From limited possession counts, Cork's Alan Connolly is continually cooking up a feast

There was no repeat last Saturday. There was in fact nothing at all. The Cork No.14 didn’t even manage four possessions, never mind four scores.

His welcome back to Tullamore began with a hefty shoulder charge from full-back Ciarán Burke at throw-in. 

In the second minute, Connolly was turned over by Offaly's deep-lying midfielder Jason Sampson. Two minutes later, he was penalised for overcarrying. Sampson was again in close quarters and wagged a finger at the grounded full-forward.

Two minutes further on again, he was turned over by a combination of Ciarán Burke and Dan Bourke. And that was it. Three possessions in six minutes, none of which produced a flag. 

Connolly didn’t have another clean possession before being the first Cork player whipped off on 44 minutes.

In mitigation, the 22-year-old was reported to have been under the weather last week and that is likely to have fed into his poorest and most unproductive showing since reclaiming a starting spot after missing the entire 2023 campaign because of hamstring and shoulder injuries.

“Pat has encouraged him to put the head down and go for goal this year. Alan has an instinct for goal anyway, and has been absolutely outstanding, but obviously Pat wasn't happy with his energy levels and performance on Saturday. He was whipped reasonably early, so Pat must have been very disappointed with that,” observed Irish Examiner columnist Seánie McGrath.

“Alan will know he has got a huge career and long career ahead of him, but every career will have a few ups and downs. He had a small little blip on Saturday. I wouldn't be overly worried.

“I think it was a case of one or two things didn't happen for him early in the game, he might have got a small little bit flustered, and he was tightly marked, but Leinster hurling is slightly different. It's quite aggressive and not maybe as flash or flamboyant as some of the Munster games.

“The criticism goes that the championship in Munster is much better than Leinster, but to give Leinster its due, it is teak-tough, the defending is hard and close, and Alan will expect much the same the next day against Dublin. Once he gets his focus and his head right, I've no doubt he'll be fine.” 

Connolly’s green flag penchant doesn’t need any reminding. But we’ll provide one anyway. He has put his name to 19 goals across 28 appearances, 12 of which were as a sub.

In this championship alone, he’s tallied 4-9. The 4-7 that came from open play has him as Cork’s leading contributor in that department and joint-fourth in the overall top-scorers-from-play chart. Ahead of him are Clare’s David Fitzgerald (2-14) and the Wexford pair of Conor McDonald (3-14) and Rory O’Connor (1-20).

But there’s so much more to the Rockies man than finding the net with the frightening frequency that he does.

He was fouled for 1-6 across his four Munster starts, that placed-ball total rising to 1-7 when you add in the converted 65 he won against Clare when looking to once again find the net. 

His assist count is rather minute, just a solitary white flag for which he laid on the final pass. That to Shane Barrett in the ninth minute of the season-saving win over Limerick.

Most impressive is the patience that he’s had to show and the precision he has shown when fed.

Against Waterford in their provincial opener, he had only two first half possessions. Starved. 

He finished with 1-4 from nine possessions, that latter total equaling his figure against Tipp at the end of the round-robin campaign. In between, there were five possessions against Clare and seven against Limerick.

Against Clare, where he didn’t touch the sliotar for the opening 22 minutes, his five involvements delivered 1-4. 

Against Tipp, 3-4 came off his nine possessions. His sole wide of the Munster championship was in amongst his two Thurles plays that amounted to nought.

Of the 30 total possessions, 23 ended in either a white or green flag being raised. That’s remarkable efficiency and enterprise. 

Of the remaining seven, there was a goal drive saved by Nickie Quaid and another opening in the same game that he couldn’t make anything of.

From fairly limited possession counts, Connolly is continually cooking up a feast. It’s why Michael Duignan, on RTÉ co-commentary for Connolly's most recent hat-trick against Tipp, labelled him a “game-changer”.

“Alan offers Cork something so different. His first instinct is to take on the man and then check is the goal on. Most forwards think the opposite way,” continued Seánie McGrath.

Connolly had his hands on 5-18 across Cork’s four-game round-robin. His three hat-tricks across six games bridged lengthy gaps and sent records tumbling.

Offaly, against that light and those numbers, can be dismissed as an outlier. But the 22-year-old will know that he’s never raised a green flag in championship outside of Munster. 

That’s one way of pressing the restart button in Thurles this Saturday.