Defending is more than just having men back
Two successive relegations, player walkouts and rumours of discontent within the camp meant Kildare’s preparation for Championship could not have gone worse.
But in the space of five second half minutes their season may have been salvaged.
And they have a lack of ambition and killer-instinct from Laois to thank for it.
Laois held the upper hand for most of the game and led by 0-4 to 0-1 after the opening quarter.
In John O’Loughlin they had a man who had the highest possession rate of anyone as the midfielder got the ball in hand 33 times.
They also had the games top scorer in Donie Kingston with 0-8, but they failed to take what could prove to be a golden opportunity, through a combination of a lack of a goal-scoring instinct as well as being too reliant on men behind the ball and not actually doing any defending when they were there.
It took until the 9th minute for the game’s opening score but it was one that highlighted that the men in blue hoped to outscore their opponents rather than give them the kind of beating you’d expect when facing a side as low on confidence as Kildare
Kingston took a fine point, but if Laois were determined to send out a signal that they can challenge Dublin for Leinster honours, a goal had to be scored.
It’s what James O’Donoghue, Bernard Brogan or Michael Murphy would have done.
The chance comes from a Laois turnover, one of their 14 in the game compared to Kildare’s 28, but none of the four players that contribute to winning the ball around the middle follow up to give Kingston the option of a simple pass across the square, or an overlap, to really carve open the Kildare defence.
It is almost as if the forwards knew that Kingston would take the safe option and go for the point.
When Kingston takes his shot at the posts not one single Laois player that was present when the ball was passed into him has crossed the Kildare 45-metre line to try and help out their two-man full forward line.
Perhaps there was a strategy to stay defensive when playing against the almost gale-force wind, but Kingston’s ability to beat a man one-on-one was not fully utilised by Laois.
The picture shows the options that could have been open to the full-forward if his colleagues were more cut-throat.
Kildare also had a chance in almost the exact same circumstances in the second half and perhaps were unlucky not to score a goal from it.
They used a runner from deep to overcome the cover on the nearside to almost score a major that surely would have won the game.
When Kevin Murnaghan gets the ball, Kildare players are already anticipating a burst at goal and making angles for a lay off to score a point, or the overlap for a goal.
He manages to get past the Laois defender, almost by accident, and then takes the right option of playing it to Eamon Callaghan who plays it across the square only to have the shot from Tommy Moolick saved.
Kildare’s direct running style led to two of the last three scores of the game coming from frees, and Laois simply had no answer to it during the course of the game.
Eoghan O’Flaherty picks the ball up on the 65-metre line and Laois back off him, preferring the blanket defence that seems to be infecting every county side now.
Plenty of men are back, but they’re not doing anything and Laois are almost caught out, and not for the first time in the game either.
With one simple pass O’Flaherty takes out four Laois defenders, and has made 30 metres from the time he received the ball out the ’65 and is now just 30 metres from goal.
Another easy pass to Cathal McNally and it’s warning bells time for the midlanders.
Smith hits the target but his shot cannons of the crossbar to go over for a point. A let off.
Eoghan O’Flaherty was the player with the second highest possessions, as he was on the ball 32 times during the game, and his accurate foot and hand passing meant he was able to pick our targets such as Alan Smith and Eamon Callaghan almost at his ease.
The Lilywhites’ second point after the break emphasised just how unaware Laois were to change to a drift defence rather than just have loads of men back in a semi-blanket.
The ball is aimed directly at Alan Smith in the corner, and once the play is switched Laois should be looking to cover off the options in the that area as quickly as possible.
However when Smith beats his man but has to check his run, instead of having three or four Laois bodies to try and contend with, he can just turn inside and Kildare have two options for the lay-off and the point.
With no pressure on Emmett Bolton he pops over the point.
Laois’ tactics must be frustrating for someone of the class of Donie Kingston who was in superb form once again, both as a roving full-forward and from placed balls.
His eighth point of the game gave Laois the three-point cushion that they must have thought would see them home by the 65th minute, but once again defensive naivety and funnelling players back, but not really doing any hard defensive work was their undoing.
They have seven players back, including full forward Kingston in their 21-metre lin,e when Kildare attack in the final moments, yet three men in white are able to manufacture an admittedly soft free.
There is no way that Kingston should be anywhere inside his own half when his team held a two point lead.
Instead he should be the out ball when the dozen or so Laois men force a turnover that they had done so successfully in the first half with less men back.
By bringing their main attackers back Laois invited Kildare onto them at the worst possible time and saw their lead whittled away through cheap fouls and cheaper scores.
Laois’ policy of containment hadn’t worked at any stage in the game, and arguably with O’Loughlin and Kingston they had two match winners, but their conservatism led to the inevitable equaliser.
Their defensive set-up didn’t work as they conceded 0-16 and could have coughed up at least a goal or two as well.
Their attacking however, when they did go for it, was impressive.
Focus more on the latter and they, rather than Kildare, should be in the Leinster semi-final.
Failure to do so and Kildare, who are bound to gain huge confidence from their final five-minute resurgence, will surely grace Croke Park for the provincial semi-final.
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