Gary Brennan: Decision-making is trainable and it’s likely to be a difference-maker

HEAT OF BATTLE: Kilcoo’s Shealin Johnston is challenged by Kilmacud’s Shane Horan in the All-Ireland SFC Club final. Some of the decision-made during the game raised a few eyebrows. Picture: Inpho/Ken Sutton

Decision, decisions, decisions.

Watching the conclusion of last weekend’s All-Ireland club finals was a brilliant or brutal (depending on where you’re from) reminder of how one simple decision on the pitch can have enormous consequences.

Many of the people I met since were wondering why the Kilmacud Crokes goalkeeper, Conor Ferris, didn’t boot the ball out of play or why their defenders didn’t pull Kilcoo’s Shealin Johnston to the ground when he gained possession 45 metres from goal.

Those may seem like obvious choices to some but how did those scenarios look from the players’ perspective? I tried to put myself in their shoes. Had Ferris’ kick been just slightly longer, it would likely have found one of two Crokes players unmarked beyond the Kilcoo press — they may well have scored and killed off the game.

Which would have appeared riskier? Being turned over on his own 45m line or getting the ball as far away from the goals as possible? As for the defenders facing Shealin Johnston, a cheap free would have reduced the margin to one with over a minute to play and a full Kilcoo press on their kickout. Of course, I don’t know exactly what the players in either case were thinking, but my point is that while it may seem as though there was no decision to make, the reality may be different. (For the record, I’m delighted Kilcoo’s chances didn’t end with a pull-down punished only by a free and almost meaningless black card — the punishment doesn’t fit the crime for me in these instances).

The more insightful questions to ask might be how two other Johnstons ended up unmarked on the edge of the small square, or what was it that enabled Shealin to think clearly enough under pressure to get his head up and find his brother Ryan with that beautiful kickpass?

We might get back to that...

I couldn’t help but think of how the need for concentration and good decision-making skills are increasing all the time as the game of Gaelic football evolves. I noticed a huge change during my time playing at inter-county level. Take kickouts: When I started playing senior with Clare in 2007, the only things I really had to consider were whether there was someone in position for breaks at either side and how I was going to beat my opponent to the ball. By the time I finished in 2020, kickouts were a game of chess.

The decisions: My man crosses to the opposite side of the field — do I follow his run? If I do, I’m leaving a pocket of space behind me. If I don’t, they might double up on the far side and get an easy ball; or he might check his run and get an easy chip to the middle. He runs short towards the half-back line — can I call one of my half-forwards to hold their position and cover him or does that free up someone else? The goalkeeper is right footed and hasn’t opened up his body — is he going long to his left? Or does he have a left-footed pitching wedge in his bag?

Lots of information to process and little time to do it. It doesn’t have to be the final moments for these decisions to have huge impact either.

In the first half of our final-round qualifier against Meath in 2019, I gambled on blocking an option for a short kickout outside the D but ended up leaving Donal Keogan in space. Overlap created. Ten seconds later, the ball was in our net. We lost the game by a point. It’s to prevent such scenarios that teams choose to pack extra players in defence, or to concede kickouts and set up a defensive line. Another trend we are seeing more recently is teams deliberately maintaining possession for lengthy spells around the middle of the field. All are an attempt to reduce risk of a concentration lapse or poor decision and instead, force it onto the opponents.

So, does this mean that a modern-day Gaelic footballer needs to be constantly thinking on the pitch? Well, no. As paradoxical as it may seem, modern football is almost a balancing act between having thought about everything and not thinking at all. Fatigue, over-stimulation, and anxiety can cloud thinking, so it’s not surprising that we have our greatest moments when minds are free, when it feels as though we are playing on instinct.

Of course, what we perceive as instinctive is usually the result of good training and preparation. Decisions are more likely to happen ‘instinctively’ on match-day if players have been presented with similar challenges previously and have been aided to learn from them. When Paudie Kissane coached us in Clare in 2014, training would revolve around scenarios — the opposition had an overlap from midfield, we were pulled out of position — play on!

After a few repetitions, we’d come together and discuss how we had reacted, what had worked well, how we could make it better. If we identified an aspect or skill that was letting us down, we’d then go and work on that skill before repeating the exercise. By the time matchday came around, we had been pulled out of position in so many various ways that the game seemed easy. I was fortunate enough to work with coaches in the following years who built on this. We were being trained to ‘think correctly under pressure’, or TCUP, as Clive Woodward phrased it.

Which takes me back to Shealin Johnston’s kickpass. I suspect that the closing moments of the final on Saturday was not the first time he was challenged to deliver such a kickpass under pressure. While the circumstances in this instance were extreme, he could rely on previous experience to help him execute when it was needed most.

Decision-making is trainable and it’s likely to be a difference-maker.