There once was a time where the half [and wing] forwards where the men you really had to keep tabs on.
These were the players that drove at the heart of defences, took on pass from midfield, advanced and caused havoc.
Those days appear to be over. Perhaps they will be back but, right now, they are being dragged all over the pitch.
Even All-Ireland champions Dublin have been forced to shift with the changing tide. Diarmuid Connolly and Paul Flynn may not have worked any harder than they did this year but their scoring returns were much lower.
Just about every player is now required to put in a shift and shift their rears over every blade of grass.
Michael Lundy can attest to that. The Corofin and Galway forward was a guest on The GAA Hour this week and spoke with host Colm Parkinson about the ever-evolving role of the wing forward. He said:
“If you’re a forward, you want to be in an attacking position but the way it is these days, even if you are in inter-county and you are playing the top counties, corner backs are getting forward almost as much as the wing backs.
“They’ll try to expose your weaknesses in defence and, on the offensive side, try take you away from the goals.
“No matter where you are playing these days, you are going to get dragged away from goals and hit you up defensively. But the closer you get the goal, the more chances you have of scoring. Sure that’s part of the game.
“I’m happy to play anywhere because you are going to have to defend no matter where you are in the modern game. Every [defender] seems to want to bomb forward.”
Having arrived back from New York to help Corofin to win the Connacht SFC, Lundy and his clubmates are 10 weeks out from and All-Ireland semi final.
He is happy to tog out and put it all on the line, no matter where he gets dragged to on the pitch.
Michael Lundy joins Wooly for a wide-ranging discussion that starts with a chat about Ger Loughnane, dodgy transfers and Davy Fitzgerald’s training methods. Subscribe here on iTunes.
