When you win a one-point game nobody questions anything you did. When you lose a one-point game, everything is wrong. If they didn’t know already, the Cork players and management would have discovered that on Sunday night and for the rest of the week. It is a ridiculous way of thinking, but it is part of the GAA. The difference between a one-point win and a one-point loss is enormous.
The other irrational part is that, when you lose, a thousand things feel wrong. Cork will have months to think about it, but they probably already know the things they wish they had done differently. Clare dominated the landing zone under Cork’s long puckouts and that was a crucial part of the game. When that wasn’t working Cork’s Plan B was to revert to Plan A.
That approach had been good to them all year. The kind of energy and opportunities that Cork created with that tactic was huge against Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and in Croke Park. Clare knew that they had to stop that at source and to do that they made calculated gambles.
Against Limerick, the key aspect for Cork was to use the space between the Limerick half-back line and full-back line. To counteract that Limerick didn’t crowd the space with any extra bodies. On Sunday, it was different. Clare’s wing backs positioned themselves under the dropping ball to compress the space where Cork were hoping to pick up breaks.
By doing that they gambled that Cork wouldn’t exploit the space they left behind on the wings and it paid off. Against Limerick, Declan Dalton had stayed miles away from the landing zone, taking Kyle Hayes out of the play. On Sunday, David McInerney left Dalton where he was and was determined to be under the dropping ball.
There were oceans of space down both flanks under Cork’s puckouts, but their wing forwards were sucked in. It would only have taken one or two puckouts directed at Dalton to make McInerney and Clare think again.
In that part of the game, Clare won a tactical battle but it was also where they laid down a physical marker. Shane Barrett had been electric all season getting on to breaks but John Conlon didn’t give him an inch. He blocked his runs and grabbed him off the ball, anything to stop him in his tracks.
Clare were incredibly aggressive under the dropping ball and all over the field. Conor Cleary and Adam Hogan were both booked before half-time, which meant they were walking a tightrope at a very early stage. They were prepared to take that chance. It looked to me like Clare got inside a couple of the Cork forwards’ heads, too, and they showed a bit of inexperience in failing to deal with that.
McInerney was on a yellow card when he brought down Robbie O’Flynn late in the game. He escaped a second yellow, or a black card — either of which would have amounted to red. Clare escaped a penalty in that incident and a free at the very end when Conor Leen pulled O’Flynn’s jersey. They were determined to play on the edge and when you take that approach you need a bit of luck.
For whatever reason, Cork didn’t bring the same level of physicality as they did to the semi-final against Limerick. Tony Kelly scored an incredible goal and Mark Rodgers scored a very good goal, but neither of them were hit by a Cork defender as they were going through.
Cork had an issue with indiscipline early in the championship. They were down to 13 men at one stage against Waterford and had Sean O’Donoghue sent off against Clare a week later. As soon as Eoin Downey was booked against Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh they took him off and the following week O’Donoghue escaped what should have been a black card against Tipperary. He was booked instead. Maybe all of that was in the back of their minds. But Kelly and Rodgers should have felt the force of a tackle, it’s as simple as that.
It is an issue for Cork to address before next year’s championship. Most of their games are great to watch because they turn into shoot-outs. Cork, though, need better defenders. Someone like Mark Coleman is an absolutely brilliant hurler and he had a big impact on Sunday, but he doesn’t have a defender’s instincts.
He scored three points, but his direct opponent, David Fitzgerald had 12 shots, a staggering amount. It was a massive let off for Cork that only three of them were turned into scores. At one stage Coleman played a good ball down the wing into the Cork attack, in front of the Hogan Stand. But he seemed to be admiring the pass rather than looking for Fitzgerald, who was over on the other wing. When Clare turned the ball over, they worked it to Fitzgerald, who was still unmarked.
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But in a one-point game, that stuff is magnified for the losing team. Clare’s defending was rightly praised, but they still conceded 1-34. Darragh Lohan ended up marking Brian Hayes when Conor Cleary had to go off – even though Lohan had been a midfielder all season. That could have completely backfired when they had two experienced options for the full-back line on the bench — Paul Flanagan and Rory Hayes. They got away with it.
It was a sweet All-Ireland for Clare given all the big game defeats they had suffered in the last few years. For the handful of players who have been around since 2013, and before, they have two All-Irelands now, and two National Leagues. But, amazingly, still no Munster medal. You can imagine Clare going baldheaded for that next year.
Cork can be proud of their season, and they have a foundation now on which to build. But I know from experience that coming back from an All-Ireland final defeat is not straightforward and they will need to find improvement.
Cork versus Clare is the opening game of next year’s Munster championship. Nine months to wait.
