PADDY HEANEY: Finding solution to football’s latest conundrum
But, as Tony McEntee found out last week, Tyrone men aren’t exactly canaries either.
The interview in question took place at The Lyric Theatre in Belfast for The Irish News GAA Talk Night. McEntee, Ryan McMenamin and Jarlath Burns were the guests on an evening where the entertainment wasn’t limited to the stage.
One of the more intriguing highlights took place during the interval when Tony and myself grilled ‘Ricey’ about Mickey Harte’s coaching techniques. I got the ball rolling.
“Does Mickey start off by positioning the players on the pitch and walking them through moves?” I asked.
Ricey shook his head. He insisted preparations were never that detailed. He said Harte studied the opposition and would give instructions on how to play, but the game plan was never dogmatic. I could tell by the stern look on Tony’s face he wasn’t buying the response.
As direct as a bullet, the joint-manager of the Crossmaglen side that won consecutive All-Irelands made no attempt to disguise his disbelief.
“So you’re saying Tyrone just went out and played like that?” in his clipped South Armagh accent, the sarcasm unmistakable.
Under pressure, McMenamin conceded a bit of ground. He admitted Tyrone would play conditioned games to prepare for tactics opponents might use, but that was it.
The answer was greeted with a scoff. But McMenamin was adamant. He claimed Mickey Harte disliked prescriptive systems believing it made teams too robotic and predictable.
Instead, he said the Tyrone manager preferred a more organic approach and players were encouraged to use their intelligence.
To bolster his argument, he pointed to Stephen O’Neill’s scores in the league semi-final.
“Every one of those points was kicked from an impossible angle. Under a strict system, a player wouldn’t be allowed to shoot from those positions,” he said.
I thought it was a decent response. But McEntee was unimpressed: “You’re holding out Ricey,” he shouted as he turned on his heel and went to the toilet.
McEntee’s incredulity is easy to understand. With Crossmaglen and Armagh, McEntee played under a manager who left nothing to chance. Joe Kernan had plans for kick-outs, sideline balls, free-kicks. He coached a defensive system and an attacking system.
When McEntee and Gareth O’Neill took over Crossmaglen, they changed the blueprint but retained the methods. In an era when every team runs the ball, their Crossmaglen team outmanoeuvred blanket defences with a kicking game. The secret to their success stemmed from their ability to create space by clever movement, and that movement was coached with a religious fervour.
It’s no secret Jim McGuinness employs similar methods. Presumably, that’s why some ‘tactical sessions’ started at 9am and finished at 6pm.
But the sessions showed the players why they had lost three Ulster finals (2002, 2004, 2006) to an Joe Kernan’s Armagh.
“We were trying to win by
playing off-the-cuff football,” said Kevin Cassidy after the 2011 Ulster final.
But there was nothing off-the-cuff about Armagh, and there is absolutely nothing unscripted about the current Donegal team. Their game plan looks like it was devised in a war-room with a distinct military quality.
Even before half time on Sunday, there were clear signs they were the superior team. When they attacked, they scored. In contrast, Tyrone were relying on wonder points. I sent Tony a text at half time.
It read: “I am starting to suspect Ricey was telling the truth.”
Never one for frivolity, his short response summed up the problem facing the Red Hands: “Where is the Tyrone full-forward line? If they can’t bypass/penetrate the Donegal half-back line they will never win.”
As a devout disciple of the kicking game, McEntee believes the best way to beat the blanket defence is to bypass it.
That requires a full-forward line that plays to a game plan which systematically puts balls into the scoring zone.
On Sunday, Tyrone tried to ‘penetrate’ Donegal’s fortified defence. But after a few promising moves, their success rate dwindled. After half time, it ground to a halt.
Unable to punch holes, Tyrone weren’t equipped to bypass the blanket because there never seemed to be any white jerseys in their full-forward line.
After three attempts, Tyrone have failed to beat Donegal. Of course, it would be unfair to pin all the blame on Tyrone’s attacking system. Their defence was equally culpable.
Consider Paddy McBrearty’s run for Donegal’s second goal. If a Tyrone forward tried to cut along the endline, he would have ended up in the River Finn.
Tyrone are not a bad team. They reached the league final where the All-Ireland favourites only beat them by a point. Yet, long before the end of Sunday’s game, Donegal had dismantled them.
The question now, is not so much who will beat Donegal? The more pressing issue is how do you beat them?
Interestingly, Tony and Ryan reckon James Horan is the man with the plan as they both tipped Mayo to win this year’s All-Ireland.
Meanwhile, Tony and myself left the Lyric Theatre none the wiser about Mickey Harte’s training techniques. Unlike Tony, I was willing to entertain that Ricey was being straight.
During a chat with Tony at the end of the night I raised the issue again: “Do you think McMenamin was telling us the truth?”
Not given to doubts, he looked at me as if I had just said the stupidest thing he had ever heard: “Of course, he wasn’t.”
Maybe the big riddle posed by Donegal isn’t actually that difficult to solve.
If Mickey Harte, one of the best managers of modern times, can’t coach a team to penetrate Donegal’s defensive screen, the solution should be as obvious to us as it is to Tony McEntee.
