Football

Kicking Out: Tyrone must go off-script and bring chaos to Kerry

Taxi for Kerry? Conor McKenna at full-forward is one move away from the script Tyrone could make that would force the Kingdom to think about things. Image: Kevin Farrell
Taxi for Kerry? Conor McKenna at full-forward is one move away from the script Tyrone could make that would force the Kingdom to think about things. Image: Kevin Farrell Taxi for Kerry? Conor McKenna at full-forward is one move away from the script Tyrone could make that would force the Kingdom to think about things. Image: Kevin Farrell

‘You talkin’ to me?’

IN the script for Taxi Driver, all the character played by a young Robert De Niro was supposed to be doing in front of the camera was practicing drawing his gun.

There was no dialogue written.

Martin Scorsese didn’t make great cinema by sticking to the script.

He told De Niro to go with the flow, make something up. Do whatever.

Four-and-a-half decades later, it remains one of the most famous lines in movie history.

You always need a script. Sometimes you have to stick to it. Other times, greatness arrives when you step back and play it with feeling.

That’s why Mayo are in an All-Ireland final.

Their first-half strategy against Dublin was scripted to the very letter. They defended in huge numbers, and they all marked their man from five yards in-field so as to protect the goal at all costs.

In the sense of denying the green flags that have killed them in that rivalry over a decade, it was a successful strategy. But in terms of winning the game, it was wholly inadequate.

After half-time, Mayo stopped defending in huge numbers. They entrusted their defenders in one-to-one situations.

What they found was that Dublin no longer had the same relentlessness about them.

I remember a conversation with a man who shared the pitch with the Dubs during a game early in Dessie Farrell’s reign.

It was noted even at that point that they weren’t anywhere near as disciplined as they had been under Jim Gavin. Their demeanour had changed. They were narkier at referees.

Nothing manifests indiscipline as quickly as exhaustion.

Mayo abandoning the defensive arc and stepping into man-to-man combat tested the Dublin legs, which it transpired weren’t there.

By the time they imploded, the effects were obvious.

On the equalising 45’, it was declared crazy that Davy Byrne was soloing the ball across his own goal line to be shunted out over it.

He had no option. Mayo had the legs to do what so many others couldn’t. They squeezed every man up the pitch and chased the ball down hard when Dublin tried their keep-ball routine.

The free they won on 73 minutes was as a result of the same crazy pursuit of the ball. Ryan O’Donoghue had been turned over and when Dean Rock popped the ball back to Brian Howard, you expected two minutes of Dublin possession and a Ciaran Kilkenny point.

They had the ball for 28 seconds and Mayo got contact on three times. On the third occasion, O’Donoghue popped it out of James McCarthy’s hands.

It showed phenomenal reserves of physical and mental strength, an area in which Mayo had always been able to match Dublin but never beat them. This time, they were stronger of both body and mind.

But they were also brave enough to go and make use of it.

They’ve always brought a sense of chaos, a feeling that they have a script but that they seldom obey it.

It is exactly what Tyrone must bring to Croke Park on Saturday.

Any time Tyrone meet Kerry, people will naturally hawk back to the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final, and the famous tackling scene on the Kerry 45’.

That wasn’t scripted. Mickey Harte’s side played with method but they played with fire and fury. They didn’t stand off Kerry or show them any respect.

Football went away from that but Tyrone have been only too happy to accede to the changes in recent years.

Recent trips to Croke Park have seen them play a structured, manufactured game. They’ve sat bodies back inside their own 45’ and refused to engage any higher up the pitch.

They’ll always be alive in games playing like that, but they’ve lost too many that they might have won to be able to claim the idea as a success.

And here, they need a script and a bit of framework or it all just becomes a whole pile of nothing.

Just look at Kerry this year. We all see the footloose and fancy-free stuff that comes out of them when the space opens up. We know how frightening their attacking talent is.

But like Mayo, they’ve taken huge risks.

Against Cork and Clare both, it took them a while to suss the game out. They had just 0-1 on the board after 10 minutes against Clare, and it took them 28 minutes to get level with the Rebels.

Both ended up routs because Kerry went and made it happen.

They clawed their way back into the game against Cork because they actually went a whole step further than Tyrone had on Monaghan’s kickouts in the Ulster final.

Shane Ryan was coming out to midfield and so were Jason Foley and Brian Ó Beaglaoich. Cork’s full-forward Brian Hurley was all on his own, and I mean on his own. There are cattle out with less grass for company.

Kerry pushed their entire 15 up on Cork’s restarts. It built the platform for their first-half recovery.

That's Brian Hurley at the bottom of the picture, with nobody within 40 yards of him on a Cork kickout in the Munster final against Kerry. The Kingdom had great joy off the tactic, every bit as much as Tyrone did from Niall Morgan doing it against Monaghan.
That's Brian Hurley at the bottom of the picture, with nobody within 40 yards of him on a Cork kickout in the Munster final against Kerry. The Kingdom had great joy off the tactic, every bit as much as Tyrone did from Niall Morgan doing it against Mon That's Brian Hurley at the bottom of the picture, with nobody within 40 yards of him on a Cork kickout in the Munster final against Kerry. The Kingdom had great joy off the tactic, every bit as much as Tyrone did from Niall Morgan doing it against Monaghan.

All day they left bodies up in the attack. On their second goal, Cork’s committed numbers and Sean O’Shea had cheated, letting Mattie Taylor go.

When Kerry turned the ball over in front of their own goal, they had four forwards up the pitch. Kick to an unmarked O’Shea, carry into open space, draw the man, pop to Geaney, bang. Game over.

The third and fourth goals both came from the same 15-man kickout press as had worked in the first half.

Kerry will take calculated risks on Saturday afternoon. Tyrone’s performance cannot be reactionary. It can’t be ‘oh well they’re doing it, we’d better do it too’.

The Ulster champions have to bring their own chaos.

Conor McKenna at full-forward would seem like the obvious first step. Kerry did not like Brian Hurley running at them one bit.

The power and pace of McKenna would make Kerry seriously consider who’s at full-back. They had to move Jason Foley out early, and Brian Ó Beaglaoich wasn’t tested because Cork were gone so early in the second half.

Niall Morgan squeezing the kickouts has almost become a given. Kerry are better at midfield than Monaghan were, but not better than Donegal. Tyrone can’t take a backward step on that approach.

They have to be prepared to leave their full-back line exposed the way Mayo did last weekend, and trust that Hampsey and McNamee and McKernan can deal with whatever comes at them.

On Kerry's second goal against Cork, Sean O'Shea cheated on his defensive duties. It was a calculated risk. Cork's attack broke down, Kerry kicked the ball 60 yards to O'Shea who created a 4v3 to lay the ball on for Paul Geaney to score. Picture by Eoin Noonan / Sportsfile
On Kerry's second goal against Cork, Sean O'Shea cheated on his defensive duties. It was a calculated risk. Cork's attack broke down, Kerry kicked the ball 60 yards to O'Shea who created a 4v3 to lay the ball on for Paul Geaney to score. P On Kerry's second goal against Cork, Sean O'Shea cheated on his defensive duties. It was a calculated risk. Cork's attack broke down, Kerry kicked the ball 60 yards to O'Shea who created a 4v3 to lay the ball on for Paul Geaney to score. Picture by Eoin Noonan / Sportsfile

If they go for the structured approach of let’s get 15 behind the ball and see how it’s going after 45 minutes, it’ll only be going way. Kerry will work the game out and they’ll rip the barricades apart, as they’ve learned to do.

There has to be balance in what Tyrone do but they have to bring some chaos.

Structured, choreographed, repetitive stuff will only take them so far against a side whose freedom of expression this year has been befitting of the green and gold.

They have to bring a script that Kerry haven’t spent the last month rehearsing.

Tyrone have to bring the same chaos to Croke Park that Mayo did.

Only then might we get the final nobody expected.