GAELIC GAMES/Dublin v Cork:THE LOOMING likelihood of unpleasant weather doesn't appear to have affected enthusiasm for tomorrow's first semi-final in the most open All-Ireland championship in years.
Croke Park expects a near-capacity crowd and certainly the biggest of the season so far to roll down Jones’s Road for what is an unexpected pairing.
A month ago Cork were regarded as the back markers of the three-strong leading pack whereas Dublin were being fitted up for their usual quarter-final exit.
Now Pat Gilroy’s team are in the last four, having at last slain one of the big beasts in the jungle and boasting a rapidly improving performance curve.
Cork have been Cork, more fitful and spluttering than last year but still getting the grass cut. Manager Conor Counihan has had a lot to occupy him in the past few weeks with injuries to Graham Canty and Ciarán Sheehan although both are named to play.
Canty’s leadership role can’t be overstated so if he doesn’t make it the absence will be serious for the team. Sheehan has been the most energetic forward and with the attack so far lacking the incisiveness of last year, his loss wouldn’t be easily compensated.
Yet it’s not all bad news for the county. For a start the championship generally rewards teams that pay their dues. Cork have been around and tomorrow is a sixth successive semi-final.
If the inability to find form in the later All-Ireland stages indicates a proneness to head staggers that has been down to Kerry and no one else. In fact, in the semi-finals when they managed to avoid their tormentors, Cork have given devastating displays – overpowering a favoured Meath team in 2007 and giving Tyrone their most thorough dusting in years on this weekend last year.
Dublin’s young pretenders line out with only six of the players who started last season’s quarter-final disaster against Kerry. Their evolution this year, allowing for the dip in June, has been impressive.
Assume they have no issues and that the underdog status will again liberate them as it appeared to do against Tyrone.
How will their strengths measure up tomorrow? Pat Gilroy’s team’s work rate compared favourably to the real thing when they out-tussled the Ulster champions but even greater industry is going to be needed here.
Two of the most discussed aspects – as distinct from individual performances – of the quarter-final win were Dublin’s harvest at centrefield on Stephen Cluxton’s kick-outs and the amount of wides Tyrone kicked.
It’s going to be hard to emulate that. Tyrone’s centrefield was the team’s most underperforming sector, as the refusal to kick the ball out to them indicated. Cork on the other hand have plenty of options in the middle.
Alan O’Connor and Aidan Walsh are the most dynamic pairing but Nicholas Murphy added presence when introduced against Roscommon and Pearse O’Neill will be standing sentry every time Cluxton looks up the field.
Michael Dara Macauley has been hugely effective in both his acquisition and use of the ball but he and Ross McConnell will be under more pressure than in any match to date although that necessarily includes their domination of the highly-rated Louth centrefield.
Should the chances come their way, Cork won’t kick 17 wides. Their forward deployment will be more conventional and create greater pressure on Dublin’s developing but raw full-back line. Daniel Goulding and Donncha O’Connor won’t be drifting in the manner that allowed Philip McMahon a field day against Tyrone.
Dublin’s half backs have been smart in their movement of ball and tenacious in marking. With the added pace of Cian O’Sullivan, back after injury, they will pose a formidable barrier to Cork’s ambitions to open up galloping ground for O’Neill.
Cork’s defensive worries will focus on Bernard Brogan, whose sustained excellence has made him the county’s first real footballer of the year contender since 1995. It is anticipated Noel O’Leary will drop back in front of Canty and Eoghan O’Gara to shield the full-back line where Michael Shields will pick up Brogan.
Presumably Niall Corkery’s disposition towards honest toil rather than sharp shooting would make this tactic an easier option for Conor Counihan.
For all the impressive development of a young team and the effectiveness of Gilroy’s defensive realignment this year, Cork have too much talent, experience and hunger to lose their way at this stage.
