout. As well as scoring four points from play, Connolly ended with 0-8. I’m still not convinced about him as their first choice freetaker but I don’t think Ben will be too concerned with Darragh Fitzgibbon and Deccie Dalton there as backup.
Offaly are effectively relegated at this stage – especially when scoring difference is taken into consideration – but the big challenge for Johnny Kelly’s men after last week’s whipping from Tipp was to perform. And in fairness to Offaly, they did.
Billy Nolan’s save from Brian Duignan in the 44th minute was a huge turning point because Waterford went down and got the next three points before Reuben Halloran’s goal shortly afterwards effectively ended the game. Halloran proved his accuracy again with an impressive 1-12 but Waterford were just better all over the field.
It was great to see Stephen Bennett back, especially when I didn’t expect to see him for a while yet. With the Ballygunner lads returning for the next match – and rearing for road by all accounts – it’s looking a lot rosier for Peter Queally’s side than it was after the Cork match. With four points in the bag now, they’re looking up now and not down.
One of the biggest wins of the weekend was Kildare’s destruction of Antrim in Newbridge yesterday. I said here on Saturday that Kildare would benefit from that difficult first day out against Dublin if they could see that match for what it was – a learning day against a side that contested last year’s All-Ireland semi-final. And Kildare clearly put those learnings to good use.
They were impressive but this was another real wake-up call for Antrim, who are now pointless with Dublin to come next. In fairness to Down, yesterday in Ennis was never going to be easy. From the outset of the league, Antrim-Down on the last day always had the look of a potential relegation decider but both teams could already be gone through the trapdoor if they can’t turn it around before that meeting.
Wexford clearly have turned a corner after negotiating a tricky fixture against Carlow on Saturday. They got some brilliant scores. Wexford’s young players stepped up but it was another reminder of how important Lee Chin is to that group. He was immense when introduced. It was no surprise that as soon as Chin appeared that Wexford went to another level.
It was a solid weekend of hurling – not massively entertaining as it’s only the second week of February – but the standout talking point for me was around the handpass. There is a clear attempt to clamp down on any indiscretions when there is not a clear striking action. There has been a lot of discussion in the media around this recently, but I don’t think completely banning the handpass – as Noel Skehan called for on these pages – is going to solve anything.
Coaches will find a way to restrict or spoil short one-handed passes with the hurley which, if anything, would only lead to more rucks. And, let’s be honest, more rucks would be far more of a blight on the game than a handful of illegal handpasses.
Referees are not going to get every call right but all they can do is try and be as consistent as possible. If they miss one or two illegal handpasses, so what? They could just as easily miss a couple of pushes on the back.
That might sound like me applying overly simplistic logic around such a controversial topic but we just have to trust what John Kiely said – the onus is on the players to make a clean and clear striking action with the hand.
And if they don’t, just apply the rules. Because banning the handpass certainly won’t solve the problem. It will only create more.
