The same but very different
Kerry and Cork clash once again in the Munster final this Saturday, but anyone expecting a repeat of the opening day thriller from two weeks ago will be sadly mistaken.
The names might be the same, but the approach over the last two weeks from both sides will have been totally different.
Our sports psychology consultant Emmett Hughes feels both sides face a huge challenge if they are to lift the silverware on offer in Killarney this weekend.
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The most important words that Brian Cuthbert or Eamon Fitzmaurice will have delivered to their team over the last fourteen days will not have been uttered at any stage this week.
Instead what happened in the dressing room in the minutes after the drawn game a fortnight ago will have decided the destination of this year’s Munster title.
How both teams were going to prepare, what they were going to focus on in the short period of time available to them, and how they would mentally refresh their minds for a new challenge should have been delivered in a short sharp burst minutes after the final whistle in Killarney.
Top level managers have a pre-performance strategy to get the most out of players.
The very best also have a reflection strategy for when things do not work out and when wheels need to be restored to the wagon.
I know from working with teams that sometimes after a big match or cup final it may take four or five days for players to mentally recover from the result or a draw.
That amount of time is just not sustainable when you’re looking at a two week turnaround, and it’s exactly why the process of preparing for the replay should begin that evening, that day.
Last year after Kilkenny drew the All-Ireland final with Tipperary reports suggested that they went straight down to Nowlan Park that night to recover in ice-baths.
The Tipperary management allegedly allowed their players to meet friends and family, and at least take some kind of mental break before beginning the process of replay preparation again the day after.
Normal behaviour. What difference could one night make.
Ask Brian Cody or Eamon O’Shea.
Brian Cuthbert clearly has his players very well tuned in mentally.
Despite all the negativity, and silly comments from Tomas O Sé, it certainly didn’t look like any of the soft talk surrounding them affected the players against Kerry.
They have to take confidence from what they did against the All-Ireland champions into a second game.
However they cannot fall into the trap of expectation.
There’s a new knowledge about both teams from the first day, and as a player, you must prevent that new information from creating an expectation as to how things are going to go.
If you start to think that ‘this happened the last day, it will happen again’ then you can be caught flat-footed or second guessing yourself or your opponent.
Multiply that by 15 and as a manager you have a huge problem on your hands.
Both Eamon Fitzmaurice and Brian Cuthbert will have to try to quieten the minds as much as possible over the last two weeks.
I think Kerry have a lot of work to do.
Eamon Fitzmaurice did something that surprised me after the drawn game but that was very honest and refreshing to hear and his players and probably supporters appreciated too.
He said Kerry were not up to the level they should have been at.
Normally you’d expect managers to defend their players, but he was forthright and sometimes – as we saw with Westmeath and Tom Cribben’s unmerciful boll**king in the springtime – that honesty and naked truth can be more powerful a motivating factor than any banging of fists off a table.
Perhaps the biggest question of all coming into Saturday is who will stand up and be a leader when their side needs it most.
Kerry had several in last year’s All-Ireland winning campaign at key moments.
Kieran Donaghy in Croke Park, David Moran in the Gaelic Grounds, Jonathan Lyne with two points the same day, even James O’Donoghue in the All-Ireland final.
When Alan O’Connor was rampaging through midfield the last time out, no Kerry player laid a glove on him. No one stood up and the team almost kept shrinking until Fionn Fitzgerald took on the responsibility.
Cork had all the leaders on day one, from Michael Shields to O’Connor to Colm O’Neill and the O’Driscolls.
So which team will provide the leaders on Saturday night?
And who might be the unexpected hero or villain?
I think in the past, old GAA coaches used to try to spring a surprise in a replay and try to do something totally different to really outfox the opposition.
There is some merit to that but if you drop a player or shift the team around too much and it goes against you, then the critics will be all over what you thought was a cunning plan.
Momentum is a huge thing coming into a replay.
There is research in football that suggests the team that scores last wins a penalty shoot out twice as often as the team that scored first.
Maybe there is something within the GAA similar to that, with the team that feels they got away with it the first day, which in this case would be Kerry.
They may feel they have more momentum and more room to improve and in that respect they would expect to push on.
Cork feel they have proven that they have more than the measure of their hosts and are just centimetres away from a Munster title.
Whatever the result on Saturday night, the seeds of victory are two weeks in germination.
You can contact Emmett here
