Do positions even matter anymore in hurling?

We were playing a school blitz recently and I said to the players, 'just pick a jersey lads, the numbers don't matter and we’ll sort out who’s playing where in a little while'.

It got me thinking, in inter-county terms anyway, that this is actually true nowadays. Numbers and positions mean very little.

No longer is the corner-back parked inside the 21 pulling the jersey off a corner-forward trying to stop him hurling or getting on the score sheet. Now, it’s more likely that the corner-forward is trying to keep the corner-back scoreless.

We used to joke with the magician Eoin Kelly, one of the greatest to ever puck a ball in such a scenario.

It was 2002, Tipp played Galway in a championship game in Salthill. Eoin was marking another great, Ollie Canning, and Ollie scored a point from play while keeping Eoin scoreless the same day [a feat achieved by very few].

Eoin always saw the funny side of it and in later years would say, 'sure didn’t I hold Ollie Canning to a point that day!'.

Such are the changes in recent years that corner-forwards are now genuinely going out hoping to keep Barry Nash, for example, scoreless from play.

"One thing is vital for its success and that is trust."

Last Saturday night Limerick’s starting backs scored six points from play. That would be a points total from play for most inside forward lines nowadays. The position you are in is not important. What it is vital is knowing your part in the system you are playing.

So for a corner-back, they know that if the opportunity presents itself they are fully entitled to drive up the field into the opposition half and further if needed for support, to pop the ball over the bar and make their way into the nearest zone in the field for the next play. The system