A Clare man who won’t be even playing against Cork could make all the difference

Psychology has never been important before as it is now in the GAA.

Our inter-county teams are all so well prepared for their games at this stage that the smallest of minute details can make all the difference. At the top level of inter-county GAA, the margins between success and failure are tiny, as the GAA Nua documentaries have been informing us all recently. Even the smallest nougats of information are being lapped up by management teams and are being relayed to players. It will, therefore, be a huge advantage for Clare going into their Munster senior hurling final clash with Cork on Sunday having the inside track of Cork man Donal Óg Cusack on their sideline. The former Cork netminder joined up with the Clare backroom team last year when Davy Fitzgerald was manager and he has remained involved with The Banner since Davy Fitz' left for the sunny south-east. Donal Óg's involvement will be seriously advantageous to the Banner boys on Sunday, according to Damien Hayes who was speaking on The GAA Hour Hurling Show on Thursday.

"Donal Óg's role is absolutely massive. He'll be able to find out every inch and every detail of the Cork players and he'll be able to pinpoint what their weaknesses are. He'll be able to feed this information back to the Clare players, he'll be able to tell them everything about Nash. I think it's a huge role. I think it'll be a key for Clare. He should know everything about Cork hurling. He'll be able to find out more about Cork's newcomers. It's a great asset for the Cork management to have and it'll be interesting to see how they use it.

Show host Colm Parkinson was in thorough agreement with Hayes. Wooly believes that Donal Óg will have had one-on-one's with the Clare players and will have relayed some vital information to them on their opponents. "It is a huge advantage for Clare. "I know there's software out there now where you can break down every team into each player, 'this is who you're marking,' but Donal Óg can actually do that in a one-on-one for the Cork squad. (He can give information like) What side they hit off, what defenders don't like, there's a lot of information he can give that can help individual players," continued Parkinson. Cork are going into the game as slight favourites on the back of their youth-inspired victories over Cork and Tipperary so far in the Munster Championship. Clare weren't as convincing in their victory over Limerick and their dire record in the Munster Championship in recent years has counted fuelled Cork's favouritism. You can listen to the discussion on the importance of Donal Óg from 45"00' and much more from The GAA Hour Hurling Show here. https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/austin-gleeson-interview-donal-ogs-inside-track-and-dublin-away-in-thurles