Jack O'Connor's column:It's hard to beat the tactical battles and psychological twists of championship fare
Habit dies hard. I still tend to watch matches in both hurling and football as if I had the bainisteoir's bib on me. The tactical battles and psychological twists are what fascinate me. On Sunday the epic between Waterford and Cork had everything. Gerald McCarthy had the cards a manager would want going into the game. His team were on the rebound from a beating by Tipp, they had a score to settle with Waterford and they had the Semplegate affair still stoking their fires and they'd had the benefit of a few competitive games.
It was trickier for Waterford. They had already beaten Cork in the Munster semi-final and in the league and were facing them again, only this time Cork had the Semplegate martyrs on board. It was a big ask for a team who have never come up with the goods in a big game in Croke Park.
On Monday morning Justin will have woken up a good deal happier than his old friend Gerald. The morning after you have got a reprieve is always a sweet one. I was a selector in Kerry when we got late reprieves in games against Armagh and Galway on the way to the All-Ireland in 2000.
On the first day against Armagh Maurice Fitz kicked a famous point to give us a draw. We felt like we had got out of jail. I was on the sideline standing beside Páidí when Kieran McGeeney kicked the lead point late on. We looked at each other and said it was gone from us. Armagh had a chance to kill the game after that when they had possession and kicked the ball into our keeper. It went down the field and Maurice kicked the equaliser. It was a huge boost for the next week. Same in the drawn All-Ireland final game. Derek Savage had a great chance and Mike McCarthy stayed on him and forced him onto his right foot. He hit it straight at our goalie Declan O'Keeffe. We got another chance.
When you go into a replay like that the pressure is off you. You just focus on righting the things you did wrong the first day.
Justin will be busy with the VCR this week though. Part of the problem with a high-intensity performance like Waterford's is that some players get so involved they mislay the game plan and go for glory. Early on big Dan Shanahan was having one of those days when everything turns to gold. In the last 20 minutes though he spent more time than an astronomer looking at the skies as ball after ball went over his head, high, wide and not so handsome. I often think it would be an interesting exercise to put certain outfield players into the full-forward line in training for a few nights and deliberately deny them supply by overcarrying or overcooking. A few evenings of that sort of frustration would cure them.
The players who operate on the inside-forward line are unique in that they are totally dependent on being fed by others. By the end of the game Shanahan's frustration was written on his face for all to see.
Cork were more measured and cohesive while still being intense. What must have pleased Gerald McCarthy after the defeat to Tipperary was that Cork stuck with the game plan; there was no desperation. They had the benefit of a phenomenal performance from Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and when they went four points up late on they must have thought their perseverance with doing the right thing was paying off again.
With a bit of tweaking and a bit of video evidence to illustrate the folly of going it alone Waterford can feel this week that the momentum is with them. They enjoyed a little luck near the end but if they are to threaten Kilkenny, last Sunday and the replay are exactly what they needed. You can only be good in the white heat if you have experienced that heat.
Cork have lost two games and drawn one in this year's championship and have to find something they might feel they have lost. Waterford have to break through to another level. An interesting week for the two managers.
There are no hard and fast rules for managers. Nobody knows what is coming next. Brian Cody will have been pleased with how things turned out on Saturday. His team will have been severely tested by the tragic circumstances leading up to the game, and Galway gave them a searching test the like of which they just didn't get in Leinster.
The first big test of the year is always a worrying time for a manager. They were neck and neck to the last and pulled away in the final furlong. A performance of thoroughbreds.
Ger Loughnane is in a different place. He will be happy with the spirit and fire Galway showed but if there was a transfer market he would be out buying the sort of leaders he had with him in Clare. A Lohan, a Daly, a McMahon, a Baker, a Jamesie. Any of them would be invaluable.
A huge test in management is guiding a team over the leap between making it hard on good opposition and beating the same opposition. Great teams lift it up when the game is on the line. That's when they make the big plays. That's when you see great players do their work.
I watched a lot of NBA basketball in New York at a time when Michael Jordan was the main man for the Chicago Bulls and their visits to Madison Square Garden were always hugely intense affairs. The New York Knicks were a big trash-talking team led by a giant called Patrick Ewing.
Jordan loved coming into that madhouse and giving exhibitions under pressure. Huge scoring stats. Shots on the buzzer. His motto when the team were under pressure late in a game was, "give me the ball".
Great teams always have leaders. Kilkenny have so many players you would want to give the ball to in the last seconds of a tight game that a defence might as well be minding mice at a crossroads as trying to keep them down.
Look at Babs and Tony Considine. They played a high-stakes game by leaving out star players. The only way you win at that is to lift silver in September.
The managers of the last eight teams left in the football championship really step out into the spotlight over the next few weeks. Some of them face disadvantages which will have surprised them. You win a provincial championship and you have to sit around for a long time watching as teams who showed no form early on buy some invaluable match practice in the qualifiers while you train in a vacuum.
There's no template though. Brian McIver and John O'Mahony would have felt for their own reasons that a run to the National League final would be beneficial for both Donegal and Mayo. In hindsight Donegal's league win brought them right to the edge of a very competitive Ulster championship and no team can sustain form for that long. When we won a couple of leagues with Kerry we had the luxury of coming down for a month or two afterwards before winding up again. O'Mahony in Mayo needed a good run to establish himself with his feet under the table and to rebuild morale. By the end a side which had a long and crushing season last year were running on empty. At least now he knows he has to rebuild more than morale.
Monaghan and Derry have bounced back from early disappointments in style. Derry looked like a team in trouble early on. Now they are playing with joy and abandon. It would be interesting to know how Paddy Crozier brought that around.
We talked about Meath last week and they will look forward to playing a big-name team like Tyrone.
As for Sligo and Cork. Can Tommy Breheny exorcise the feeling among players that a provincial win would be enough. Can Billy Morgan stop his boys from taking them for granted.
If handled right Sligo should now see themselves as in bonus territory. They have nothing to lose and that sort of team is always a dangerous proposition.
Agus rud eile:
In a week when the Minister for Justice has said that he hopes to change our rampant drink culture and the rowdiness that accompanies it, we in the GAA must recognise that we have a big role to play. As things stand, relaxation, celebration, enjoyment and drink are all synonymous. Trying to change that is a huge challenge.
In the GAA we have to start with our young players and try to show them there are alternative ways of enjoying themselves, celebrating victories or getting over disappointments. These things don't always have to involve drinking to excess.
In the GAA we have a famine-and-feast approach to drink. Teams will lay off the drink for weeks in the lead-up to big games and then cut loose for a few days.
There are consequences to this in all sorts of ways: team-discipline issues, fitness issues and the message it transmits.
It would be more sensible for players to drink moderately through the season. It's not the use of drink that is the problem, it is the abuse.
The GAA needs to take a lead in this area but has weakened its hand by accepting sponsorship from a drinks company.
That in itself gives the wrong message, as the marketing of alcohol is done in a very subtle and skilled way.
There is always hope, though. We would have thought it was impossible to change the culture of smoking in bars.
If that has been changed we can change the binge-drinking culture also and teach young players drink is a false and temporary friend.
Fitness and achievement are more reliable companions.
