Final Thought

6th Sep 2013

By now your thoughts on how the game will pan out will be all over the place. Pundits and analysts are, to a man, dithering about who’ll win. Is it Cork by two or Clare by three?

The media spotlight rests firmly on the Clare “system” that has apparently been “honed” since Cork destroyed their other “system” just over two months ago in the Munster semi-final.

The genius that is Davy Fitzgerald came up with something new that nobody had ever thought of before: putting an extra man in defence.

How t’Christ did he come up with that one?

JBM and the lads must be shitting bricks.
 

They're putting playing an extra defender? My mind is blown.

In Clare the perception is that, right now, Cork’s players are, to a man, rocking in a corner somewhere in the dank bowels of Pairc Úi Chaoimh whispering “please don’t hurt me too bad Mr. Fitzy”.

The backroom team are no better. Little Seánie McGrath is piggy backing Ger Cunnigham with his cheek pressed against the St. Finbarr’s man’s giant shoulder whimpering the sorrowful mysteries to Christy Ring and Jack Lynch.
 

Really? A seventh defender?

So complicated, so intricate and so perfect is Fitzy's system that JBM and his selectors find themselves sitting around a single sheet of A4 paper at their final meeting: the page is blank but for a treble underlined “Plan A” written at the top. They're scratching their heads. Every multiple All-Ireland medalist in the room it seems is stumped. 

They are in their hole!

See ye all at Parnell Place on Monday night.