LAR CORBETT CONTROVERSY:MANY WELL-REGARDED hurling men in both management and from a perch within the media claim there are no tactics in hurling. Cork selector Ger Cunningham is not one of them.
“Everyone is trying to find their own little niche and their own little tactic. It’s a results-driven game at this stage and people are looking at different tactics. Every team is trying something,” he said.
“Maybe in the past it was just letting it flow and I suppose Sunday was probably something we hadn’t contemplated or hadn’t seen before and took it to a new level.”
Cunningham was being quizzed yesterday about the Lar Corbett affair, which has consumed most conversations about the sport since last Sunday’s farcical man-marking situation.
When the All-Ireland semi-final between Tipperary and Kilkenny was still a competitive event, Corbett, the 2010 hurler of the year, paid little heed to what he does best – scoring goals and points. Instead, he sought out Kilkenny defender Tommy Walsh at every turn, entering a totally separate game of verbals.
Walsh was attempting to mark Pa Bourke, while Jackie Tyrrell was adamant he would cover Corbett so all four men wandered around together. Little of the play came their way and they only scattered when Eoin Larkin’s goal after 50 minutes put the game out of Tipperary’s reach.
“I suppose people are just trying to come to terms with it really – the situation where one of the best forwards of the last couple of years is running around after a defender,” said Cunningham. “It caught everyone by surprise. I can see where you’re coming from asking the question. Is it going to be a trend? Hopefully not.”
Should the Tipperary management have put an end to the tactic sooner? “Obviously it was a tactic. Every manager will try and come up with a different tactic and will see how it works but it was obvious after 10 or 15 minutes that it wasn’t going to work even though Tommy was out of the game and so was Lar, because he was anonymous really. You would imagine that if something wasn’t working you would change it and it took them a long time to look at it and change it.”
But the word “tactic” doesn’t have to hold negative connotations in hurling, Cunningham admitted. “It’s just evolution, the way the game has gone. Hurling is changing all the time and some people mightn’t like the way it’s going from the point of view that they’d like to see the old traditionalist two midfielders, three half forwards, three full forwards.
“That day is probably gone. You probably won’t see that any more. You’re going to see different variations of forward play and if that means pulling a defender out or pulling the half forwards out or whatever it is, things are going to change, and I think you will see an evolution of that happening, and hopefully it wouldn’t get to the situation where it becomes a farce.”
That brings us back to the Corbett plan – or, more importantly, the refusal of Tyrrell and Walsh to accept it. “I presume the Tipp management team looked at a situation where they felt they could find an advantage.”
That’s it really; a tactic that back-fired. Spectacularly.
“You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t actually think about the opposition,” said Joe Canning, adding to the debate. “But this thing about trying to counteract them. I don’t believe in it. We have to concentrate on ourselves. Bring our style of play to the game and, hopefully, that will be good enough.”
