James Horan: Football and hurling discovering that the brave shape matches

For years in Gaelic football, risk was treated almost like a disease. Teams sat deep, protected space and turned contests into carefully controlled stalemates. It was often presented as tactical sophistication, but was it lack of courage disguised as strategy?

During the All-Ireland final, you could visibly see the stress which Kerry players found themselves under due to the Mayo press. Confidence visibly drained and their kick out looked out of options. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

“To attack, it is necessary to deprive the opponent of the ball.” 

Long before the high press became fashionable, Valeriy Lobanovskyi had already reshaped modern sport with that single principle. The legendary Dynamo Kyiv manager understood something many conservative coaches failed to grasp: defending and attacking are not separate acts. They are inter-connected moments within the same sequence. Win the ball high, dominate space, seize momentum — and suddenly the opposition are exposed before they can reorganise either mentally or structurally.