County Hurling Final, Sunday 1st October

[Plain of the Herbs]

As expected, Birr and Coolderry have both qualified to compete for the county senior hurling championship when the final takes place on Sunday at St. Brendan’s Park. First, the history. It’s only the second time ever the same two teams have both reached the final for 3 years running. This when Coolderry and Drumcullen won their respective semi finals in 1961, ’62 and ’63. Drumcullen conceded a walkover in 1961, making this the first occasion that the same two clubs have met in the final in 3 consecutive years.

It’s also the seventh time both these clubs have met in the decider. Each has won three. Interestingly, the finals of 1947 and ’48 were held in O’Connor Park when Coolderry refused to play Birr on their home turf!

More relevant to Sunday, of course, are the recent head to heads of the two, with a very young Coolderry team surprising Birr (then going for a record 6 in a row) with a wonderful display of direct, Offaly style hurling two years ago. A very determined Birr turned the tables in no uncertain terms last year when Coolderry were quite simply overran in all sectors and had no answer to Birr when they turned on the style.

Who will have the greater hunger on Sunday? Coolderry will be anxious to atone for what was, for them, a debacle last year, while Birr showed in their semi final win over Kilcormac/Killoughey two weeks ago that they still retain the hunger, the style for which they are renowned coupled with a fitness and physical strength which will make them very hard to beat. Another successful Leinster campaign is well within them.

Birr’s half back line completely dominated their semi final win and is the rock on which their team is built. K/K could find no way through the threesome of Whelahan, Hanniffy and Claffey, either in the air or on the ground. K/K got no change from them from their own puck-out, and any clearances from the backline were anticipated and distributed intelligently. K/K’s forward line just didn’t function. Stephen Brown and Barry Whelahan combined well using some fine angles of running. In general, their support play and teamwork was excellent. Michael Dwane is a nippy corner forward well able to take a score. Sean Ryan is pacey and is well able to penetrate even a small gap between defenders. Interestingly, such is the turnover of Birr players that of the semi final starting 15, only 4 survive from the 1998 All-Ireland club final (3 Whelahans and Claffey – Mullins would be a fifth). The availability of Dylan Hayden and Neil Rogers would also be a huge boost.

Coolderry will plan to bypass the Birr half back line by using Shane O’Connor’s long puckout to reach his full forward line. Corner forwards Paddy Teehan and Martin Corcoran were the main targets in their semi final win over St. Rynagh’s. It is likely that Coolderry will target Birr’s smaller corner backs with this on Sunday. That’s all weather-dependant of course. Playing into a strong wind makes this plan redundant, and this is what is forecast. Even playing with the aid of the strong wind could see the ball go over their heads. It should be noted that roughly every second final is played in rain- it’s been fine the last two years.

Coolderry have moved to strengthen their troublesome midfield & half forward lines. Kevin Brady hurled well at midfield against ‘Rynagh’s. He should revert to centre half back to mark Gary Hanniffy on Sunday. Getting an edge here is vital to Coolderry. Gary’s ball winning, distribution and point taking were superb against K/K. Barry Teehan should move in the other direction, to midfield to partner newcomer Paul Ryan who hurled well against ‘Rynagh’s, scoring 3 points in the process. Sometimes the answer to a problem is right under your nose, and David Dooley’s recall to the wing back position is a good move.

Who will Brian Carroll pick up? Will he play a roving centre-forward role, picking up breaking ball? This may be risky especially if Rory Hanniffy dominates this sector. Coolderry have struggled in this area since Seamus Tooher successfully discommoded Brian Whelahan two years ago. Maybe moving Martin Corcoran to play a ‘stopper’ centre forward would pay dividends and cut off a supply to Stephen Brown, who benefited from Whelahan’s delivery. In addition, Coolderry need to be careful playing the ball diagonally from right to left, as this is where Brian Whelahan (incidentally going for his 10th county medal, to equal Pat Joe’s 10 with ‘Rynagh’s) is at his most deadly. Kevin Brady will need to avoid ‘skying’ his clearances. Coolderry should either use the full width of the pitch, or else play a possession, running type game.

Paul Cleary’s clash with Joe Brady will also be vital. This will be Cleary’s biggest test for club or county. Though the same height as Brady, Brady is stronger, being 5 years older. Cleary will be charged with protecting a rookie goalkeeper, Mark Mulrooney. Brady has developed a nasty streak of late, which is quite unsavoury. This arose most notably when he cost Offaly a vital free in Nowlan Park in June. It arose again late in the semi final. He needs to cop himself on as its vital to Coolderry that he stays on the field. He can fill the role of a donkeyworker ‘break up the play’ full forward without this carry-on. In fact, all hotheads will need to concentrate on the job in hand.

How will it pan out? Birr look lean and hungry. They dominated in all sectors in their semi final, and scored freely. In truth, while Coolderry didn’t look like ever losing their semi-final, they really only opened up for 10 minutes after the goal, following it up with 4 points. Still, there was nothing in their 2004 semi final winning performance to suggest they would seriously challenge Birr, let alone win it. Half their team have undergone ‘county-type’ training. A bad day weatherwise would mean twelve or thirteen scores would be enough to see either team home. It’s hard to look beyond Birr, who have more forwards with scoring potential which often proves decisive in such situations.

[Lone Shark]

(Outstanding work there POTH, one of the best posts on here in a long time - )

I should be able to go along to this on Sunday, and realistically I'm trying to find a way of convincing myself that a competitive game is in store. The best I can really do is I haven't seen much hurling and maybe Coolderry will surprise me.

I couldn't even hope to surpass that preview above, so I'll just mention a couple of points that I'll be keeping an eye out for.

I've long held that I think Joe Brady can yet make a fine centre back, and I think it's to Offaly and Coolderry's detriment that he doesn't get a chance to settle in there. Between being shunted all over the pitch by both teams and being an easy target for criticism, he hasn't had the best of deals, and I get the feeling that Coolderry have plenty of tigerish backs who could do a great smothering job around him if he was just allowed anchor the whole thing. I only hope that we don't end up seeing a repeat of the All Ireland football final situation where David Brady was brought in only after Donaghy had secured the game and Mayo were out of sight. I'd be fearful that we could see Joe trotting back to centre back after fifteen minutes when Gary Hanniffy has already scored three points and laid on a goal or two for Ryan or Hayden feeding off him.

I know it's a degree of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but Coolderry can't win this chasing Birr from behind. They can win if the game is an 0-6 to 0-4 scrappy game at half time. To that end I think Joe has to start on his own 50.

From a county point of view, it'll be a great test of Shane O'Connor, whether he's able to direct puckouts as well as hit them a real wallop. The likes of Murray and Carroll will never compete for high puckouts, so they'll have to drop deep to midfield. If the half backs follow them, it'll leave a big space to hit in behind, but if not, O'Connor will need to be able to put it into the free hand from 70 yards.

Also when Coolderry won two years ago it was Cathal Parlon that was the trump card with five points if memory serves. Carroll and Murray won't run up huge totals here, so to even get up to as little as a dozen scores they're going to need someone to step up. I haven't seen Fergal Parlon yet, he might surprise, likewise Paul Ryan could do something, but the guy who could be a surprise package to my mind is Martin Corcoran. He's underachieved for a while as far as I'm concerned, but if he got put in on top of someone like JP O'Meara, something tells me he could do well. I could be wrong, but he's the only ace in the sleeve I can think of anyway.

For the good of everything in the county, I just hope last year's debacle is not repeated - that was horrendous. I've to fly back to England on Monday, I want some hope for 2007 in the bag with me on the return flight ....