No Cure for the Summertime Blues?

[Plain of the Herbs]

Summertime again, and Offaly hurlers prepare to face Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling championship, filling the county with dread, evoking bad memories of some deep scrapes from feline claws.

For the rest of their lives Offaly folk will recall black Sunday 12th June 2005 and the massacre doled out by Kilkenny that day. If the scourge of conceding goals that did for Offaly in 2005 wasn’t repeated last year, the usual second half fadeout was, with Offaly’s inability to win their own ball leaving Kilkenny with the majority of possession which provided the platform to outscore the Faithful 1-13 to 0-3 in that second half. This remains a big worry.

Kilkenny’s preparations have been dealt a series of blows with a number of recent injury worries. Definite non starters are defenders John Tennyson & James Ryall along with regular midfielder Derek Lyng while Henry Shefflin is not yet sufficiently ready to start following his recovery from his cruciate injury. In addition full back Noel Hickey, half back PJ Delaney and attackers Richie Power and Aidan Fogarty are doubtful starters.

The most worrying of these from a Kilkenny perspective would be Noel Hickey, were the Dunamaggin farmer unable to start. John Tennyson would be the most likely to fill the no. 3 jersey but he too is likely to be ruled out. Now the Kilkenny replacements will all be hewn on the training ground with those famed ‘blowout’ training matches but replacing Hickey would mean a complete reorganisation of Noreside defence with either Brian Hogan or JJ Delaney donning the number 3 jersey. The dynamic and balance of their team would then be severely affected.

I wonder who Kilkenny will select in goals? A recall for James McGarry at this stage would be a massive vote of no confidence in PJ Ryan. We’ll have to wait until Friday night to find out.

It’s a big year for Kilkenny hurling with the chance to achieve their dream of three All-Ireland titles in a row for the first time in almost a hundred years. They are well aware that previous 3-in-a-row dreams faltered at the Leinster semi-final stage, in 1984 and 1994, and while they availed of the back door following their defeat by Wexford in 2004, the extra mileage accumulated on the elongated passage along the qualifier route – coupled with an abrasive quarter final draw and replay with Clare – saw their triple hopes dashed.

They will also be wary of Offaly and they will be reminded that Offaly ended their under 21 team’s Leinster hopes last year in Nowlan Park. That said, no comparison can be drawn as really only TJ Reid and Richard Hogan will likely be promoted to their county’s senior side any time soon with many of that Kilkenny vintage coming from junior clubs in south Kilkenny.

Of all Kilkenny’s hurlers, the one Offaly have struggled to come to terms with is Martin Comerford. Introduced to the team in 2002, the big O’Loughlin Gaels clubman is the epitome of Brian Cody’s favoured hurlers - strong in the air, fearless and almost unmarkable. It looks as if Ger Oakley, selected at centre half back, will be the man handed the task of marking Comerford in the expectation that he would he line out at centre half forward. Oakley, strong and fearless, may be just the man for the job. With Henry Shefflin not starting, Kilkenny will look to Comerford to lead their attack. It’s noteable that Comerford and Shefflin between them accounted for Kilkenny’s first eight scores against Offaly last year.

Offaly themselves have two absentees which upsets the balance of their team. They presumably had banked on Joseph Bergin being available for selection following his cameo appearance towards the end of the Laois match. The Clareen man probably did himself no favours coming on when the match was well won when he was clearly unable to grip his hurl. Hopefully he will be available to the under 21’s on Wednesday night.

Thankfully Rory Hanniffy is available again though Kevin Brady’s withdrawal with a hamstring injury means the Birr barrister is selected on the half back line. I’ve never been convinced with Hanniffy in defence and would have preferred if he were to line out in the half forward line. That said, Hanniffy would do well under Kilkenny’s puckouts and his quick supply to his forwards should release Carroll and Murphy. It will be interesting to see which of Kilkenny’s forwards Hanniffy will mark. Hardly dangermen Eddie Brennan and I would imagine the task of marking Brennan would fall to Diarmuid Horan.

Brian Carroll has shown decent form this year though he will need to give his best ever performance if he is to lead his attack on Sunday, a tall order. He is probably helped by Damien Murray’s absence. Murray’s dependence on his right side meant he usually ran infield taking up the space Carroll himself would take up. Dylan Hayden tends to hold his position in the corner, giving more room for Carroll to prosper.

Carroll will need a much better service from his defence than he received in the Laois game if he is to break free from Kilkenny’s tight marking. Ger Healion did show an awareness against Laois to move to the right corner when Carroll moved outfield, from which he scored his goal. Movement such as this will also leave room for Carroll, Murphy or Hayden to capitalise on goal chances.

It’s hard to see where Offaly can secure their own puckout where really only Conor Mahon and Derek Molloy will be able to catch any amount of ball in the middle. While Cleary is big, he doesn’t catch much ball and they Offaly really could do with Joseph Bergin and Rory Hanniffy in this area. The second half collapses against Kilkenny in 2005 and 2007 had their genesis in that inability to win their own ball with the result that Kilkenny could attack Offaly’s overworked defence relentlessly. I feel how Offaly perform in this area will dictate how long they stay in contention.

Some Offaly hurlers need to be more precise with their tackling. In particular, Healion, and Rigney tended to put their left arms around their Laois opponents the last day. If the referee had followed the letter of the law and used the three-card trick of black-yellow-yellow x2, Kevin Brady could have seen a premature end to his afternoon. Against Kilkenny, this would obviously be fatal to Offaly hopes.

Goals have so often been Kilkenny’s lifeline. The 2005 massacre saw two goals scored inside four minutes while last year saw Offaly’s goal line intact until the 56th minute. Former Cork Bainisteoir Donal O’Grady repeatedly points to the importance of keeping Kilkenny from scoring goals in his media analyses.

Kilkenny will look to ruthlessly put Offaly to the sword as early as they can in order to secure safe passage to another Leinster final as efficiently as they can and leave Offaly feeling yet another dose of the Summertime blues. It’s more in hope than in confidence that Offaly can keep their heads up when the pressure comes on.

[Rynaghs Biffo]

Excellent post POTH, superb stuff, really looking forward to the lads hitting them hard and putting up a good performance.

[swiftpost]

Great post POTH, very detailed and i am in agreement with all your comments.

I see when someone gets highlighted on the sunday game giving away soft free's they find it hard to live down that reputation! Our tackling will need to be tough borderline fouling in the first half to let the cats know they are in a game.

[black and red exile]

Superb post POTH. You have left no stone unturned with you're analysis for Sunday. Realistically we are going to have to pray alot of things go for us on Sunday to have any chance of staying on their coatails. We must at all costs stop them from hitting us with an early blitz of goals because if that happens I think we all agree it will be a very long afternoon for players and supporters alike. We have to get the rub of the green with refereeing decisions but of course tactics have to be executed to perfection and its vital that if plan A fails then there must be a plan B. Also if this great injury crisis is half as bad as what is believed and 4 or 5 of of the big names are missing at the throw in, you can imagine the lift it would give our lads to go and let the cats know they will have an almighty battle on their hands.