We learned the same lesson all new champions learn when they face KK in a sequel - the empire strikes back. What Cody has achieved with that team, cobbled together over a series of matches, is quite incredible.
After sulking for 48 hrs, I hope some perspective has been gained. Our luck finally ran out. We powered over the line against CK after extra time, and fell over the line against GY by 1 pt., but on Saturday we finally came up short in a knock-out game.
The Sunday game didn’t do justice to the physical intensity of the battle between the 45s, and the deflating effect of multiple wides anytime we got the deficit down to the minimum. Also no sign of the impact that took Hannon out of the game on repeat viewing, despite the ridiculous amount of discussion his display generated at half time on the live show.
Lessons from the day:
That 4-week layoff is a killer. Our touch was off all day. You can’t wait 25 mins to get to the pitch of the game at this stage of the season. I’m sure the lesson will be learned, assuming JK stays on. Thanks to the new format, it’s not quite as herculean a task to make it back to the SF next year, unlike previous Munster champions.
The prescribed substitutions caught up with us – if Dowling is your finisher, fine, but we needed fresh legs long before the 55th minute. Alternatives to GH and TM are needed; when they finally ran out of legs on Saturday we had nothing to replace them with. David Dempsey would have been the closest like-for-like replacement for GH, who was left on too long for the lack of an alternative. I’m sure Kyle being asked to play deep didn’t help, nor the injury to DH, but this was the HF line’s worst collective performance since the CK game in round 1, another match where DH was absent.
DO’D should have been the first man in, to introduce fresh legs where they are needed. On replay, it’s clear how easily Nash was able to carry the ball out of defence. His pace was a huge benefit and a fresher player ahead of him (not a clearly knackered GH) would have opened up the left flank for us. Instead, KK condensed the game into a central corridor. We made the same error in a deluge against KK in 2014, where they used the conditions to close out a tight game.
Was Flanagan (or even Downes) worth looking at in the FF? I’m sure Cody couldn’t believe his luck when we asked AG to go it alone against Lawlor and Holden. If you’re not going to go long, was Pat Ryan an option to run at them instead? In any case, the cavalry was needed much sooner. There is little point in having a much-vaunted bench if you don’t use them before the hr mark in a game you never led.
It’s been a remarkable 18 months, whether this is the beginning of the end; or the end of the beginning, we owe the management, backroom team, and squad a huge debt of gratitude.