*Clare selector, Tommy Corbett (far-right) with Paul Flanagan, David Reidy and Ken Ralph. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ANY TEAM expecting to beat Cork must be able to cope with their “bomb squad of speed” that they unleash from the bench in the final twenty minutes of a game, Clare selector Tommy Corbett has stressed.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final, Corbett pointed out that Cork’s physicality, athleticism and speed are among the biggest areas they must curb if they are to be crowned All-Ireland champions for a fifth time.
Ennis native Tommy is in his first year as a selector with the county senior side. On the approach taken by management in 2024, he explained, “the management team as a whole looked at participating in three different competitions, the league, Munster championship and the All-Ireland championship. We went out to win every game and we won the league. We didn’t succeed in Munster and this is another competition now and we are one game away, albeit a very difficult challenge ahead and one we are looking forward to”.
On April 28th, Clare recorded a 3-26 3-24 win over Cork in the second round of the Munster SHC, the game will have little significance on how the All-Ireland final pans out, Tommy asserted. “Every game takes on a life of its own. Our backs were to the wall down in Páirc Ui Chaoimh, we performed very well and so did Cork, it could have gone either way. Will it have any bearing this week, I don’t really think so. I don’t think Cork will be thinking about that game, we certainly won’t. The game next week will take on a life of its own, a completely different scenario”.
Captain of the All-Ireland winning St Flannan’s College side in 1991, Tommy praised Clare manager Brian Lohan for bringing a patience to Clare regarding player development. “The development squads changed some years ago and this widened the net completely; Clare and many others don’t compete in Tony Forrestal any more, There are development squads now of fifty five to sixty players.
“Young adults develop at different stages and its very important you wait for that development, it’s also true at senior level, if you get an eighteen or nineteen year old lucky enough to be on a senior panel it’s probably going to be two, three or even four years development before he is ready for championship hurling in particular, how you need to be physically is a huge thing now when it comes to inter county championship hurling. Very few nineteen or twenty year olds are making teams, you have to be patient and Brian (Lohan) has brought that to Clare. We have seen a good few lads getting a good bit of league time and a bit of championship time this year, lads that hadn’t figured previously”.
Limiting the supply of the ball to Cork’s inside line which is set to include Brian Hayes, Alan Connolly and Patrick Hogan is a focus for the Clare management. “They bring huge physicality and a huge aerial threat and on top of that they have huge athleticism and speed. You must try and limit the supply of ball and then limit the type of supply they want, that is easier said than done. It’s something we will be analysing over the next week. Its something we are aware of along with the threat they have all over the field”.
Corbett continued, “Darragh Fitzgibbon has been phenomenal, along with the Downeys in the centre of the defence, Tim O’Mahoney, Ciaran Joyce, they have so many options on the field and then they have the bomb squad of speed they can bring in after fifty minutes. Any team expecting to beat Cork will have to deal with that”.
On the subject of television coverage of GAA games this season, the former Éire Óg hurler stated, “when you are involved with an inter county team, you are caught up in your own world. There has been a lot of talk about the coverage hurling is getting. We are busy enough doing what we are doing, the nature of the championship is that games come thick and fast. Whether games are on TV or not is not something we think about. When an All-Ireland comes along you have to embrace it without getting caught up in it, there is a fine balance. It’s a different All-Ireland this year, two new teams, yes we met 11 years ago, we will approach it like other games, it’s still being played on a grass pitch”.
“Most of these players have played at a high level, inter county underage, Fitzgibbon cup, they are used to these occasions, shaking hands with the president is another part of the day, you need to back yourself, you are there to showcase skills and that’s what both squads will be doing,” the ex Éire Óg and Clooney/Quin senior hurling manager said.
Corbett was pleased with the impact from the Clare bench in the two point All-Ireland semi-final win over Kilkenny and believed a factor was that they sprung players earlier than previous games. “Most teams will try and get an impact from substitutes and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. We got it last week and so did Limerick. Cork probably didn’t for the first time this year, they didn’t get the impact they wanted, For them it was a very tough game to come into against the reigning champions going for five in a row. We are very lucky in that we have a strong bench, we got the impact last week, we probably didn’t in previous games and maybe that is down to the management as we probably didn’t bring them on in time but Cork have that X factor, they have five or six players who would make any team and we are acutely aware of that”.
A member of the extended Clare panel in 1997 when Ger Loughnane won his second All-Ireland title as Clare manager, Tommy added, “these guys are around long enough, they have a belief in their own abilities. We believe in them, they believe in themselves. Some days you perform and don’t get a result and some days you don’t perform and you get the results. For half the game last Saturday we didn’t perform but we were lucky to come out on the right side of the result. For the last couple of years we performed in two really tough Munster finals and didn’t get the results”.
“When you break down any game, 1000 mad things happen and someone wins. You have to play in the moment, our lads tend to do that and we were lucky enough last week. We knew there was a lot more in us and it was just a case of doing the right thing. There was a serious wind there and a lot of people didn’t realise that, small things like that can turn momentum and it swung in our favour and we got over the line”, he concluded.
