One year after waking up to the realisation that Cork had to go through it all over again Jimmy Barry-Murphy still has mixed feelings. All-Ireland hurling final replays, he says, are never part of the plan, although the three-week wait for them is definitely too long.
What Kilkenny and Tipperary must also do, he reckons, is improve on near perfection. Barry-Murphy was in Croke Park for Sunday’s spectacular draw between the counties. It had instant echoes of Cork’s draw with Clare last year (and indeed Kilkenny and Galway in 2012).
“No, of course no one is ever planning for replay,” says Barry-Murphy. “And I think it only really dawns on you when you wake up, the Monday morning after, with that terrible feeling that you have to face into it all again.
“But I would certainly think the three-week gap is too long, very hard on everybody involved. That’s the way things break now, obviously, and it’s the same for both teams. But my personal opinion is that they’d be much better served by bringing them back to Croke Park this Saturday evening, and be done with it. I think it’s terrible, from a players’ point of view, that they have to wait another three weeks.”
Cork’s replay with Clare was also played three weeks later, on the Saturday evening
also. “You would feel you know the opposition that bit better, having played them inside in Croke Park. So you do have to think about the best adjustments that you might make, and also balancing that with the reminder that you can’t always base it all on one game. That can be hard, making personnel changes based on the one game. But that’s the key to it,” says Barry-Murphy.
Unlike Sunday’s game – where neither Kilkenny nor Tipp seemed particularly elated or deflated at the outcome – Barry-Murphy believes his overriding feeling last year was the latter.
“Well I was disappointed, definitely. I suppose we had one hand on the cup and Clare snatched the draw. So the team like us would always feel harder done by. But I suspect Brian Cody had to be a little more relieved, on Sunday, given Tipp had the chance to win it with that late free. He had to be happy with the draw given he was staring down the barrel of defeat at that stage.
“And in fairness to John O’Dwyer it was a great effort, to go so close. But last year, I think we felt we’d one hand on the cup. Whereas on Sunday I don’t think either team ever felt that.”
Barry-Murphy is even less sure about which team will feel they have more improvement in them come the replay. “It was definitely one of the best games of hurling I’ve ever seen. And I enjoyed every minute of it, so you couldn’t say there is a whole lot of improvement for either team to work on. I was totally blown away by the accuracy, the skill and teamwork of both sides. The use of the ball, and getting the ball to a player in another position, was unbelievable.
“And I’ve never seen such a level of perfection in scoring and accuracy of their striking with the ball, from both teams. But in particular by Tipperary. I mean only four wides, in 72 minutes of hurling, is an incredible achievement.
“But all last week people were asking me how it would go and I just said it could go either way. And I think the replay will be the same. I don’t think either team will feel they have any advantage. And again, you’d wonder what areas are left to improve on.”
Last year’s replay – which Clare won 5-16 to 3-16 – surpassed even the original epic, and while Barry-Murphy has no great complaints about that outcome, nor indeed Saturday evening billing, he wonders could Cork have done anything different.
“Whenever you lose you always think you might have done something different. Different players, and that . . . Brian Cody has pretty much always got that right over the years. That’s his job again, to look and see what changes might be made. Same with Eamon O’Shea.
