Éamonn Fitzmaurce: Are referees inadvertently helping mass defences?
Ducking the issues? Jack Barry of Kerry in action against Iain Corbett of Limerick handpasses the ball over referee Martin McNally during the Munster GAA Football Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Limerick at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. Pic: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
With knockout championship re-entering the fray this weekend the stakes and interest levels naturally take a jump. The Tailteann Cup quarter finals, with the novelty of New York playing on Irish soil for the first time in over 20 years is going to be very interesting. The benefits of teams of a similar level playing against each other is again being emphasised.
Rather than being cannon fodder for a Division 1 team aiming to rehabilitate through the qualifiers these sides have a realistic target and can win silverware. I will be surprised if Offaly, Westmeath and Cavan are not in the draw on Monday morning.
For the four Division One teams it is time to move it or lose it. None of Mayo, Monaghan, Armagh and certainly not the All Ireland champions Tyrone would have envisaged their season being over by the June Bank Holiday.
All of these teams have had time and space to right the ship. Read on as we cast an eye over a few talking points for this weekend.
In general, referees are only discussed when we are criticising them. They are rarely praised. I was no angel and have had plenty of battles with referees down through the years - more as a player than a manager - but I feel as a group they deserve huge credit for their officiating so far in the championship. As always there have been questionable decisions and inconsistencies.
This will always be the case as human nature and our rulebook with its various shades of grey impact. As a whole they have done very well though. Cue mayhem this weekend! There is a shortage of referees nationally and this is reflected at the top level of the game also. I have long advocated for two referees but their fitness levels are at an all time high and it is rare to see a ref not keeping up with the play. Which brings me to my next point.
The referees obviously meet up quite regularly and coach and advise each other. An interesting pattern I have noticed is inadvertently helping mass defences, in my opinion. When a team slow down against a set defence and start to rotate the ball referees tend to wander into the ‘D’ and sometimes in as far the 20m line in a central position to keep an eye on everything. While it is a prime position for them I think it affects the team in possession.
When players are looking in to see if there is a ball on inside the ref is coming in their eye line. He is almost like another sweeper and it is contributing to teams general reluctance to kick ball inside. Yes the jersey is a different colour but when a player glances up it is a body in some prime real estate. It is also possibly a factor in some of the distinct lack of movement from inside lines when a defence is set in front of them. The referee is actually taking away space they could be running in to.
For the third time this year the old foes face off in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Similar to Roscommon last weekend will the home side be able to beat a closely matched neighbour for the third time in the same season? Armagh flew out of the traps last January, were the form team in the country and were a joy to watch.
As they suffered injuries through the league - and as teams caught up to them physically and figured them out tactically - they stalled. I was surprised considering his early showings that Kieran McGeeney gave Rian O'Neill the freedom to roam from full forward. O'Neill playing well at 14 is key to their success.
They must have been very disappointed with their performance against Donegal in the Ulster Championship. While appreciating that there were tactical mistakes, most notably their own kickout and the reluctance to go after Shaun Patton’s restarts, what surprised me most was how passive they were.
For an up and coming team with a questionable championship record I would have expected far more intent from them. I imagine this was their starting point when they resumed preparations. They have trained very hard in the meantime and if nothing else they will go down fighting on Sunday. Tyrone have never really got going this year.
Indiscipline has been a factor as they accumulated nine red cards in as many games. They have mentioned it publicly this week in their media dealings. Whether that is trying to get ahead of the conversation or whether we will actually see an improvement remains to be seen. The players that left their panel certainly affected the levels in training but this may be nullified now with the influx of some of the All Ireland winning under 20 side, in particular Ruairí Canavan.
While these lads might not necessarily play they will bring life and energy to training. Tyrone’s most impressive victory this year was against Kerry in Killarney, a game they had to win. We will find out tomorrow if they still have the stomach and hunger or if they are satisfied for this season.
The word from the west is that not only has Mayo’s injury list not cleared it has increased. When they lost to Galway I felt the break would do them good and give them a chance to rehab the injuries and regenerate their energy levels. They could struggle if Ryan O'Donoghue and Cillian O'Connor are absent. I would love to see something different from them tactically underlining how they have used their latest pre-season.
Their high octane, hard working and hard running game has served them well over the years but it hasn’t got them to the promised land. I feel they should kick the ball more, as they did against Dublin in the league, but also with Aidan O'Shea inside. Their record isn’t great in McHale Park but their identity over the last decade has been to get they job done, especially when us wise guys start to doubt them.
I was amazed with Monaghan tactically against Derry. They played it totally on Derry’s terms. That said, they created enough chances to win two games. Other than the Dublin game in Clones, on the final day of the league, this profligacy has been a pattern for them this season. One of Donie Buckley’s calling cards as a coach is identifying a problem and fixing it.
I would imagine they have spent some amount of time on their scoring practice over the last few weeks. Monaghan will also enjoy the one on one battles that they will be afforded by Mayo’s setup. Jack McCarron, Gary Mohan and Conor McManus versus Oisín Mullin, Lee Keegan and Pádraig O'Hora will be worth the admission fee alone.
Mayo looked dead and buried with less than 10 minutes to go in the Connacht quarter-final against Galway. But, they did what they do and fought back to almost force the game to extra time. Mayo’s spirit and an improvement in Monaghan’s shooting mean this could be a ding dong match.
I feel for the provincial champions this weekend, as they kick their heels waiting for the other teams to come through the qualifiers. While debate has raged about the ills of such championship timelines, this is the system in place for this season and everyone has to get on with it. The reward for winning the provincial championship, in terms of the big picture (winning the All Ireland) is questionable, at best.
Yes, yes I know there is the honour of securing a Munster, Leinster, Ulster or Connacht medal, and safe passage to Croke Park but what else? As time went on with the qualifiers the GAA built in little benefits for these teams. The draw was structured so that the provincial champion already sitting in the quarter final knew which match their next opponent would come from before the last round of qualifiers was played. That is not the case this year.
From a purely practical point of view this significantly reduced the amount of tape that management and analysts had to watch as part of the preparation for the quarter final. When the round robin All Ireland quarter finals or Super 8s were introduced they eventually got to the point of giving the Provincial champions their first of the three games at home, with the obvious benefits associated with that.
These little incentives counted for a team coming in cold against a battle hardened outfit. The last time all four provincial champions were dumped out of the championship on quarter-final weekend was 2010. While I don’t expect that to happen this year I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a casualty or two.
