Seven switch it up options for Cork against Clare
Robbie O’Flynn of Cork in action against Adam Hogan of Clare during the 2024 Allianz Hurling League. Picture: ©INPHO/Natasha Barton
Given Pat Ryan’s second championship campaign as Cork manager is not even a week old, there ain’t a large bank of evidence to study and pick apart. In looking at how he has reacted and adapted in going from one round-robin fixture to another, we only have last April and May to work with.
Four was the largest number of changes Ryan made from one game to the next during the 2023 Munster edition. That was when coming out of the drawn fixture against Tipp and heading up to Ennis to play Clare in Round 4, a one-point game the visitors wound up on the wrong side of.
In going from Ennis just down the road to the Gaelic Grounds a week later, Ryan reacted to his first championship defeat by making three changes in personnel.
That figure of four is under serious threat this Sunday. And if not surpassed, the surprise would be if it isn’t at least equalled.
Four of the starting six forwards at Walsh Park - Twomey, Lehane, Harnedy, and Horgan - finished proceedings in the stand. How many of this quartet, three of whom are the most experienced men on Pat’s panel, are retained and given a reprieve?
Before immersing ourselves in the ‘give youth its fling’ conversation being played out on loudspeaker in Cork this week, let’s first get out of the way the most obvious change for Clare’s visit.
Introduced at half-time in Walsh Park. It represented his first competitive involvement since departing the league defeat to Kilkenny way back on February 10 when suffering his latest hamstring setback.
O’Flynn’s enforced time out was obvious. Bar his 64th minute point and winning a converted injury-time free, he did not exert the menace and directness one has come to expect of him. He will, though, be better and sharper for the 39 minutes banked.
Last Sunday’s half-forward line of Twomey, Lehane, and Harnedy were the first three players whipped off. Impossible not to see a selection where O’Flynn doesn’t take a shirt between No.10 and 12.
Only four Cork forwards found the net during the League. Two of those - Alan Connolly and Horgan - started at Walsh Park, the other two - Brian Hayes and Jack O’Connor - did not.
Hayes, an All-Ireland U20 winner under Ryan in 2020 and ‘21, clipped a point when introduced for the final quarter against Waterford. He struck a goal when introduced for his championship debut against Tipp in Round 3 of Munster last year.
When the Barrs won the 2022 Cork PSHC, they hit 10 goals across six games. Hayes was responsible for four. They managed only four green flags during their failed title defence last autumn. Hayes was still responsible for half that total.
If Cork are serious about hitting their manager’s target of three to four goals per game, then Hayes’ inclusion in the inside line from the off - he has yet to start a championship game - is nothing more than a common sense pick.
If O’Flynn is way out in front for promotion, then a second potential half-forward call-up will be far more tightly contested. Dalton and Kingston, on their way back from injuries, will be available. Or, bring Shane Barrett out to the 45 and have Jack O’Connor, for what would be his first championship start since May 1, 2022, as part of a three-man full-forward line.
From man of the match on the afternoon of his championship debut when Cork defeated Waterford 12 months ago to unused substitute for the county’s latest championship joust with the Déise.
“We had him with the U20s, and the one thing when you pick a team is that you want fellas that are going to go out and play with character and you know they are going to deliver for you, and we knew that Brian would deliver an honest performance,” Ryan said of Roche’s grafting debut.
Having started all four round-robin fixtures last April and May, Roche started only two league games the spring just gone. Tommy O’Connell overtook him to assume the title of lead midfield grafter. But is there room for both on Sunday?
Irish Examiner columnist Seánie McGrath was the latest in a never-ending line to suggest Darragh Fitzgibbon be pushed to No.11. If management are willing to make this switch, the vacancy is there for Roche to return to the first 15 and have a midfield pairing whose first priority would be cutting out the supply of ball that an under-pressure and under-fire Cork defence has to deal with.
There’s a consensus that Cork have defensive frailties. Less so on where those frailties exactly are.
“There needs to be a change in the full-back line. It seemed open at times,” said TJ Ryan on Dalo’s Hurling Show.
“We are conceding too many scores. It is getting through our half-back line too easily,” said Seánie McGrath.
21-year-old Downey can play in either line, has played in either line. The Cork management seemed determined to make a full-back out of him during his debut spring in 2023 before reverting to the tried come championship.
Rather than lining him up at half-back against either of the physically imposing pair of David Fitzgerald or Peter Duggan, he is probably more suited to shadowing one of the Clare sprinters inside.
Going back to Seánie McGrath one final time. His declaration was: "There are lads on that Cork bench whose time has come. Over to management. Twist, yes, but to what extent?"
