Time arrives for update of terminology
Surely we can do better than aisle descriptions from the homeware section when it comes to developments on the field of play?
Try this one, then: are you epochalist or solutionist in your outlook, to use terms common in discussions about developments in internet technology?
An epochalist feels this is an era unlike any other, and must be approached accordingly: the rule-book must be torn up and new approaches found in order to move forward.
A solutionist is different: more traditional. He sees every problem as having a solution which is on the spectrum of already-available answers, and doesn’t seek to re-invent the wheel.
Yesterday Galway looked like solutionists, taking the game on its merits and learning on the hoof: take their first goal, by Thomas Flynn, a solo masterpiece with a heavy emphasis on the solo.
Flynn appeared to amble from near Gill’s Corner to the edge of the Hill 16 goal before finishing well, but it wasn’t a goal reliant on advance planning as much as (admittedly excellent) improvisation.
The birth pangs of a possible new approach were visible, though, when Galway got into the Kerry half. When the men from the west were playing a short-passing game up front their supporters were screaming at them to shoot, but more than once what was needed was another pass, not a shot; their forwards were slow to approach the red zone when the men outside were in possession, and though Shane Walsh hit one superb second-half point from distance to end a long bout of short passing, such decisiveness was the exception.
The green and gold were oddly epochalist to this observer, in contrast; Kerry had all the appearances of a county which has gone through its philosophical discussions about approach and come out the other side with a clear notion of what they’re about. That makes sense: when the answers available to you have served you so well, then a slight tinkering is all you need rather than wholesale change.
The most obvious example was, again, Declan O’Sullivan’s linking the play from deep, which has the simultaneous effect of creating space for their star attacker, James O’Donoghue.
The latter’s directness was another obvious sign of a team well tutored in its alignment, even if O’Donoghue’s occasional ball-juggling suggested a slight carelessness in concentration.
For all that, events can impinge: Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice acknowledged that the lurch of events in the game can impact on the plan, pointing to O’Donoghue getting pulled outfield more than he would have liked. That’s the reality which has a habit of nudging plans a little sideways.
In the second game yesterday Mayo and Cork offered another refinement of those categories.
The Connacht champions, epochalists supreme, deployed Tom Cunniffe as a sweeper, alternating with other half-backs, while Cork had two half-forwards, Mark Collins and Colm O’Driscoll, very deep indeed.
This doesn’t indicate two teams at an identical point on the graph, mind: the fact that Keith Higgins was able to pop up all alone on the Cork 14m line showed Cork are still learning that game and overcoming a native inclination to solutionism.
Part of the epochalism seen in recent years among teams has been what might be termed a brisk pragmatism, or the cynicism referred to in these pages early last week.
Was that much in evidence in Croke Park yesterday?
Tom Clancy of Cork was the first man off, black carded on 19 minutes, though the Rebel management were clearly unhappy with some Mayo players tugging back opponents.
Cork weren’t enthusiastic about Cormac Reilly’s officiating, particularly the confusion at the end of the game when Colm O’Neill took that late, late free, but that should be filed under force majeure and stored away with this thought.
The epochalists usually win, by the way.
They’re the thinkers who are moving forward, and taking the entire argument with them, while the solutionists usually give in and follow. Something to consider.
