Mike Casey was disrespected from all angles before Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
Galway are going to target this little man on the full back line and he’s not going to be able to do anything about it. Johnny Glynn is a force of nature and Mike Casey won’t stand a chance against him.
They wrote the Limerick man off from every corner but we knew that Mike Casey is made of sterner stuff, we’d seen him hurl storms for Na Piarsaigh down through the years, we’d seen this man hold the square hostage in the Limerick green before.
With his sharp hurling brain and his tenacious play, this was a man who stood out all the way through his underage career and despite some unlucky injuries at various stages this year, he did one hell of a job at number three whenever he got the chance.
And that’s why we never bought into the hype that Galway’s human wrecking ball was going to turn him upside down and all around in Croke Park on Sunday.
We knew well he had both the fire and the method for the big Ardrahan bullock.
The Limerick man only relishes a physical challenge https://t.co/HFPFSTGmxt
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 17, 2018
And so it proved on the most important Sunday of the hurling year. Yes Casey may have been conceding four stone in weight and five inches in height to his marker but a physical mismatch doesn’t always mean defeat.
They say a good big one will always beat a good little one but that doesn’t take into account the little one who’s clever enough to actually realise and accept their own shortcomings and then decides to plot a way to make these a mere footnote.
Plot Casey did and with the hurling brain and the bravery on his side too, he was able to carry his plan out to military detail.
And Johnny Glynn didn’t get a puck at it and Galway were punished for hedging their bets like the odds-on favourite that people lumped on without even thinking about it.
Glynn won the very first ball that came between the pair on Sunday but was then blocked down by Casey and it would be while before he got the ball into his hands again.
The next ball rained down in the 17th minute and with Casey stuck like glue to his man, a tactical nudge sees the ball hop harmlessly into Nicky Quaid’s stride behind him.
Same again in the second half, the ball travels through the pair and onto Nickie Quaid.
Casey knew he wouldn’t be clawing ball over Johnny Glynn. He also knew that if he made enough of a nuisance of himself, neither would Glynn over him.
He played man, not ball, played on Glynn’s catching hand side and batted hand, ball and all. The moral of the story, Glynn never caught a ball. Casey only lasted 48 minutes, with an injury sidelining him then, but he’d done enough in that period to break Johnny Glynn’s spirit and Richie McCarthy just took up the mantle then.
Casey’s clever tactics came up for discussion on Monday’s GAA Hour Show and Damien Hayes tipped his hat to the Limerick man.
How did Mike Casey manage to stop big Johnny Glynn?
Damien Hayes tells @Woolberto that the full-back had a trick up his sleeve.
However, @jjdel82 would have tried to do it his way…The GAA Hour w/ @paddypower pic.twitter.com/Atr4JrD041
— The GAA Hour (@TheGAAHour) August 21, 2018
“This was a complete tactical thing…balls were coming into Johnny and Casey was working off his catching hand…What Johnny Glynn wanted was Casey to be standing off his left hand (like David McInerney did at times in the Clare game)…Casey never did that, Casey was working off his catching hand,” said Damien.
“He was out in front of Johnny, he had a great game,” he added.
“It was a brilliant full back display,” said JJ Delaney.
JJ would always back himself to catch the ball over his man, but the Kilkenny legend is unique in that he was one of the best fielders hurling has ever seen.
“He was playing his hand…I’d try and catch it over him now though,” JJ said.
You can listen to The GAA Hour podcast, featuring analysis, interviews and much more from the All-Ireland final right here.
