As the game of hurling has evolved the importance of movement has taken on a greater significance.

Traditionally, a player minded his patch and made sure he had the upper hand in his individual battle with his marker. However, there were exceptions to that. Charlie McCarthy - the legendary Cork hurler - is on record as saying that in the 1970s he got more scores for Cork from the left corner forward position than he got in his own position of right corner forward. Whether that was down to tactics or simply a poacher’s instinct is unclear, but one can rest assured that some innovative tactician would be credited with it, if it happened in modern times.

There are two key reasons for movement (a) to create space to make it easier to allow the inside forwards get the ball in hand first time and (b) to facilitate the use of that possession in terms of creating scoring options. Picture a handpassing game of three players against three within a confined area. The onus is on the two men without the ball to take running lines that make it easy as possible for the man in possession to find them without the risk of the ball being intercepted. Tipperary have been the masters of that sort of movement off the ball with much of the credit within Tipperary seems to be directed at Éamonn O’Shea.

However, the real key to movement in games is not the coach, though he is the man who programmes the brain, it’s with the discipline of the players. On the pitch it’s taken to an extra level in that dummy runs must be made to tie up defenders, which in turn facilitates delivering the ball into the hand of the forward. It requires great discipline to make dummy runs into space as a diversionary tactic, and it requires great discipline to make a run as an overlapping player. The key to it all is getting the ball in hand at the first available opportunity. Failure to do that has a negative effect on the whole process and allows the defence to settle, thereby delaying the onset of a score. When they have possession inside, the key is support play, a man waiting loose to take the pass.

This Youtube video gives a couple of examples where Tipperary recycled possession well to feed loose players for scores. However, questions have to be asked why Lar Corbett in particular was allowed so much freedom to drift.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HurlingGoals#p/u/3/2u4wvFAMxGE

http://www.youtube.com/user/HurlingGoals#p/u/23/k-aehYAO3gw

In 2011, Galway and Tipperary seem best placed to deliver this high paced movement-orientated brand of hurling for the purposes of creating scores. The Waterford forwards are arguably too instinctive and too individualistic to discipline themselves into making dummy runs off the ball to make space for others. Limerick are trying to develop a possession orientated game but it’s a game that will take time because the county is alien to that style. Cork were past masters but some of the newer Cork hurlers aren’t as adept at it as the other players were, and in any event at their peak Cork never executed overlaps in the inside forward line as Tipperary have done these past couple of years. Kilkenny have such natural talent that they play a traditional game in many respects. Each forward has the capacity to win his own individual duel and most especially win their own ball overhead, so they don’t have the same necessity to facilitate putting ball on a plate for any forward. If there is an overlap it happens naturally, but they don’t appear to be as reliant on off the ball movement to create scores as other counties.

Defending against movement is an area for the microscope. In the past Kilkenny would have advocated that their defence would hold their positions, and that the opposition forwards could wander. In some respects the thinking would have been that the opposition might get hit and miss scores from distance, but they would still have to come through us to get goals. If one looks at the club final between Clarinbridge and O’Loughlin Gaels, just as the Kilkenny senior team found it difficult to cope with movement in the past two All Ireland finals, O’Loughlin Gaels were the same. It’s not that long ago that Portumna demolished Ballyhale Shamrocks and it didn’t have a detrimental effect on the Kilkenny senior team, and indeed Ballyhale got their own back a year later, but the warning signs are there.

One argument would suggest that the key to Kilkenny regaining the McCarthy Cup lies with how they cope with the movement based play of the opposition forwards, and if they can introduce unorthodox off the ball movement patterns into their own forward play. The other argument would suggest that they stick exactly to what they have been doing, because the sole championship defeat since 2005 suggests that their tactics don’t need changing. If you liked this article, tell other people about it...