Sunday May 8

Allianz Hurling League Division One Final Replay

Clare v Waterford, Semple Stadium, 3.30pm

**By John Harrington **

Clare’s Colin Ryan remarked after last weekend’s drawn Allianz Hurling League Final against Waterford that hurling is now “a thinking man’s game”.

Both sets of management certainly put an awful lot of thought into their tactics and ultimately cancelled one another out, but perhaps it’s worth asking, ‘are they overthinking it?’ The defensive solidity of both teams was very admirable, but there were many occasions during the drawn match when you felt a less structured approach to attack might be more beneficial for both teams. There were so many bodies packed between both ’45 yard lines that it was crying out for an accurate long delivery to the inside forwards because at both ends of the field there was a two versus two match-up on a number of occasions.

The delivery rarely came, though. Ball was so hard won in that middle third that when a Clare or Waterford player got his hands on it he seemed reluctant to give it away again cheaply. Quite often when a lengthy pass seemed like the percentage option, the man in possession didn’t spot it because his instinct was to first look left or right to see if there was a more close-by team-mate in isolation he could pop the ball off to and ensure that possession was retained.

Some of the short-passing and supporting runs made by both teams was beautifully executed last Sunday, but that emphasis on safety-first passing was the main reason why the game was so claustrophobic and why there were so few goal-chances. Most goal opportunities come from risk-reward situations where there is a greater chance the risk won’t pay off. But if you don’t by a ticket for the lotto then you’re never going to win it, and one of the secrets to Kilkenny’s success in recent years is they keep searching for those lucky numbers. That’s why the growing acceptance that the ‘thinking man’s’ approach is to play a compact, risk-averse brand of hurling like Waterford and Clare seems strange.

It is true that Kilkenny’s recent domination of the game – eight All-Irelands in the past 10 years – has been underpinned by a tactic of packing their own defence with bodies as half-forwards and midfielders drop deep. But just as key to their success has been a willingness to drive percentage deliveries into their often outnumbered inside forwards and ask them to win hard ball and snaffle half-chances for goals. Their ability to do just that was best illustrated by the drawn 2014 All-Ireland Final where Kilkenny were out-hurled for long stretches of the match by Tipperary but still got themselves in a winning position because a low-percentage long-ball approach paid off so spectacularly with three goals.

The argument has been made that Clare and Waterford have cut their cloth to suit and cannot hope to emulate Kilkenny because they don’t have inside forwards who can do the sort of foraging and finishing that the likes of TJ Reid and Richie Power have with such success in the past. Perhaps that was true of Waterford last year, but the impressive blossoming this year of Patrick Curran and Shane Bennett should mean that when Maurice Shanahan returns to full-fitness they will have all the firepower they need. If Shanahan starts Sunday’s replay, it will be very interesting to see whether Waterford manager Derek McGrath tries for at least a period of the game to hit him and his two young side-kicks with long deliveries.

Tom Devine is another useful weapon for this sort of tactic, and really should have scored a goal early in the second-half last weekend when he won a hard ball, and charged his way past a couple of defenders before shooting from close range. In a game of so few goal-chances, it was that exception that proved the rule the ability to create them remains an invaluable weapon to have in your arsenal.

Clare, too, have men who pose a considerable goal-threat. Darach Honan has been used in a more withdrawn role this year but would be a massive nuisance on the edge of the square, and everyone knows just how lethal Conor McGrath and Shane O’Donnell are when they see the whites of a goalkeeper’s eyes. Aaron Cunningham and Aaron Shanagher are also clinical in goal-scoring situations. Davy Fitzgerald was delighted by how his team played last Sunday, but you’d have to think there must be a way to get the ball into the hands of such high-quality finishers around the goalmouth more frequently.

Clare scored four goals against Kilkenny largely because there was so much space between the opposition half-back line and full-back line and deliveries into that area must not have felt like such a risk for Fitzgerald and his players. But even if the same space doesn’t exist against Waterford, surely the Clare forwards are good enough to score one or two if the ball was delivered to them more quickly and directly?

Fitzgerald said this week that Sunday’s replay will be “the same again”, because if Clare played another way they wouldn’t “have a chance”. That’s debatable, but it’s probable neither he nor McGrath will change much because in an ideal world they’d like to win this match and still hold back a surprise or two for the Munster Semi-Final on June 5. That surprise could well be a more direct attacking approach that catches the opposition cold.

Colin Ryan is right, hurling is a thinking man’s game now. So it must be a priority to think out a strategy that creates more goal-chances against packed defences than either managed last week because the old-fashioned cliché that goals win games is just as relevant now as it ever was.

The defensive tenacity and all-round organisation that both Clare and Waterford displayed in the drawn game was superb and a joy to watch at times thanks to the individual heroics of men like Pat O’Connor and Shane Fives. But this replay, and perhaps Munster and All-Ireland silverware too, will be won by whichever team can introduce a greater variation and cutting edge in attack.