It’s worth a try surely.
We’re nearly a week on from the now infamous clash of Dublin and Derry in the Allianz league and the furore of what spectators were put through continues. All week there has been debate who’s fault was it that there was just 14 scores in the entire game-just five in the first half.
We have our view on why Derry decided to play so defensively and now it seems that a former Kerry footballer agrees with us. In his column in today’s Irish Independent ,Tomas Ó Sé admits that the Ulster side would have been foolish to let Dublin open them up. He feels that teams have to play the opposition put in front of them-and not just go out to be beaten up.
Ó Sé feels if a side believe that they have a better chance of winning by playing defensive then so be it,
‘Joe Brolly argues that it goes against the ethos of the game to play that way. But if you’re a team that’s being pummelled all the time, what choice have you got? Even Dublin, if they could play last year’s semi-final again, would they do it differently? Of course they would. Yet Kerry were abused for playing the way they did in the All-Ireland final. You can’t win.’
Tomás Ó Sé came up against several defensive systems in his time having played against Tyrone on the ‘Puke Football’ day of 2003 as well as losing to Donegal in 2012 on their way to just their second All-Ireland title. So, he’s well placed to judge the events of last week and where the game could be tweaked but not wholly changed.
The former wing-back doesn’t feel that the GAA have to tear up the rule book and start all over again after last Saturday. Instead he’s proposing that teams should be encouraged to hone their skills at long-range point scoring and to become less reliant on handpassing
‘Teams are afraid to play a 40-yard raking pass in case it leads to them coughing up possession. So we have a lot of handpassing and this kind of rugby-style running with the ball.So if the game generally needs adjustment, maybe there should be some restriction on the number of consecutive handpasses allowed – and what about looking into awarding double points for any score kicked from outside a designated area?’
Ó Sé also highlights what he feels separates sides who can only play defensively and those who can mere both defensive and attacking play. The An Gaeltacht man feels that there is one crucial difference between a side like Derry who packed their defence, and Donegal who are able break out with the ball and score seemingly at will,
‘In my time, I’d say Galway were the first team whose forwards really tackled back. Then we had the emergence of Tyrone, who defended even deeper than anyone had done before. Yet could you describe a team that won All-Irelands in ’03, ’05 and ’08 as ‘parking the bus’? Not a chance.
Tyrone were a swarming team and the important thing is they had great, great footballers to do it. Their counter-attacking was done at pace and that, I believe, is the difference between good teams and bad teams playing to this format. Pace.
Joe Brolly spoke on 2fm last Monday to decry what he had seen over the penultimate and that football and sport is very much about entertainment. He hit out at Mickey Harte’s side who have played very defensively this season and were hammered by Donegal last weekend. The 1993 All-Ireland winner blasted the Tyrone boss for his approach,
‘Mickey Harte said ‘we’re not in the business of entertainment. Well then f**k off and play behind closed doors if you’re not in the business of entertainment.”
Ó Sé feels that the idea that teams should go out to entertain first and win second is nonsense:
‘I’ve good time for Brolly, but this mythical idea that teams should play to entertain is pie in the sky. And football is nowhere near as bad as is being made out.With a plan, the reality is that the best team will still win. But it’s worth remembering too that a bit of humility goes a long way.’
The Kerryman feels that teams will set out with the best plan they believe to win and that is called intelligent play, not defensive.
