Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Plenty on the line as Kerry and Donegal look to lay down a marker
UP AND RUNNING: Donegal manager Jim McGuinness, right, and Dublin manager Dessie Farrell last weekend. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
This weekend was due to be a down weekend for the county's footballers but because of weather postponements we have more action to look forward to, most notably with Kerry taking on Donegal in Killarney today. The forecast is good so both teams will get a further opportunity to add to their winning starts from last weekend.
Last time Jim McGuinness brought his team to Fitzgerald Stadium it was in the spring of 2012. They were beaten by double scores on the day, 2-16 to 1-08. McGuinness documented it well in his book. The disappointment, the anger and the frustration was clear. But valuable lessons were learned. It was an important staging point on their journey to success the following September. It should mean that there will be a bit of an edge to the game today, as he will be anxious to avoid a repeat of that performance. The fact the Ulster men didn’t travel two weeks ago gives the Kerry camp their own angle. Two league points are on the line but two genuine All-Ireland contenders also have an opportunity to lay down an early season marker, minus a few of their big guns. It is fascinating observing the various teams adapting week by week to the new rules. All of us watching on have plenty to analyse. I am really enjoying it. Here are a few considerations to keep an eye on this weekend and areas where I think will evolve further over time.
Teams have started to adapt to a whole new world on kick-outs. The first weekend of competitive action saw crowding in the area long kick-outs were dropping. Players that won breaking ball were getting swallowed up and turned over. There wasn’t a huge pile of clean catching as players elected to spoil each other. By weekend two teams had started to modify. Rather than gathering centrally they were setting up two kick-out pods at either side of the pitch. By splitting their options they were less predictable and it thinned out the number of players contesting the kick-out and the resultant breaks.
Players winning breaking ball moved it away much quicker, often in the direction they were facing to avoid getting tackled immediately. Teams also looked forward quicker than they had been in the previous round. Oisín Conaty’s kick pass inside to Rory Grugan for Andrew Murnin’s goal against Tyrone was a great example of this. We also got to see an exhibition of high fielding in Celtic Park Derry where both sides looked to genuinely catch restarts. I still expect to see further evolution though. I foresee teams stretching their players up the pitch more on their own kick-out.
I’m not sure why the players involved in the three up come out the field under their own kickouts. To me it makes much more sense for them to be much further up the pitch. Should you win your own kick-out they are in a good position to immediately move the ball forward to, catching the opposition wide open. It also reduces the congestion in the middle sector. I’m also amazed to see that no one has tried to leave at least one body inside the goalkeeper when he is taking the kick-out, thus far. Again it reduces the bodies out the field but it also provides an immediate option to go long inside should you win the opposition kick-out. In addition to this I haven’t seen many examples of the goalkeeper going long quickly with their own restarts. Again I envisage more of this happening as time goes on.
The kick passing to hand passing ratio hasn’t altered much, up to now. Kicking is still being kept to a minimum, and there is a distinct lack of consecutive kicks. However, as the new shape of the game is normalised and as players shake free of their heretofore conservative decision-making I trust we will see more kicking. When I was in charge of Kerry I demanded that we try to kick the ball out of the full back line as much as possible. It often provoked a chain reaction of kicking up the field that was hard to defend when done accurately with a minimum of plays taken. There is a metric used in soccer called packing. This is to measure how many opposition players a kick pass (or a dribble) takes out. An example to illustrate this that we can all see in our mind's eye is Colm Cooper’s threaded pass to Donnchadh Walsh to set-up James O Donoghue’s goal against Dublin in the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final.
In packing terms that kick pass took out seven Dublin players. As teams evolve and appreciate the value of kicking again it will become more of a feature. Clearly players are still growing accustomed to having targets up the pitch once more. They aren’t seeing the runs or possibilities that lie therein yet. But they will. A further bonus of playing some bit of a kicking game is that it will help teams conserve energy. Let the ball do the work and the physical demands can be reduced.
Another area that I am keen to keep an eye on is a team's ability to press up in the opposition half. Disappointedly, this was an aspect of the game that had all but disappeared. Teams used their goalkeeper to maintain possession coming out and the opposition backed off. Now there is reward to really push up with the goalkeeper no longer able to receive passes in their own half. It prevents the 12 v 11 happening further up the pitch. We saw great examples of it happening last weekend in the Kerry and Derry game and also by Galway in their game with Mayo. It takes practice and needs to be seriously co-ordinated. The whole team has to buy in and be tuned in. There is no point in the forwards pressing up aggressively if one of the half backs is loose and allows an easy out-ball. The press is broken and your team is exposed. It may not be possible to do it all the time but the teams that embrace this best can really squeeze the opposition.
I am also looking forward to seeing how teams develop their one-on-one defence and how they combine defending the arc with minding the house. Two pointers are a thing. However, as three up breaches, dissent and delay fouls disappear the amount of frees in that area should reduce. Players and managers are learning fast that those kinds of fouls are unacceptable and avoidable as they are more or less costing them two points. Scoring two pointers from play is a tougher ask and at least it is possible to get pressure on the kicker. It is also clear, unsurprisingly, that teams will have to improve their one-on-one defending. Backs are now getting caught in these man-on-man situations more in a game than they were in a season previously. At the moment as soon as the player in possession takes on his man they are going around him most of the time. It is one of the factors that is leading to the high scores. The backs will improve. They have to.
