Timing beats height.
Limerick laid down a number of markers on Sunday afternoon. Aaron Gillane can claim the first of those for catching a ball over John Hanbury’s head after just four seconds of the game.
The ball broke to Darragh O’Donovan straight after the throw-in and he swung it straight down on top of Gillane and his marker. The Patrickswell man soared high to leave Hanbury rooted. Standard set.
And he would have scored a point were it not for that his teammate Gearoid Hegarty straying forward into his path when he was about to shoot.
It didn’t matter though. Gillane meant business and small setbacks like that wouldn’t be stopping him.
Fast forward another two minutes and Limerick’s sharpest shooter had laid down an even sharper marker.
After two minutes and 20 seconds he’d strayed to the other corner of the field. This time he ran across Adrian Tuohey’s body before getting on his marker’s left shoulder and jumping high to snap a high one. He went on to score the first point of the game.
Whether it’s a sign of the Limerick forward line’s movement, or Galway’s concern about Gillane – Daithí Burke was marking him by the fifth minute of the game.
Damien Hayes was speaking on Monday’s GAA Hour podcast when he gave a perfect summation of Gillane’s aerial technique. This the exact tactic he used to do what so few have done before him and ruled the skies over Galway’s full back line.
“You look at Aaron Gillane,” says Damien Hayes on The GAA Hour Hurling Show.
“Basically what is doing is, he sees the flight of the ball and he’s getting on the left hand side of his marker, and he might be even nudging him with his right shoulder, so when the ball is then coming into his left hand when he’s not being tackled,” said the Galway man.
It’s a clever ploy. To win a high ball you have to be clever, and Gillane is sublte enough in clearing his man so as not to get caught. He’s not the tallest forward around, coming in at 6 ft flat, but he made winning those high balls a habit this year.
Like this time when he came off Paddy Deegan’s left shoulder.
Aaron Gillane makes a tremendous catch and kicks a superb shot towards goal only for Eoin Murphy to pull off a top corner save. Watch the highlights at 9.30pm @rte2 tonight #RTEGAA #GAA pic.twitter.com/2ZGOoQZtBs
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 15, 2018
Another tactic he uses in the air is evident during his hang-time. He twists his body in the direction of the goals so once he catches it, the backs are out of sight and out of mind and he’s gone.
Aaron Gillane gets the point after a superb save from Kilkenny's Eoin Murphy! pic.twitter.com/eo7brTdy8y
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 15, 2018
Gillane is smart in many aspects of his game. He also uses a smaller hurl to reduce the chance of getting hooked.
A small hurl is a fast hurl, a long hurl is a slow hurl.
“Look at the little short hurl that he uses, I think it’s only 31 inches or something like that, very very short,” said Michael Duignan on RTÉ commentary on Sunday.
The man knows what he’s doing.
