I said during the winter that defeat to anyone bar Limerick in this years championship and we would have to deem the year a failure and so it was.
The game yesterday turned on so many little failings that have dogged us with a while but that have probably being overlooked given the major issues we have had regarding workrate and style of play in recent years.
I thought our workrate yesterday was still decent and the lads kept going to the bitter end. That's a marked difference from recent years when the team used just capitulate when things got tough. Our style of play still hasn't been properly ironed out. This is solely management's fault. The tippy tappy rubbish is so ingrained in our lads that even when going long you can see they are still not comfortable doing it. The sight of Tim and Connolly competing 5 on 2 or 2 on 1 inside yesterday after chasing a bad ball with support slow to arrive was very frustrating and indicative of a set up that still wasn't all reading of the same gameplan. Of course this should have been trialled during the league and wasn't and left us falling between 2 stools come campionship.
The first place to start is the first 10 seconds and that terrible mistake from Patrick Collins. Collins is a decent keeper but I'd be sceptical that he is of inter county standard. I and a few others here have been questioning having both Collins brothers on the panel going back since the start of last season. I think Patrick doesn't make enough saves and often makes wrong decisions when in possession. How many times was he hooked or blocked in this years league or championship? He got swallowed up down the pairc by Limerick and instead of handpassing or kicking the ball over the sideline he just overcarried it and conceded a free. I don't think he learns from mistakes. Both goals yesterday should have been comfortably stopped and the decision to lump a high ball down on Jack O’Connor at the end just beggar's belief but is in keeping with his questionable decision making. Also if Collins isn't making saves in games he's obviously not doing it in training which is probably giving our forward line a false sense of what it takes to beat a top quality goalkeeper. I hate being so critical of a guy who obviously gives so much time for the cause but it's a persistent problem for us.
I'd love to see Deccie Dalton get a trial in goal. How Cathal Hickey never got a run in there is beyond me but that ship has probably sailed now at his age. Davis might be worth a try. All I know is I'd like to see 2 keepers from outside the same household fighting for the position.
The next glaring issue yesterday was our wide count, misses goal chances and 2 balls off the post. This is another ongoing issue. We are consistently missing big chances. I wonder, in training was there so much time spent getting formation and style of play right that we neglected the basics of spending enough time on shooting? It's one thing hitting a bad wide under pressure but some of the misses yesterday an average club player would have scored them.
The final turning point for me yesterday was the play where Tim caught a massive ball layed it off to Jack O Connor who proceeds to take such a wide slow swing he could have been blocked from Loughrea, the ball then goes out for a Cork sideline where Naill O Leary rushes a sideline that gets cut out and Galway score from it and begin a little rally which ultimately finished us. That play, summed up the composure we are lacking.
The sideline didn't cover themselves in glory either. How Harnedy was left on that long while both Tim and Connolly were subbed was bizarre. Then we take off all our big men and still start hammering high ball into our small forwards.
For all those faults we were still only beaten by a point, although the game was of a poor standard overall I felt.
Special mention to Ciaran Joyce. Best player on the field in my opinion. I hope he is not overlooked when it comes to young hurler of the year. I know young Hayes from Clare, Butler from Kilkenny and O Neill from Limerick are going well but Joyce has been a colossus at center back. An absolute gem of a player.
Damien Cahalane, Robbie O Flynn, Luke Meade and Alan Cadogan (who I questioned here the other night and proved me wrong) were all very good I felt.
I'm hoping for a complete change of management in the coming month. Fingers crossed Pat Ryan is the new man in and he brings Wayne Sherlock with him. But who knows currently.
