Why games are often won before the throw-in
The general consensus is that hurling has now become as tactical a game as football and all other participants in the hurling competition are frantically trying to solve the conundrum that is Kilkenny’s game plan in order to deny them the outstanding achievement of four-in-a-row.
Many people bemoan the amount of tactics being used in both codes but whether you agree with it or not, tactics have a huge part to play in deciding hurling and football games in the present era.
It was no surprise either to hear that Kilkenny have taken some of their tactical inspiration from the most tactically aware county in the football arena in the last decade, Tyrone. Mickey Harte and his management team have taken tactical awareness to a new level and rarely if ever have they been found wanting in this aspect of the game.
Why are Tyrone atop the podium when it comes to tactics? Obviously their manager and his backroom team have a lot to do with it but I would suggest that the versatility of their players – and consequently their unpredictability when it comes to tactics – are their greatest assets. One only has to look at their dominance over Kerry in championship encounters over the last decade for confirmation of this and last year’s All-Ireland final is probably the best example to illustrate the point.
A player who had played the whole Championship at wing forward, Joe McMahon, suddenly appears in the full back line to counteract the twin towers approach of Kerry and in the subsequent reshuffle Ryan McMennamin, their corner back, was sited at wing back and Philip Jordan, a wing back, played centre back. In my opinion there is no other team in the country with players versatile enough to have successfully pulled that off. Of course Mickey Harte and his management team banked on the predictability of the Kerry approach and as with all previous championship meetings, Kerry did not disappoint them as their game plan was as predictable as Tyrone’s was unpredictable.
In general, though, most teams tend to cancel each other out when it comes to tactics with gains in one area being matched by concessions in others to the opposition, but occasionally a manager can hit the metaphorical jackpot – a very good example this year showed Kerry in a better light from a tactical point of view. Two weeks ago, when Kerry played Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final, the Kerry brains trust decided to target Stephen Cluxton’s kick outs, a strong point for Dublin for many years. Their gambit was so successful that they secured three times the possession Dublin did in the first half; as possession is nine-tenths of the law they proceeded to bombard Dublin’s perceived weakest line, the full back line, with quality ball, which resulted in a rich harvest of scores that laid the foundations for a landslide victory. The Kerry management could not have anticipated the overwhelming success of their tactics when they formulated them prior to the game.
So, having looked at successful tactics employed in games in the past, let’s have a look at Sunday’s first All-Ireland football semi-final between Cork and Tyrone and consider one area of the game and some of the tactics that might be utilised by the two teams involved. Having established already that managers target both the opposition’s weaknesses and strengths to varying degrees, it is reasonable to assume that Mickey Harte will attempt to nullify the amount of influence the Cork diamond of Canty, Murphy, O Connor and Pearse O’Neill will have in relation to possession. There are two obvious ways to achieve this – one is to ensure that their own kick outs are directed away from that area, a tactic Tyrone used at the start of the second half against Kildare in the quarter-final to counteract the dominance of Dermot Earley. This ensured them vital possession with five short kick outs in a row giving them a foothold in the game.
The second would be to emphasise the winning of the breaks in the middle third, especially on Cork’s kick outs and with the likes of Dooher, McMahon, Jordan and Davy Harte operating in this area a 50/50 divide will be anticipated.
From Cork’s point of view, they will be looking to force Jody Devine to kick the ball to the middle of the field, where Murphy and O’Connor should have the beating of Cavanagh and Hughes (or McGinley) in the air and so all their players will have to be very tight on their immediate opponent for Tyrone kick outs.
In addition, Alan Quirke’s kick out is probably second only to the aforementioned Stephen Cluxton in accuracy and Nicholas Murphy, among others, has benefited when regularly drifting to the wings for possession in games this year. As already illustrated the team that secures the most possession usually sets the tempo and ultimately are victorious, so from a neutral’s perspective one would hope that the tactics employed by both managers in this area will cancel each other out and the game will then be decided by great performances and great players.
Whether or not that proves to be the case there is one certainty – the work done in the bootroom beforehand will be a major factor next Sunday and will continue to be in the Championship in both codes going forward.
