Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Croke Park a lonely place when things go pear-shaped
Corofin were outstanding in Croke Park yesterday, delivering an All-Ireland club final masterclass and deserving all of the plaudits that will come their way.
They go at most things right and won all the key battles against Dr Crokes. They were better in every facet of the game. They are, in equal measure, exciting and hard-working. They are physical, have a great spirit and are selfless, always giving it to the player in the best position. They are clearly extremely well-coached and for the second year in a row, on the biggest day, they showed us all what football played at its best looks like.
Achieving that physical and mental peak in two consecutive years is impressive. On Saturday, Joe Schmidt spoke about Wales having an extra 5% in motivation over his team because they were chasing the Grand Slam. While Corofin were the team looking to achieve back-to-back All-Irelands, the fact Dr Crokes beat them in the semi in 2017 may well have given them that extra edge that was apparent throughout the final.
From the off they were far better and but for some last ditch defending, a few great block downs and the crossbar coming to their rescue, it could have got nastier for Dr Crokes a lot earlier. The sending off of John Payne did not help their cause but they were already struggling. To their credit, Crokes kept fighting — in the second half, particularly, for 10 minutes after Colm Cooper’s introduction — but it was really a matter of damage limitation for much of the match.
Corofin are the AIB Club Football All-Ireland Champions!
— The GAA (@officialgaa) March 17, 2019
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Football is a simple game when played the Corofin way. However, it is far from simple to get to the point where everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet to the degree they are. As Johann Cruyff said, playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.
The culture in Corofin (as it is in Dr Crokes) involves everyone in the club playing the same style of football with a heavy emphasis on getting the skills right with their underage teams. Their second goal illustrates the effectiveness of having embedded this type of philosophy deep within their player to the point that it is intuitive. They won the ball back initially with hard work (albeit with some help, with uncharacteristic Dr Crokes sloppiness). When they got the ball back they moved it at pace with quick hands, good decisions, perfect execution of the skills, strong, intelligent lines of running including a loop off the back and finally Ian Burke (who is always a joy to watch) capping it off by teeing up Gary Sice at the back post when he could easily have shot himself.
Bernard Power’s performance and execution of the Corofin management’s kick-out strategy was absolutely central to their success. This was in stark contrast to Dr Crokes who struggled on their own kickouts for large periods of the game. Remarkably Power did not lose a kickout until the 40th minute.
Teams are so good in possession now that with each passing season securing possession off kickouts is becoming more and more important. As a result managements spend a lot of time scrutinising the oppositions kickouts when scouting them. What I liked most about Power was his ability to adjust to what he was being presented with. Early on, he went short often. He had the ball down and kicked before Dr Crokes had an opportunity to set themselves. Crokes reacted and got their six man zone in place quicker and Power changed tack finding holes and channels to kick through.
The best chance for the opposition to get their press really set for a kick-out is on a free that they know is going to go dead. In the 12th minute, Tony Brosnan had a scoreable free and Crokes set an aggressive press to try and put Power and Corofin under pressure. They were only barely hanging in there and they needed to generate momentum. When Power placed the ball, Crokes were set. He didn’t panic. They had planned for this. The quality of their coaching and personnel on the field making the right decisions was evident when Corofin loaded up the Hogan Stand side of the field and Power went long over the press. His kick was flicked on and culminated in Corofin’s Daithi Burke bearing down on the Crokes goal and getting a great point. It was clearly rehearsed but it was executed to perfection and, crucially, at the right time.
With Corofin securing almost all their own kickouts, Dr Crokes were sucked out of shape in a big way and from an early stage. Their forwards and midfield pair spent a lot of time tracking towards their own goals and burning valuable energy going in the wrong direction. Johnny Buckley wasn’t given the opportunity to dominate the Corofin kickout. As a result Gavin White got very few opportunities to drive at Corofin — on the contrary, the Silkes and Kieran Molloy and even Kieran Fitzgerald on occasions were able to augment their attack and create overlaps that the Farraghers, Burke, Sice and Jason Leonard in particular exploited.
Power was also a great second option from his own short restarts. On one such occasion having had his kickout returned to him he unleashed a bullet from his hands that set Leonard up for an outstanding score in the 48th minute. When he returns to the Galway set-up he is bound to put pressure on Ruairí Lavelle and we may see more of him as the year progresses.
Dr Crokes will understandably be very disappointed. Their lack of performance will be hard to take and they will have plenty of hard questions with no answers.
Losing any big game is tough but not showing up in an All-Ireland, individually and collectively, is the worst possible scenario for such a proud group. They are a great club and are the exemplar in Kerry with the structures they have put in place and with the way they go about their business. Pat O’Shea is absolutely central to all of that. I felt sorry for him yesterday. He was deeply frustrated at times and Croke Park is a lonely spot when a systems malfunction occurs.
I love that expression “don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile in my moccasins. I know exactly how he felt. Been there done that. You feel and hope as a coach that everything is covered and you trust your players to do their job. It’s very hard to legislate for so many players underperforming but that can be the nature of sport and as coach, you learn and move on.
Whether it is a good or a bad thing, they won’t have much time to wallow in their disappointment as they will be back playing County League next weekend and have the club championship in April. It will allow them to move on and some poor club in Kerry will bear the brunt of their frustration in the coming weeks with yesterday’s no show.
Meanwhile Corofin will deservedly enjoy the celebrations. I will be amazed if we don’t see more of them involved with Galway this summer. If Kevin Walsh can coax a few more of these Corofin players into his setup with their quality, nous and personality Galway will be a match for anyone.
Some poor club in Kerry will bear the brunt of Dr Crokes’ frustration in the coming weeks
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