Derek McGrath: Limerick forgot their ‘process’ against Kilkenny in 2019. They wouldn’t make the same mistake twice
Whilst most of the conjecture and debate down our way has followed the narrative that “the closer it is to the game the more I think Kilkenny will win” I actually have begun to think the opposite.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”
Newspapers, websites and the airwaves have been saturated this by many drawing similarities between the respective managers ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
Hugely respected figures, driven and ruthless has been the common trend in terms of character analysis.
My experience has been of two men who constantly give. In 2007 we were fortunate enough in De La Salle College to reach our first Harty Cup final in almost 30 years. Given Brian Cody’s La Sallian links as a teacher in St Patrick’s our head brother Br Damien Kellegher suggested we invite him to address the team.
Brian’s speech was a combination of honesty, vulnerability, positive psychology and ambition all perfectly pitched to allow the boys fixate on his every word.
To John Kiely’s surprise this year a behind closed doors challenge game before the Munster championship began against Laois in Portlaoise where yours truly greeted my former collegemate in the canteen of the Centre of Excellence.
Kiely quickly quipped that I still had not left the canteen since my UCC days! Informing him that we were doing a bit of video analysis with the Laois minors I asked him if he could chat to them for a few minutes.
Again like Cody his soundness, his ordinariness shone through as he spoke of constantly learning, of their league struggles and crucially of trying to enjoy the whole experience of what we do.
In both instances the pitch was perfect. Both leaders not followers.
Both would also have obsessed with planning for Sunday’s All-Ireland. Writing an article ahead of this game requires an extra piece of research so I spent a number of hours this week watching the 2019 semi-final again.
Forget the non-awarding of the 65 at the end of the game the most interesting takeaway occurs on 64 minutes. Desperately chasing the lead Paul Kinnerk and John Kiely can be seen having a heated debate around instructions to the Limerick players. Whilst Kiely can be heard and seen bellowing “Push in” Kinnerk retorts “No, no push out”.
Previously I have written about the whole concept of cognitive diversity and how it contributes to performance. If Limerick annex an expected third victory in a row Sunday not many post match interviews will reference the hurt of the 2019 defeat, the chance for revenge or the “we were waiting for an opportunity to meet and beat the Cats.” However is there still room for motivation to be garnered from pain, anger and perceived injustice? Can this be a powerful catalyst for performance?
Limerick’s planning team led by Kiely and Kinnerk will surely have also revisited the 2019 semi also.
Yes they will point to Declan Hannon’s early withdrawal, to Conor Browne’s obsessive tracking of Cian Lynch but more certainly they will have looked at their overall performance as a management and team.
Eighteen minutes in Limerick actually changed to 7 at the back with Graham Mulcahy heading to 11, Kyle Hayes picking TJ and Hannon temporarily until his half time departure sweeping. The normal pack mentality of Morrissey, Hayes and Hegarty supplemented by one of their full forward line had been bullied by a rampant Kilkenny approach.
Effectively Walter Walsh, TJ and John Donnelly had double jobbed as auxiliary wing backs and half forwards. The most galling aspect or Limerick was the fact that they strayed from their game plan. Several times during the first half - having gained possession deep - they hit aimless ball into an under populated forward zone.
With clear options for give and goes to the deep lying Hegarty and Morrissey Limerick for once forgot their “process” and were rattled by the ferocity of Kilkenny’s relentless work rate.
The other more obvious contributory factor was the aerial prowess of Kilkenny. Operating across the half forward line TJ and John Donnelly’s ability to make the ball stick and not break meant that the Limerick pack were not getting numbers to the usual breakdown area.
If Limerick have learned from previous experiences Kilkenny will surely have looked at the underwhelming displays of their last two finals also. A prairie of space was afforded to Seamie Callanan and Bubbles Dwyer in the finals of 2016 and 2019 as a combination of Tipperary’s movement and their opponents’ gullibility contributed to the Premier’s handsome victories. Kilkenny have underperformed in their last two All-Ireland final appearances and will be determined to fix this.
The 2022 version of Kilkenny now seem more defensively adaptive, organised and agile. Not faced with any direct task may well discommode Mikey Butler. The last two jobs have been perfectly clear, follow, hunt and negate Mannion and Kelly.
With the likely match up of Lawlor and Gillane and Flanagan and Tommy Walsh, Butler may well end up with Mulcahy or perhaps Peter Casey to track 45 yards from his goal. This would probably see Paddy Deegan return to the half back line to match up with Morrissey with Michael Carey fancying a pace match up with Hegarty. Richie Reid’s positioning during all this has been crucial to Kilkenny’s performances. Watching him in the All-Ireland Club final this year he has an innate ability to free himself up and become that vital defensive anchor and more importantly a launchpad for Kilkenny attacks. However nobody does planning for “sitting 6s” better than Kinnerk. Watch the unheralded, unhighlighted work of Conor Boylan and Graeme Mulcahy as they track, harass, hunt down the opposition 6 from behind often bringing their own man with them before the cavalry arrives to support. Also, what Limerick often subtly do is just switch the positions of Flanagan and Gillane to bring defenders who are used to operating in certain zones to different areas of the pitch.
This may see Gillane go to 13 even temporarily to bring Lawlor to similar areas that Seamie Callanan brought him to in 2019.
Limerick also have the option which they have not used since the Munster Final of three years ago which is to sit Kyle Hayes right up on Richie Reid and create the space in behind by leaving either Mulcahy, Casey or (if recovered) Lynch wander from the corner. This wandering would ensure Limerick still have the numbers at the break but also they can operate as a column down the middle of the Kilkenny defence with Hayes running into grass behind Richie Reid.
It would also be bordering on stupidity to infer that Kilkenny do not plan as fastidiously as John Kiely and company. Thankfully we no longer hear the archaic soundbites emanating from their players or support team of “we just get it and hit it in”. We know their principles are based on honesty and work ethic but a team that allowed Cork have possession on their own puckout almost 16 years ago, operated with a zonal defence supported by at least 4 of their 6 forwards for nigh on 20 years clearly embraces diversity of thinking. The machinations associated with the planning of the All-Ireland can just be rolled out and revisited as promptly as they were dispatched. Noticeable for me has been the more telling interaction between Cody and his management team over the last two years. Watching him obsessively over 20 years it often seemed to me a case of noticing something, then calling Mick Dempsey and watching the maor foirne delivering the instruction. Now we see Martin Comerford, Conor Phelan and James McGarry make regular instructive trips to the sideline.
They will all know and feel confident that the Kilkenny forward line can provide the quality and the nuisance factor to upset Limerick. Will Eoin Cody possibly line out at 12 and give Diarmuid Byrnes a different challenge? TJ at 11 would also present a more substantial aerial threat for Hannon.
In a move similar to the placing of Walter Walsh on Johnny Coen in 2012 I wonder if the Kilkenny brainstrust have considered quelling the influence of the marauding Barry Nash by playing the Tullogher man again right up on Nash hoping to not alone stop him attacking but also get in behind and attack him head on.
Whilst most of the conjecture and debate down our way has followed the narrative that “the closer it is to the game the more I think Kilkenny will win” I actually have begun to think the opposite.
The underwhelming nature of some of the Limerick performances in the semi-final, specifically Hegarty and Morrissey, the probable impact of Cathal O’Neill, Peter Casey, Conor Boylan and Lynch from the bench coupled with the perfect fusion of hurt, anger, motivation, instinct and systematic planning can see the Treaty men claim a famous three in a row.
