Sport

Formidable effort by Erne men

Fermanagh's Se&aacute;n Quigley shakes hands with Dublin 'keeper Stephen Cluxton at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final<br />Picture: Colm O'Reilly &nbsp;
Fermanagh's Seán Quigley shakes hands with Dublin 'keeper Stephen Cluxton at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
Picture: Colm O'Reilly  
Fermanagh's Seán Quigley shakes hands with Dublin 'keeper Stephen Cluxton at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
Picture: Colm O'Reilly  

JIM GAVIN did an interview through the week where he spoke about how Dublin would be treating Fermanagh with the utmost respect and there would be no complacency in the camp. 

He then went on  – on two separate occasions – to speak about the danger posed by Séamus Quigley who, of course, is no longer on the Fermanagh panel. If the Dublin manager wasn’t sure who Seán Quigley was beforehand, both he and Stephen Cluxton certainly knew after the match.

I’m not sure what I enjoyed more: the fact that the referee gave the dubious goal or the reaction on the big man’s face afterwards. Priceless.

At 13 points down against Dublin, most other teams in that position deviate from their gameplan, stop working hard, and accept the fact that they are going to get pummelled. But not Fermanagh, as they tagged on 2-4 in the last nine or 10 minutes. 

That’s the thing I’ve admired most about them this year. An absolute belief and loyalty to their system of play and the ‘if we work as hard as we possibly can we will get what we deserve’ mentality. Okay, as a contest the game was probably over at half-time, but any team that goes into Croke Park and kicks, fists and shoves 2-15 against the Dubs deserves immense credit. 

There was a lot of luck involved in the Fermanagh goals, but, nevertheless, to see them fight as hard in the last minute as they did in the first was inspiring. The team, management and supporters entered Croke Park with immense pride, but also left it with a huge chunk of respect.

I’m a great believer in the ability of statistics to be deeply deceptive. So in analysing the Tyrone v Sligo game on Saturday, I decided to look at the kick-out and give you an insight into the significance of all the numbers. There is a little more to it than just kicks won or lost. Firstly there’s the winning of possession from your own and opposition kick-out, how this is achieved, and then the direct outcome. 

So, if we use the first half of the game as an example, we had 28 kick-outs in total. Fifteen were won by Tyrone, 13 by Sligo. Tyrone won seven of their own, with Sligo winning just three. On the Sligo kick-out, Tyrone were beaten 10 to eight, but eight of Sligo’s 10 possessions were actually from short kick-outs. So we can assume that in the midfield sector, when the ball was kicked long, Tyrone were very dominant throughout. But what does this mean for Tyrone?

Going forward, Mickey Harte may question the impact of allowing Monaghan to gain short possession from their own kick-out the next day. 

The reason I say this is because from their eight short kick-outs in the first half, Sligo actually amassed 0-3 directly. Consider that Monaghan are a much better counter-attacking team than Sligo and what damage they might do if Tyrone allow them this luxury. 

Also, when Mickey Harte and co. look at the video of the Ulster final, they will see how Monaghan really struggled when Donegal pushed man-to-man on Rory Beggan’s restarts in the second half.


Tyrone must view gaining possession from the Monaghan kick-out as an opportunity to create more meaningful attacks. 

It was clear to be seen that Tyrone have a number of well rehearsed kick-out strategies of their own that are working well. They have the game in their locker to beat Monaghan. It’s going to be close, but I just fancy the Farney’s greater experience and better game management to decide it. 

In describing Donegal on Sunday morning, a friend of mine reckoned they were like a ‘bull being let out of the shed after a winter in captivity, giving himself a shake... right boys it’s time for the big stuff.’ 


It’s hard to disagree that, for 50 minutes, Donegal looked under serious pressure as Galway also went with extreme defensive tactics that served them very well. The turning point in the game came about seven minutes into the second half when all the momentum was with Galway.

They had kicked the last four points of the first half and the first of the second. At that point, Neil McGee got punished for charging, but Paul Conroy missed the easy free to put his team two up. 

In the remaining remainder of the game, Donegal hit 2-8 to Galway’s 0-3. Just like the second half of the Ulster final, they piled the pressure on by dominating the opposition kickout. 


Odhrán Mac Niallais was simply superb, as was Colm McFadden, Ryan McHugh and Michael Murphy. But the big difference was that they were much more positive with their attaching formation and a great deal more direct in their approach. 

All the switches worked for Rory Gallagher. Anthony Thompson in for Eamon McGee, Martin McElhinney to midfield, McLoone for McBrearty and Toye for Hugh McFadden all reaped tangible rewards. 


But Murphy going to the edge of the square being flanked by the two inside men was perhaps the move that brought the most joy.

His Aussie Rules-style fetch turn and score was a thing of beauty, but for me the goal by Ryan McHugh epitomised everything positive about the Donegal game. By that stage, Galway had left Murphy and Hanley isolated. But it was the run ahead of the play by Ryan McHugh that opened everything up. 

The player ghosting from deep coming ahead of the play is a very effective weapon in the Donegal armoury. McGlynn, McHugh, Toye and Lacey are all particularly good at it. And with a ball winner like Murphy at full-forward there are more goals in this Donegal team. With just a week to recover, the Mayo game is coming fast. 

There may be chinks in the Donegal system, but you’d be a fool to write this ‘bull’ off just yet.