They say crime doesn’t pay, but it does in football
It wasn’t just Joe Brolly who had misgivings about last year’s All-Ireland football champions.
Anyone who has ever played the game at any level will understand the respect afforded to the team which triumphs on the third Sunday in September. They set the standard. At the Tuesday night training session when club players gather in a circle for a tutorial from their manager, he will invariably point to some aspect about the All-Ireland winners.
Consider the effect of other recent champions.
When Jack O’Connor put Kieran Donaghy on the edge of the square, he started a national frenzy.
Unsuspecting beanpoles were suddenly being dragged off bar stools and handed a No.14 jersey.
Tyrone gave us the sweeper and the swarm tackle. Armagh launched a thousand flights to the Iberian Peninsula, and made weight-training a mandatory part of team preparation.
Now think about Cork. What is their legacy? In some respects Conor Counihan’s team are a throwback to another time. In an era of blanket defences, they were utterly conventional. Other teams would need a 12-man defence to curtail Benny Coulter and Martin Clarke. Cork got Michael Shields and Noel O’Leary to man-mark them.
Ultimately, the reason so few teams copied Cork is because it would have been a recipe for disaster. How many managers can assume his team will dominate midfield and that his defence can cope with nearly anything that is thrown at it?
Club managers and players just can’t relate to them. The Rebels are unique.
In contrast, most clubs and counties can identify a great deal with Dublin and Donegal; two teams that have transformed themselves by subscribing to an intense training regime and a programmed system of play.
Donegal and Dublin inspire hope. They show what can be achieved when certain methods are put in place — methods that anyone can copy. And if, as I suspect, Donegal or Dublin win this years All-Ireland title, there is absolutely no doubt that the country will be brimming with replica versions of the Ulster or Leinster champions.
Apart from the blanket defence, the other two features that will be adopted from both teams are their fitness regimes and their fouling regimes.
Much has already been written about Dublin’s dawn training sessions, those 6.30am starts in the depths of winter.
The merits of Dublin’s morning boot camps were graphically illustrated on Saturday when the Sky Blues ran Tyrone off the park. Dublin weren’t the only players training in the morning gloom — earlier this season Neil McGee talked about the circuit sessions which the Donegal players were expected to complete before work.
While fitness demands sacrifice, fouling only requires an education. Criticising teams for indulging in this practice is silly. The fact is the rules of Gaelic football don’t actually provide any huge deterrent against foul play.
Look at the maths. A team has 14 outfield players. If one foul warrants a tick, and a second foul merits a yellow card, then a team can concede 28 fouls without anyone being sent-off.
Dublin committed roughly three times as many fouls as Tyrone, yet both teams finished the game with full complements. Virtually every time a Tyrone player won primary possession, they were stopped. It’s worth noting that they weren’t dragged to the ground. They were halted with a challenge that was harsh enough to merit a free-kick, but not so vulgar that it was deemed worthy of a yellow card.
That’s the secret of the tactical foul.
And when it’s done properly there are fantastic rewards. The tactical foul at midfield nips an attack in the bud. It also allows the defensive system to get in place. Best of all, there is virtually no punishment.
I am not criticising Dublin or Donegal. The fault lies with the rules, not with the managers and teams who are in the business of winning games, not fair play awards.
One solution is that any foul conceded between the two 45s should result in a free-kick from the centre of the 45-metre line.
Players know how to tackle without breaking the rules. After every Championship match, Jim McGuinness makes his players do 15 press-ups for every foul they concede inside the 45-metre line.
The biggest problem in Gaelic football is that we are inured to fouling. We expect it. We accept it. We see it as part and parcel of the contest. Unfortunately, this attitude is stopping the game from reaching its full potential.
A game with fewer fouls would create a faster-flowing spectacle with more attacks and more scores. Fewer fouls at midfield would mean less time for players to set-up the blanket defence.
Sadly, there is a lack of vision in the GAA about how good the game could be if there were proper penalties.
They say crime doesn’t pay, but in Gaelic football, it does.
And people copy whatever is seen to bring success. So, next year when players are called into the huddle at training, it will be to receive an education in the virtues of the well-timed foul.
* Contact: p.heaney@irishnews.com
