“I feel for the person that’s going to be going in on him.”
He may not be the tallest, but by God Noel Connors more than compensates for a lack of height with his explosive power, his tenacity and his sheer physicality.
The Passage club man is surely one of the tightest corner backs in the game, and when you’re going into mark him, you can be sure that nothing will come easy off him.
His combative style in the corner would remind you of a pit-bull, with his pumping legs and his stocky upper body.
Like many of the Waterford backs, he doesn’t see himself as a ball-player. He’s well aware of his defensive duties, and he will abide by these strictly.
He sees every ball, every move, every game as a personal battle with his marker and he performs his duties with passion and as if his life depends on it.
Damien Hayes has marked Connors in the past, and he’s well aware of the confrontational fire he brings to the table and feels that whichever of the Galway forwards starts at number 13, they’ll be in for a tough day at the office.
“Whelan is going to be in one corner anyway, that’s for certain,” Hayes said on The GAA Hour.
“The other corner forward is up between Cathal Mannion, Jason Flynn and Niall Burke.
“Noel Connors, I’ve marked him myself. He’s a lovely fella, he’s tight, he’s aggressive, he’s not dirty. You won’t get much off him. I feel for the person that’s going to be going in on him.”
Many of Waterford’s other defenders share this mentality with Connors, whereby the ball is almost a second priority to them. They will keep a close eye on their man and instead of winning the ball cleanly, will try and break it down for the sweeping Tadhg De Búrca to collect.
Conal Keaney has marked their full back Barry Coughlan on occasion in the past, and he recalls Coughlan focusing more on him, than on the ball.
“What Coughlan’s really good at is he never plays the ball, he nearly always plays the man,” Keaney said.
“When that high ball is coming in, he’s absolutely all over you.
“He knows to be on your catching hand all the time.
“It is an option for Galway to go route-one, but then again, the ball has to be right, because they’re going to have De Búrca there. So all Coughlan has to do is try to stop a lad from catching it, because once it gets to ground, it’s nearly always Waterford.”
Nothing will come easy for the Galway lads on Sunday, particularly for the man who picks up Noel Connors.
The 27-year-old burst on to the Déise scene in 2009, as a nineteen-year-old, and when you compare his frame then to now, he’s made some progress.
His chest was nowhere near as bulging then, as it is now.
The size of that upper body now.
And the size of them legs.
You can listen to the chat on Connors, Coughlan and much more tactical analysis ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland final from Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show.
