IF Castlehaven can limit the influence of St Finbarr’s midfield maestro Ian Maguire, it will edge the West Cork men closer to a second consecutive Premier SFC final spot – but that’s easier said than done.
On this week’s Star Sport Podcast, Star columnist and former Carbery Rangers manager Micheál O’Sullivan, drawing on his own experience as Ross boss, outlined how Castlehaven could try to stop Cork midfielder Maguire from running Sunday’s semi-final.
‘For us it was always curbing his running game because his running game is the strongest part of his game. Now, his fielding has improved and his foot passing has improved in the last couple of years but he is a very, very powerful runner. The timing of his runs is very good, too,’ O’Sullivan explained.
‘Our attitude was always try to hammer the hammer, try to match him with power and pace and try to negate his running game if you possibly could. You are making a good start if you can do that and if you have a person willing to sacrifice their own game just to follow him around all day, and try and match him physically and don’t let him win clean ball.
‘There is no doubt that Castlehaven will have a lot of thought put into that and both these teams are used to facing each other so that adds an extra edge to it.’