A senior hurling club coach writes: Lots of sides are adopting a Kilkenny style against us, where men are pulled back to clog up midfield and the half-back lines, resulting in a swarm defence. What is the best way to counter this?

Given that hardened All-Ireland winning sides can't get around Kilkenny's in-your-face style, national hurling co-ordinator Paudie Butler acknowledges this "is a tough question". But there are steps you can take.

"The first thing you notice about this style of play is that it upsets the opposition. That's what it's meant to do: make you lose the ability to make the right decisions," says Paudie.

"So you have to make your players used to the harassment. Replicate it in training. Have games of ten against seven in small spaces. That's something Kilkenny themselves do very well on the training ground – play with a very high tempo and get used to pressure. When it comes to a game they can work quite comfortably within that pace.

"You must do the same and gradually fellas will come to terms with it. Once they do, they will realise there are spaces on the field to be exploited. And it's important the coach puts his very quick players in key positions and the ball is moved to them quickly."

Swift movement of the ball, and more first-time hurling, Butler believes, are the only long-term ways to overcome the physically-imposing style Kilkenny have perfected.

"Someone will come up with an Offaly type-game where the ball is moved quickly and first time, but it's much easier to talk about that than do it. First-time hurling is something managers will have to look at, but it's incredibly difficult to do it right. It takes a number of years to get good at it."

As well as the obvious requirements of high levels of coordination "it requires awareness of your body position going into the challenge, where your opponent is and where all your team-mates are, and where they will be after you hit the ball."

But done right, Butler maintains, first-time hurling is the only way to overcome Kilkenny, like Offaly did in the mid-1990s when Kilkenny had won back-to-back All-Irelands and were considered unstoppable.

"You have to force the tempo, rather than have their game-plan forced on you. 'Whip on it' was once a familiar battle cry in places like Cork, it could be again."

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