When Meath broke through to the big time in Gaelic football circa 1986, I was five. Not a jot is recalled of the wet day Dublin were eventually usurped, but once this corner was properly attuned to the goings on of such matters – which in truth was the following year – the importance of Ger Power’s ‘crazy’ goal which eventually got Kerry over the line in the All Ireland semi final was well and truly understood.
In reality though, as long as our lads were winning it didn’t matter how or from whom the scores were coming. To a certain extent, that is and always will be the case, naturally, but, I suppose as GAA has become much more a part of my life than just a passtime, studying how the game is played has become a much bigger part of the exercise.
There’s no doubt, though, that the first brand of football which was encountered in this seat remains the favourite and, God willing, always will be. That is to say, the original and best way. What you might call catch and kick.
Which takes me back to Meath’s greatest days. When the Royal County’s stock-in-trade methodology was for either Liam Hayes or Gerry McEntee to pluck missiles from the sky and direct them into the full forward line where Colm O’Rourke would either do the needful himself or set up Brian Stafford or Bernard Flynn to do it.
Most teams did it that way back then. The great Cork and Dublin teams who were their greatest rivals at the time worked off the same script. But, time has proven that hindsight is indeed a powerful thing.
Consider that in the 1992 All Ireland football final, Donegal’s Matt Gallagher didn’t kick the ball for the entire 70 minutes against Dublin. Unheard of at the time but evidently the success garnered by Brian McEniff et al planted a seed in certain places.
Though nobody could have expected hand passing to become the invasive fungal infection that it and negative mindsets would morph into once Mickey Harte patented Puke Football in 2003.
That said, even the current Louth manager was eventually passed out as Donegal under Jim McGuinness took matters to a whole new level in 2012. When mass congestion in front of goal and suffocating the life out of opposition attacks is prioritised above scoring themselves.
Temptation was to call it rush defence, though the slow, pedantic borefest which football became in most places meant that to do so would be a great insult to rugby. Simply because rush tends to be the last thing any team who employ the ghastly gameplan does. Instead engaging in seemingly endless triangles of short passes which would make Bermuda look handy to get out of.
The ironic thing, of course, is that the all-conquering Dublin team that will be recorded as the greatest to ever play the game have kicked the ball more than about four teams combined on their way to sporting immortality.
Now, I am not for a moment suggesting that the boys in blue don’t play a short game as well – Stephen Cluxton is wholly responsible for the scourge of the ridiculously short kick out – but to see Brian Fenton and others field high balls, deliver long passes into their forwards or execute shots from out the field is a joy to behold.
The really surprising thing is that so few teams seem to have copped on to the fact that what Dublin do is so simple. Or that was the case until most recently. Not that long ago here, Derry were praised for their willingness to kick the ball – imagine that – while Donegal prescribed more tedium for those who happened to sit through it.
However, if people have somehow managed to ignore Dublin’s brand of football, they cannot but have noticed the waves being made by Armagh in recent weeks. They are saving Gaelic football one long ball at a time. Kieran McGeeney’s side may not win the All Ireland – though at this point they’ve as good a chance as any that are left – but they must surely have opened up the eyes of the masses to the fact that there is another way to play the game and be successful.
Essentially, what Geezer and the other Kierans – Donaghy and (Ciaran) McKeever have done is reverted the Orchard County back to the tactics which delivered Sam Maguire for the first and so far only time. Or at the very least a variant thereof.
To borrow a bit of horse racing parlance, if you retrace the form book, Joe Kernan-coached teams have a penchant for playing football a certain way. With regard to same, it’s probably no coincidence that when the unparalleled Crossmaglen Rangers team which big Joe managed made their breakthrough in the mid 1990s, the history-making manager had a certain Mr O’Rourke as one of his closest advisors.
Thus, by the time he had moulded the county team into the best outfit in the land, long, diagonal ball in the direction of the brilliant but injury-plagued Ronan Clarke (pictured above) from where men like Oisin McConville and Stevie McDonnell and Diarmaid Marsden would gather second phase possession and do untold damage. The only pity is the great mystery as to how that wonderful Armagh team only claimed one All Ireland title during their great era.
Fast forward to now and Mullaghbawn’s McGeeney has basically gone back to the Kernan playbook. Albeit perhaps not completely. Where there are definite similarities, though, is in the team’s willingness to use the long ball – particularly when Rian O’Neill – nephew of the great McConvilles so pivotal to Cross’ – is parked in close to goal.
Mind you, most recently against Donegal, there was a slight variation on that. And what an impact it had. The fact that the languid youngster went out to centre field for the throw in wouldn’t even be that big a deal.
Lots of teams mix things up at throw-in time. Most of those involve one player contesting the ball and flicking it down to another. Here again however, Armagh did it differently in that midfielder Ben Crealy basketball tactic by screening not one Donegal player but two, allowing O’Neill to take a clean catch.
The No. 14 was then fouled, at which point he drove a monster free into where, notionally at least, he should’ve been himself. Whereupon it was grabbed by Ruairi Grugan and duly blasted past Shaun Patton before he even knew what was happening.
The Donegal custodian had an afternoon to forget as he was responsible for Armagh’s second goal when he gave away a penalty and was black carded for the same incident. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when he returned, his first task was to pick the ball from his net again after Stephen Sheridan had netted.
Obviously, the eventual victors’ eye for goal was a gargantuan factor in their success, but, for me, so too was their use of the long ball. Both via the ability of the likes of Jarly Og Burns, Stefan Campbell, the imperious O’Neill, Jason Duffy and the introduced Conor Turbitt kick excellent scores from out the field and sending in artilery for closer in efforts.
The long ball has certainly made the difference for McGeeney’s men over the last few weeks, now if more people can realise that fact it can change the game for the better.
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