“So now it’s gotten to the stage where, even if there is pressure on the corner back, the goalkeeper’s looking to give it to him. It’s madness”
The term, ‘delusions of grandeur’ comes to mind when you see lesser teams try to mimic top tier counties’ styles of football when playing against them.
If you do what they’re doing and they have the better players, then obviously they will come out on top.
However, over the weekend, the championship got under way and was very uncompetitive and slightly underwhelming.
This was not least because teams like Clare, Sligo and Down got caught taking short kick outs against stronger sides and were then wondering why they weren’t able to play it out of defence.
Colm Parkinson put the question out on the GAA Hour, in an attempt to figure out why these short kick outs have become so common in the modern game.
“Let’s go back and have a think about these kick outs and where these kick outs have evolved from.
“So back as far as maybe 2003-04, kick outs were still being driven down the middle, Fergal Byron at Laois would have a good big boot on him and you’ve got fetchers. Then Stephen Cluxton changed the game.
“He started going for Shane Ryan and Ciarán Whelan on the wings, and then that evolved to Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly on the wings. That was until teams started figuring this out and started going zonal and blocking off those channels.
“As this was all happening and figuring itself out, defensive football came in the mix. So teams are completely dropping off Dublin – Dublin started all of this kind of stuff with Cluxton.
“Then, they drop off Dublin, because of their dangerous kick outs and because it was very conservative and that’s when football had changed, so Stephen Cluxton was more than happy just to tap it to a corner back.
“Now tapping it to a corner back, came into the game; why did that come into the game? Because it was guaranteed possession. Why are we kicking it to a contest when there’s literally a lad standing there with no one around him? We’re guaranteed possession.
“So now it’s gotten to the stage where, even if there is pressure on the corner back, the goalkeeper’s looking to give it to him. It’s madness, it makes no sense to me, it defies logic. They didn’t want to kick it into a contest into midfield, but they’re happy to kick it into a contest in their own fecking full-back line.
“The top teams under pressure have the skill level to work that ball out, but Sligo don’t and they’re trying it. Clare don’t, and they’re trying it. Clare had a six foot eight monster in midfield and they’re trying a short and getting caught.
“Look at Down – the first one they kicked short, Caolan Mooney won it, and then got turned over. Louth got caught as well.
Kildare legend Johnny Doyle was also on the show, and he believes that goalkeepers shouldn’t be blamed for going longer with their kick outs and forcing a battle in midfield.
“Look for a goalkeeper, it’s a great place, but it’s a lonely place to play. The big thing for me is, you’re not under pressure to mark a man, you’re never really out of breath, so you can calmly read the situation.
“If I’m playing in goals and I’m a bit unsure, I’m going to say from a Kerry point of view; ‘what’s my best kick out?’ It’s to float it out there to let David Moran at least contest it.
“So I’ve done my job then, if he doesn’t win it there’s no point saying ‘sure what was he doing kicking it to him? He’s our best fielder.”
You can listen to the full discussion on the GAA Hour now.
