It was a League final that left us with more questions than answers.
Can Galway play like that all the time?
How long every day does Joe Canning spend practising sideline cuts, on average?
Will Seamus Callanan’s thumb be healed in time for Cork?
Some but not all of those questions are answered on this week’s GAA Hour Hurling Show, along with the most perplexing of all… What happened to the Maher brothers?
For the last 12 months, Ronan and Paidí have been ruling the skies above the Tipperary half-back line – either winning primary possession, snaffling up breaks or scaring the opposition into going the long way round.
Not like a Cat to lace it into Tipperary at any given opportunity
https://t.co/DCTIiZDBoM— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 24, 2017
On RTÉ’s League Sunday, Henry Shefflin said Tipperary were “cleaned out” in the half-back line and, on the GAA Hour, Shefflin’s former Kilkenny team-mate JJ Delaney offered an explanation for the elder Maher’s surprising anonymity.
It was down to Cathal Mannion’s man-marking job from wing-forward and his positioning for puckouts, says Delaney [35’10”] or continue reading below.
“Micheal Donoghue got all his match-ups right. Cathal Mannion was supposed to start full-forward but he went wing-forward to pick up Paidí Maher.
“For every puck out he was on the sideline and Paidí Maher had to be five yards away from him. But every puck out was going down the far side and it was keeping Paidí Maher as far away from the ball as possible,” said Delaney.
“It was very disciplined of Cathal Mannion to take himself out of the game, but the up side of that was no puck outs were coming down on top of Paidí Maher and he could not sweep in behind the half-back line.”
Former Tipperary corner-back Paddy Stapleton concurred with Delaney but argued that Galway’s tactics would have been less effective against a more keyed-up Premier side.
“Mannion was literally on the white line on the sideline, you could see exactly what he was doing, it was brilliant,” he said.
“If Tipperary were in their faces they would have found it a lot harder to keep Paidí Maher out of the game. Lads would have had to clear it under pressure and that is when Paidí Maher comes into his own.”
Listen in the link below and subscribe right here on iTunes.
0’45”- This week’s Ger Loughnane update
6’50”- When player mutinies go right
9’00”- Davy Fitzgerald accepts his punishment, sort of
10’30”- Interview with Joe Canning, the morning after Galway’s League final win
30’30”- Analysis of Galway’s win over Tipperary
56’40”- Performance of the week
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