HOW Cork dealt with the Tipperary sweeper system in the All-Ireland final left a lot to be desired. The Rebels’ inability to switch up tactics cost Pat Ryan’s men.
On The Indo Sport Podcast this week, Kilkenny legend Eddie Brennan and Waterford icon John Mullane were in shock at Cork not having an effective plan to deal with Tipp sweeper Bryan O’Mara.
‘Cork weren’t ready for that at all,’ Mullane said.
‘They (Tipperary) closed off that channel. They couldn’t go down that channel. They didn’t close down that channel and the ball went straight to Bryan O’Mara. They then flooded the other side with bodies. From a Cork point of view, I just couldn’t get my head around it.
‘Alan Connolly was going to be followed. Hoggie (Patrick Horgan) was going to be followed. If you wanted to create space, bring those boys out and then push someone up and O’Mara and go, “right, you’re going marking O’Mara and it’s every man accounted for” but they didn’t bother going down that route.’
Brennan, who was a manager himself for the Laois hurlers and Dublin club Cuala, couldn’t believe how Cork didn’t envisage this scenario.
‘We are talking about sweepers for ten years or more and you’re telling me you haven’t three or four ways of playing? “If we play against the sweeper, this is the way we play. If they play this way, this is the way we play,”’ Brennan noted.
‘Surely to God the Cork management team sat down and asked the questions. “Where are we vulnerable? What are Tipp going to bring that is going to stop us from scoring goals or how do we go about that? If they do, what do we do to react?”’
The Kilkenny hurling great felt sorry for Ballinhassig man Patrick Collins as Tipp, with the system, didn’t allow much options at puck-out time.
‘Patrick Collins looked down and all he saw was him (O’Mara). People probably ask, “how do you counter-act that?” The one thing is, send your flood over on top of him and leave the space on the other side for two others to operate in.
‘Tipperary in 2016 down in Limerick on the wet day, I think it was (against Waterford), Tadhg De Burca played that 6 (position). Tipperary got four forwards within ten metres of him. They boxed him in and went high on top of him. There are ways and that’s what surprised me. You can be caught by this, but what’s your adjustment?
‘Cork just didn’t adjust and Cork’s free man then didn’t hurt them (Tipp). Cork didn’t seem to be able to pick off points from the outside. To be fair, with the way the sweeper was and his detail was to take out a flank, it forced Cork then into 50/50 ball that suited Tipperary. It certainly suited Ronan Maher with high ball landing on top of Brian Hayes and he plucked him. That’s Ronan’s game. That’s biscuits to a bear,’ Brennan added.
