Sport

Kieran McGeeney's crime is no different to most managers

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair is a sports reporter and columnist with the Irish News specialising in Gaelic Games.

Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney at Breffni Park last Sunday <br />Picture by Philip Walsh
Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney at Breffni Park last Sunday
Picture by Philip Walsh
Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney at Breffni Park last Sunday
Picture by Philip Walsh

THE All-Ireland-winning Armagh team were among the forefathers of the game we see today.

Men like Paul McGrane were always my favourite type of footballer. Someone uncompromising, who boasted the physical and technical skills to back it up. McGrane would have survived in any era as a player. And the McEntees and Steven McDonnell and Oisin McConville. So would the current Armagh manager. But the reason they thrived and signed their name into GAA scripture was because they had the balance between defence and attack.

They played with a sweeper, they brought their half-forwards back, they tackled like demons when they didn’t have the ball. When they won it back, they were brilliant. They were so proficient in the diagonal ball and had such good ball-winners and finishers inside that most teams simply couldn’t work with them.

McDonnell was one of the best you’ll ever see at breaking a ball for himself. He timed his leap to get enough of a hand on the ball to direct it wherever he wanted it to fall. That was often enough to create the yard he needed. It was so obviously a move that was created and recreated and practiced and practiced and practiced to death on the training ground. My word, was it effective.

Now, 14 years on from bringing Sam Maguire to the county for the first time, so much of what they helped bring to the game is still evident. The diagonal ball? Not so much. It wouldn’t have the same impact now. Defenders these days attack the ball to break it rather than catch because they know, when they do, they’re more than likely breaking it to a covering defender beside them.

Football has changed so dramatically that it is almost unrecognisable and the way in which teams now attack has changed with it, but what hasn’t changed is the need to score more than your opponent to win.

Tyrone were brilliant in defence a fortnight ago. Fermanagh were comfortable in defence the week before that. Cavan were maybe not at their best in that respect on Sunday, but were still better than Armagh defensively.

But Tyrone’s counter-attacking play against Derry was superb. Fermanagh’s attacking in the first-half against Antrim was a level above that of their opponents. Cavan had far more about them going forward than Armagh did.

The combination of the two is why the opening three matches of this year’s Ulster Championship have fallen the way they did. Last Sunday, as powerless as Armagh were to stop Cavan, you could tell each player knew what his defensive job was.

The second they lost the ball, the orange shirts turned and sprinted straight back towards their 45. That so many of them had so little distance to cover in order to do so highlighted the fact they never truly committed to the attack.

When Cavan came on the break, there were enough orange shirts in good enough positions to do a much better job than they did defensively. But the blue shirts were able to both break tackles far too easily and also find Seanie Johnston and David Givney with ease at times.

As much as Joe Brolly might like to, you can’t blame Kieran McGeeney for that. He put his players in a shape on the pitch that shouldn’t have leaked 2-16. In many cases, the players simply didn’t do their jobs.

Cavan broke tackles inside the Armagh 45 with regularity in the first-half. They were able to find Givney and Johnston in the full-forward line far too easily. Those two were able to win the ball and do with it as they pleased. Martin Reilly had the run of the place, despite having a designated marker.

There will be those who take another stick to McGeeney and beat him for not teaching his players to tackle properly, but inter-county defenders should know how to do that with far more power and aggression than Armagh displayed.

What you can lay at their manager’s door, though, is how poor their attacking play was. Kieran McGeeney’s biggest crime was not learning the lesson from their defeat to Donegal last year. Their players seemed to know exactly where to be when they lost the ball, but they didn’t appear to have any idea where to be when they had it.

They were so structureless in attack. It was pretty much ‘get the ball to Soupy’. The forwards had virtually zero support from their defence when the ball crossed halfway.

Stefan Campbell’s lack of movement on one attack was rather cruelly highlighted on The Sunday Game. He gave Killian Clarke a torrid time off hugely unpredictable service.

He didn’t appear to know when his team-mates were going to kick the ball. One would carry into a dead-end, the next would have a shot himself, the next would handpass the ball backwards.

I’d happened to read an excellent John Fogarty interview with Jamie Clarke that morning and he offered a clue as to what lay ahead: “Kieran wanted us to run with the ball, whereas the likes of the Gooch, when he gets the ball he turns his head to look to make the pass.

“To have that freedom wasn’t really allowed because you were playing to the team’s system and you don’t really want to alter that. As well, it does rely on certain movement for you to pass the ball into and a quality of player.”

Armagh’s attacking struggles were no different to what they endured 12 months ago against Rory Gallagher’s men. But Derry’s attacking was no better the week before last, or Antrim’s the week before that. They were slow, ad-hoc and ineffective.

Most inter-county teams in Ireland currently suffer from this issue. Post-Donegal, everyone became so preoccupied with the defensive side of the game that attacking became its malnourished, weaker sibling.

You could go to pretty much any game at club or county level and see for yourself. Teams loading bodies behind the ball and then hoping for a bit of off-the-cuff genius or a one-off runner punching a hole on the way out.

The teams that are flourishing now are the ones who learned quickest from Donegal in 2012. Jim McGuinness quickly learnt that scoring 0-6 in the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final wasn’t going to be enough against the better sides. The following year, they scored 0-16 against Cork at the same stage. Their attacking play became the focus over that 12 months.

Tyrone learnt the lesson. They had 15 behind the ball at Celtic Park at times and they scored 3-14, winning by 11 points. Cavan had 14 behind the ball in Breffni Park and scored 2-16, winning by eight. That doesn’t happen by accident.

That trend will continue. The teams that play best on the break will be the teams we’re still looking at in August.