Cork’s strength in depth will allow them to dominate the midfield battle, and that’s where Sunday’s All-Ireland final will be decided, writes JOE’s Gaelic football analyst Ciaran Whelan.
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Cork and Down is sure to be an intriguing battle between two teams going into the game on the back of contrasting summers. No-one would have predicted that Down would make it all the way to an All-Ireland final, but since they’ve made it Croke Park they’ve been a team transformed. Cork, despite being favourites from the start, have limped to the final without really impressing anyone.
Down have that tradition, and the performances against Kerry and Kildare have been exceptional. They’re defensively minded in that they get men behind the ball but they attack at pace, so they’re fantastic to watch, and throughout the team they’re all very composed in possession. James McCartan deserves a lot of credit for the work he’s done this year.
Marty Clarke has got plenty of plaudits and he’s been very good for them, but the man who’s really stood out for me has been Danny Hughes, who’s a cracking little player. He’s fantastic at getting onto breaking ball, he has a great work-rate in defensive areas, he attacks at pace and he’s a great man to kick a few scores.
Looking at the respective panels as a whole, though, I would be leaning towards a Cork victory. Down are at the early stage of their development and they’re a dangerous animal. They’ll be going into the game in confident mood and they certainly won’t fear Cork. They’ve proved that if they get ahead they can really close down the space, and if Cork play the same way as they did against Dublin, Down could squeeze the life out of them.
I expect Cork to learn a lot from the semi-final, though, and if they can play a bit more direct and avoid the sort of slow, lateral, monotonous approach play they got sucked into against Dublin, they should do enough to win.
The Down midfield lads will be out on their feet with 20 minutes to go, and the last thing they’ll want to do is go head-to-head with a fresh Murphy and Kavanagh for the final quarter
Conor Counihan is coming into the game under a degree of pressure but in a way he should be happy enough. His team are in an All-Ireland final without having been impressive and they’ve shipped a bit of criticism so they have a lot of incentives to prove people wrong. They’ve won ugly this summer but they’ve won – that’s the key stat. It’s certainly a lot different than last year, when they carried all before them, were ultra-impressive against Tyrone in the semi-final, but collapsed against Kerry in the final. This year, they have a lot of room for improvement, and they have the strength in depth to find that improvement.
I expect midfield to be the vital area this weekend. Things have gone for Down a bit in that sector in particular over the past couple of games. Kerry were struggling at midfield and were missing Paul Galvin and Tomas O Se, two key men in picking up all the breaking ball, while Kildare lost Dermot Earley from the start and Daryl Flynn fairly early on in the semi-final.
Ambrose Rogers has been suffering with a cruciate injury so I doubt he’ll be fit for Down and with that in mind, I’d really expect Cork to dominate at midfield. Peter Fitzpatrick and Kalum King played well against Kildare but they’re stretched fairly thin there with Rogers out injured and Dan Gordon needed at full back.
Cork, on the other hand, will have Alan O’Connor and Aidan Walsh giving it everything for the first 45, 50 minutes, and will then unleash Nicholas Murphy, one of the best fielders in the game, and Derek Kavanagh, who’s been playing very well every time he’s come on this year. The Down midfield lads will be out on their feet with 20 minutes to go, and the last thing they’ll want to do is go head-to-head with a fresh Murphy and Kavanagh for the final quarter.
A lot has been made of Graham Canty’s battle for fitness but if there’s any doubt over him, Cork shouldn’t risk him. They have quite a few options so there’s no need to take that gamble. If Canty isn’t 100 per cent, Michael Shields will play at centre back to go man to man on Marty Clarke, and Eoin Cadogan will come in at full back to mark Benny Coulter. Canty could be good for 10 or 15 minutes, and it would be a big boost to Cork if he was to come on in the second half.
There’s a possibility that even if Cork win, they won’t get the proper credit for it because they haven’t beaten Kerry. They shouldn’t mind that. The records won’t say Cork didn’t beat Kerry. They will just say Cork won the All-Ireland. And that’s what I expect to happen.
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