Limerick must beat 2 of the 3 teams in the country who are best equipped to beat them to win the All Ireland. Tipp & Clare losing yesterday has made the task much more difficult.
In light of this you’d have to say we’re only looking at perhaps a tight 6 or 7 point winning margin for Limerick v Galway in the Semi and again perhaps another tight winning margin in the final of 5 or 6 points. Going to be tough.
Well, Cahill definitely isn’t going to do that in a similar situation because it’s absolute madness.
It was crazy by McGrath in 2017 and it almost cost ye; ye had outhurled them and went back at them in extra time and won well. But there’s no way Cahill will do that; he’s not as innately conservative as McGrath.
I’d question whether Waterford will create the same goalscoring opportunities against Kilkenny; if they do, I think they’ll win for sure.
For god’s sake… DMcG routinely talks absolute nonsense. Recent opinion included urging a seven man defence for Cork against Tipperary, using Mark Coleman as a sweeper. As any halfway sensible person discerns, the main thing you do not want to allow Tipperary is a free man at the back. Is DMcG too egotistical not to have learned from his own managerial experiences against Tipperary? From the 2019 AIF? For definite, his vocabulary far outweighs his intellect.
Another recent kite flown was that Dessie Hutchinson is an ideal.forward to mark three backs. Did you ever… How much would DH have scored yesterday if he had been marking the three Clare full backs rather than being marked by Rory Hayes? This sort of illogical and nonsensical opinion is now being folded into in hurling commentary via ‘learnings’ (middle management code for bullshine). The fad will blow away – same as Davy Fitzgerald got shown up in Wexford, as was inevitable – but not before the tendency does damage.
Would Clare not have been better off having someone sweeping in front of Rory Hayes to limit the damage that Dessie was able to do? At least 3 goals and as many as 5 or 6 points came directly or indirectly from Dessie
Allowing Rory to be one on one with Dessie and a half a field in front of them was pure madness
First two goals came from a lack of basic defensive skill of simply stopping the ball.
you said it yourself at a certain stage yesterday that there was way too much space in front of the Clare full back line.
Id fancy Waterford to hurt KK but as we say every year beating them and knocking them out of the championship are worlds apart. The forwards available to KK are light years ahead of what Clare had yesterday, Reid, Walsh, Donnelly, Fennelly & Mullen will do serious damage to the Wford backs it’s exactly the type of game KK could hit 4-5 goals and it wont matter a shit what Wford do then.
I’d fully agree. Waterford are a great bet next week.
That prunty lad is a great player.
Yes but the first goal came from two Clare half backs attacking a long ball and both missing it. Second one was a long delivery which Cleary as the full back has to break at the very least, instead he misses it and it fell beautifully for Hutchinson.
Sweeper might help close space but when you make bread and butter mistakes you are going to get punished regardless of the number of defenders you have
All this talk of 7 back is madness anyway - the game has moved way beyond it.
When teams don’t have the ball there are 12 or 13 defenders back or trying to get back behind the ball.
When teams have the ball that transitions to 8 or 9 lads trying to get ahead of it.
Most gameplans now facilitate some form of dropping back - for instance Hannon will drop - O’Donoghue drops. The half forwards drop. Mulcahy and Casey drop.
And what happens with Tadhg de Búrca up the other end, if Clare play with seven defenders?
A properly organized defence can nearly always have one of a six man defence back ‘sitting’ (as Brian Hogan used do for Kilkenny) if (1) communication is good between half backs midfielders and half forwards; (2) the middle third hurlers are smart players and not just willing overtrained robots; and (3) the half forwards’ workrate is honest and consistent. No need for a ‘sweeper’ – which is how any team that has won a Senior All Ireland operated.
Derek, in his spiel about Aidan Harte as MOTM, had to get the mention of sweeping in there. He did the same regarding Mark Coleman… he routinely uses his RTÉ Platform to justify his time as Waterford manager and the tactics he employed. A bullshitter.
Nutshell. Yes, basic errors. Nothing to do with a sweeper.
Ballygunner corner back – Harley Barnes? – made same exact type of error when he jumped wrong side of Eoin Cody, before crucial goal for Ballyhale Shamrocks.
Thats the thing though the gaps between all the lines were huge. Why was a half back attacking that ball with the full back line so far away, no midfielders around, no half forwards back for breaks.
Naive set up
Sure you could distill every goal conceded down to a basic error somewhere
Yeah it is a new defence and the half backline hadn’t functioned all championship. It’s a tough thing to implement and fix in a month especially when you are chopping and changing your centre back every game. Continuity takes time to build and it is the area which Lohan has his work cut out to fix
This issue is the nub, not the having or the not having a sweeper.
There is no point in playing a wandering centre forward if your centre forward, in his wanderings, does not allow his centre back to ‘sit’.
they days of just a sweeper are long gone thankfully. It’s a coherent organised defense that is effective. With 12/13 lads designated roles when you are out of possession.
No. Not a basic error.