Toughest position on the pitch.
In the days of 15 on 15 and let every man win his own ball I considered cornerback to be one of the easier positions to play.
The ball was lorried in high, umpires didn’t want to know bar the corner back was after laying his opponent out on the ground, and the corner forward was invariably the 1st man hooked at halftime.
These days it’s a nightmare of a position with the way the game is evolving.
Most sides play a withdrawn corner forward now and some withdraw both, so you don’t know whether to stick or twist.
Then you have progressive coaches like Eamonn O’Shea constantly thinking of new ways to create space and isolate you wan on wan with some greyhound of a young fella.
Jackie Tyrell wrote an informative article on it recently in the IT regarding Conor Delaney’s battle with Dessie Hutchinson in the AISF.
6 Likes
I was a natural corner back (my father had been a corner back before me) but I ended up playing most of the middle of my “career” playing centre or full forward. Went back to corner back at the end. Loved the position in those days, you could spoil, pull, drag, clip do what ever you wanted and as long as you didn’t draw blood you were safe enough. I’d say it’s a different kettle of fish now alright.
2 Likes
Any link to Jackie’s article sport?
got it.
1 Like
Murphy was a top class man marker at his best. Did suffer a dip in form 2016 onwards (most notably for one of the Tipp goals in the final).
I think some teams realised that he was quite poor in possession and allowed him to actually have the ball and that was exposed more and more.
Probably lost a yard of pace too.
But at his best, a top defender.
The game really changed after 2012.
In 2011/2012 he was unreal at just catching high balls over small corner forwards and lamping it down the field. It was unreal to watch and the Kilkenny crowd would go banana’s giving a huge roar of approval. Hogan, Delaney and Tommy Walsh used be at the same craic. The Kilkenny forwards were very much ‘win your own ball’ merchants in those days.
I would say he slipped a bit from 2013 onwards but was still fairly good before his form fell off a cliff from 2016 when all this ‘working the ball through the lines’ nonsense came into hurling.
1 Like
Id have said Murphy’s mobility would put him ahead of Tyrell.
I stopped reading after the headline.
Chris Barrett
Was he man of the match in one of those All Irelands? Really is the end of an era for the second greatest football team of all time
Barrett is a surprise departure, given he was in good form this year.
Brilliant defender.
1 Like
Didn’t realise he was so old. Only became a regular for Mayo in his late 20s
1 Like
Best of luck to Paul Murphy. A gentleman as was his father before him. Had to pleasure to meet Paul a couple of times at a publicity shoot for a fundraiser we had a good number of years back, he was in his pomp. Fierce sound guy.
2 Likes
he’s looked about 38 for the past 20 years.
He was absolutely unreal in the 2017 final.
Think James McCarthy got MOTM though.
1 Like
Paul Murphy a great player too. Seems to be a nice lad and his statement was good
Barrett is a significant loss to Mayo. Unlike some of the others he looked like he had another couple of years left in him at least.
Couple of years is being nice. Lads were waiting for him to be found out this year and for a few years now. I reckon he’s getting out at the right time. He was on the bubble I feel. A great defender though. But time comes for all.
1 Like
He had slipped a bit for sure but felt he still held that Mayo back line somewhat together in the final. Not easy to replace that.