MAYO v ROSCOMMON
Pragmatism wins the day as stylists convert to a tougher faith in the search for success
Croke Park, 4pm (Live RTÉ 2 from 1.30pm)
ONE of the most important meetings in modern football is one we know practically nothing about. Jack O’Connor wrote about it briefly in his autobiography, but there has been no elaboration since.
In the aftermath of defeat to Tyrone in 2003 – the match that prompted the famous, facile ‘puke football’ contribution from Pat Spillane – O’Connor decided his Kerry team would rely on more than outrage in their response to this new threat from the north.
To that end, he arranged a meeting with a manager experienced in the Ulster Championship at a Dublin hotel, where O’Connor downloaded as much information about this strange, aggressive force as he could.
How well it served him is arguable – he would lose to Tyrone in the 2005 final and Pat O’Shea would suffer the same outcome in charge of Kerry in 2008. What is certain, though, is the wider lesson absorbed by O’Connor, O’Shea and now Eamonn Fitzmaurice: the old ways, successful in the old days, could be relied upon no longer. Kerry had to wise up. They may dispute that they have become meaner, but they are certainly more pragmatic. In that, they are simply part of the norm now. Over a decade and a half ago, O’Connor had to seek out understanding of so-called ‘northern football’ and its methods.
They were, in essence, swarm tackling; half-forward lines instantly tracking back when their team was defending; and forwards generally tackling as aggressively and efficiently as defenders.
This approach to the game was revolutionary (and to more delicate sensibilities, revolting) in the early 2000s; now it is the orthodoxy.
Kerry’s ability to adapt found its most effective manifestation in 2014 when they defeated Donegal to win the All-Ireland final.
Just as Donegal’s tactical approach built on the Armagh and Tyrone principles and was never simply the negative style alleged by their critics, Kerry’s game in that final was not the horrid creature that caused sensitive stomachs to churn.
Instead, in Fitzmaurice’s second season in charge, they displayed an understanding of the realpolitik of modern football. Aidan O’Mahony tattooed himself to Michael Murphy, but generally they worked liked stevedores when not in possession and made their attacking forays count.
Fitzmaurice, properly, never apologised for doing what was necessary within the rules to succeed.
Indeed, Kerry’s failure to play as effectively did for them in the 2015 final against Dublin. There has been no reversion since, though, to a freer, more buccaneering gameplan. There is no going back.
That is a lesson Kerry started absorbing in the early years of the last decade. Their opponents todayhave taken longer to learn it.
But listening to Fitzmaurice talk about them, Galway’s attempts to become more defensively rigorous have registered with Kerry.
‘I think under Kevin Walsh they have definitely identified the need to be stronger at the back,’ he says. ‘They are good at getting bodies back, they have a strong structure, they are excellent counter-attacking; they have a lot of pace in the team.’
Speed is essential to a team turning themselves from an impenetrable defence into a scoring attack, but Galway’s problems, exposed most vividly in Connacht final defeat to Roscommon, go the other way: they failed repeatedly to funnel back fast enough or with enough aggression.
Correcting that was the most immediate job for them, and in their rampant qualifier win against Donegal eight days ago, Fitzmaurice saw them righting wrongs.
‘You could noticeably see that they worked much harder than the Connacht final.
‘When they worked hard, they have the natural forwards to really punish teams, so when you put the two of those elements together, they are a very strong team.’
One match is not enough proof of transformation, of course, and Fitzmaurice will surely believe his men can make hay in a Galway full-back line that has been repeatedly exposed this summer.
That Galway are trying to fortify their defence is obvious, but doing it effectively is about more than having forwards streaming back.
That was always one of the great misconceptions of the blanket defence, as practiced by Tyrone and the Donegal of Jim McGuinness.
Getting players back was the straightforward part; ensuring they did a defensive job and were ready to turn from stoppers into scorers at a second’s notice was the trick.
Kerry have not perfected the approach yet this season. Feeble as Cork were in the Munster final, they still ran through the Kerry defence repeatedly in the first half.
This is despite Fitzmaurice picking a half-forward line with labour rather than luxury in mind. Michael Geaney, Kevin McCarthy and Donnchadh Walsh can kick points, but there will be as much demanded of them in retreat as on the front foot this afternoon, and every day their summer might extend past it.
Both teams have good inside lines; the Kerry full-forward duo of Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue is probably the best in the country. That, though, is a given as far as the managers are concerned.
More pertinent for them will be ensuring their other players work harder than their opponents.
‘The way they are playing, when they have the ball they’re very attack oriented and they have a lot of legs and a lot of youth in their
This approach was revolutionary in the early 2000s; now it is the orthodoxy
The dynamism and alternative skills required to compete are undeniable
team,’ says Fitzmaurice.
‘I don’t think it will be like the 2008 game but at the same time there will probably be a lot of good football in the game as well.’
The 2008 quarter-final between the teams is a diminishing echo of a more innocent time. Kerry won the match by five points, 1-21 to 1-16, on an evening of extraordinary weather in Croke Park — the rain was so heavy that the Davin Stand had to be evacuated.
Within a matter of weeks, Kerry would suffer another sickening at the merciless hands of Tyrone, but even by then they understood the rules of football had changed.
It has taken Galway a lot longer to acclimatise, and it is only now, under Walsh, that they are committing wholeheartedly to the modern method.
There was a time when a meeting of Kerry and Galway in Croke Park would have made the purists coo. The football after which they hanker is gone, certainly at this standard and at this time of the year.
Some choose to mourn its passing, but the dynamism and alternative skills required to compete nowadays are undeniable.
This game originated in the north, but it is no coincidence the earliest adapters south of the border were Kerry and Dublin. Of the eight AllIreland finals contested since Tyrone’s last victory in 2008, these two have won six between them.
But at every level of the game, the need to be tougher and more disciplined in every line of the field is taken as gospel.
Galway have taken longer to convert, but they, too, now believe.