Counihan needs to settle on a Cork footballing ethos

 

Tony Leen

FORMLINE, what formline? Kerry beat Dublin who hammer Armagh who go to in-form Mayo and win.

Cork lose in Donegal who are then humbled in Kerry. Cork hose pathetic Laois who then turn over Armagh who had beaten Kerry in Tralee. Mayo look the only consistent side in Division One – and that's saying something – until they're barbequeued in Ballyshannon. Dublin surely will restore sanity in Down? Pull the other one, it plays Molly Malone.

Anyone taking this Snakes and Ladders League seriously?

Jack O'Connor might grimace and say his crew are behaving less inconsistently than anyone else, which is why they top the League with a home game against Laois to come (I know, I know..)

At Páirc Ui Chaoimh yesterday, we looked for spring signs of summer magic from the freshly unwrapped Kerry Academy graduates: Brian Maguire, Peter Crowley, Patrick Curtin and freshman senior, Barry John Keane. Instead we were reminded why the famous five are famous: Gooch might have been golfing, but the lack of return from the corner forwards reminded everyone of missing marksmen. Thereafter Declan O'Sullivan, Paul Galvin, Marc O Sé and Tomás O Sé ran the show, Bryan Sheehan and Kieran Donaghy – hats off there – weren't far behind.

Graham Canty and Eoin Cadogan looked up for scrutiny yesterday but too few of their colleagues remembered the game started at quarter to three, not half three. I'd happily parse Cork's tactics if I could work them out. Marc O Sé is possibly the best defender in Ireland but as Andy Moran found last year, he is uncomfortable in the air close to his own goal. As a forlorn Colm O'Neill trooped off, withdrawn, he must have felt the Cork game plan had not been devised with him in mind. Daniel Goulding and Ciaran Sheehan will give breadth to Cork's attacking options and make a bothersome full forward line with O'Neill for the best defences – if they are properly utilised. Kerry can't play Marc O Sé in three positions.

The problem is in Cork's half forward line: and the lack of balance therein. Any team with ambition must pick players ready to trek back as willingly as burst forward. But the balance is key. Work-rate? Patrick Kelly yes, Fintan Gold (maybe) and Pearse O'Neill (all day). But in the desire to be "set up properly", does that sacrifice attacking potency? Does that Cork half forward line ask enough questions?

Perhaps the right type of player - a Galvin or Declan O'Sullivan or even Darran O'Sullivan - isn't available to the Cork management. Hardly. But iff true, then a strategy of withdrawing half forwards to create a five man midfield and allow Colm O'Neill et al breathe, becomes the consideration.

Tellingly, the only Cork player who breached Kerry's defence from deep yesterday was Graham Canty, not Pearse O'Neill or Goold or Mark Collins. I'm not sure Paul Kerrigan, who was introduced, has the skills set to get the better of Tomas O Sé or Killian Young (and they are the benchmark) – but maybe he could function as a thirteen.

Cork have to start making the match-ups work for them, they've got to devise an attacking formation that forces Kerry to put square pegs in round holes.

Playing Pearse O'Neill in the attack will always suit Eoin Brosnan and Kerry down to the ground. Ditto Aidan Walsh. Play him at midfield (with either Pearse O'Neill or Alan O'Connor), for gawdsake, accuracy ain't his forte!

Two points in a ridiculously inept first-half for Cork yesterday – at home to their arch rivals – is symptomatic of an offensive game-plan that's either poorly thought out or not transferring effectively from blueprint to canvass. Cork's best six forwards (fully fit) are Ciaran Sheehan, Donncha O'Connor (on the forty), Colm O'Neill, Dan Goulding, Patrick Kelly and (depending on strategy) Kerrigan/Collins/Goold. Does Conor Counihan really have the luxury to be selecting otherwise when the pace quickens in May?

Kerry are in a better place, but not without concerns. Their apparent inability to break the momentum of a side that attacks in waves was again evident in the second period yesterday, notwithstanding that Kieran Donaghy isn't built to do a half forward's grunt work. They got a great fifty minutes from Galvin and a roaming Declan O'Sullivan but precious little from the full forward line. Bryan Sheehan has been a revelation at midfield this past nine months, and Anthony Maher has kicked on too. Back-up here though is dangerously thin with David Moran gone again for the year. Johnny Buckley will need to put down a marker while Seamus Scanlon has already given Kerry his best years. However that won't bother Jack O'Connor, who doesn't like setting the pace for the peloton. He likes issues to be grappling with, conundrums to be sorting.

Whether Conor Counihan is similarly disposed is neither here nor there. He needs to freshen Cork up – in every sense of the word.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/qirJy83RM3c/post.aspx

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