McArdle hails the merits of technology

IT’S fair to say few players analyse Gaelic football as much as Monaghan corner-back Dermot McArdle.

Two years ago, the 30-year-old helped establish the Gaelic-performance camp at Gormanstown in Meath, the first ever GAA residential summer camp that catered for over 450 children from 22 counties.

An IT expert, McArdle sat down 14 months ago and started developing a 3D coaching software programme — again the first of its kind — which will allow coaches to create and share drills and game plans through their PCs and all in 3D animation.

Though it started off as something he put together in his spare time, he has been working on it day and night since early April, liaising with Louth manager and good friend Eamon McEneaney in an attempt to smooth the rough edges.

Both Louth and Monaghan have already used the technology this year and McArdle hopes to have the finished product on the market for the off-season, a time when coaches at all level begin to fish around for the ‘next big thing’ in team preparation.

“We have seen it before because managers have used whiteboards and moved markers around but that can lead sometimes to confusion,” says McArdle. “This is just taking it on to another level where managers can sit down and preplan what they want to show the players on a screen.”

Fair to say then that McArdle is a dab hand at the old analysing sessions but predictions aren’t his thing.

Monaghan are in the midst of their best championship run since last annexing the Ulster title in 1988 and face Donegal in the last round of the qualifiers in Omagh today.

Like his counterparts in Laois, who tackle Derry in Cavan this evening, McArdle is hoping that the disappointment of defeat in the provincial decider is long behind them but he can’t be 100% sure.

“We won’t find out until 10 minutes into the match,” he admits. “If players aren’t up for it, Donegal will just steamroll over us. You can never judge until the ball is thrown in. Players can sometimes think they are up for a match but, when the pressure comes on, it just doesn’t happen.”

The accepted wisdom is that defeated provincial finalists are ripe for the picking when they shuffle dejectedly through the back door, but the facts don’t square with that.

Including the two qualifiers featuring Cork and Galway last weekend, provincial finalists have won 10 of the 18 qualifiers immediately after their respective defeats going back to 2003.

If anything, the success rate has increased with six of the eight being successful in 2005 and ‘06 but, in Donegal, McArdle recognises that Monaghan have drawn a shorter straw than most.

‘‘We have to approach it with extreme caution. Donegal are probably the most consistent team in the country this year going by the statistics. They won the National League, beat Armagh, lost heavily to Tyrone but came back strongly. They had two super wins in Carrick-on-Shannon and Westmeath.

“Looking at their team, they probably have the best forward line pound for pound on paper. They have nine or ten players who would make most teams in the country so we know we are up against it at the weekend.”

Donegal have probably been harbouring similar thoughts. Talked up as possible Ulster and All-Ireland champions after their league success, they could only watch as Monaghan came within a kick of a ball of stealing their thunder in Clones against Tyrone.

Which brings us back to the analysis. Has McArdle any theories on why Monaghan fell short? Seamus McEnaney has already ruled out pre-match nerves and so does McArdle.

Instead, he looks back to the side’s qualifier meeting of two years ago at Croke Park when Monaghan wilted badly to lose by double scores despite getting off to flyer and establishing a healthy lead of their own.

“They probably said they needed to get stuck into these boys because that’s what we did to them in 2005. They wanted to tighten the screws early on and they got off to a flyer. Before the match had got going they were seven points up and we were playing catch-up. If there is one team in the country you don’t want to be playing catch-up on it is Tyrone.”

Disappointing certainly but McArdle was heartened by the team’s mental toughness in twice recovering daunting deficits against one of the country’s best sides. They have built up too much momentum now to lie down meekly. An All-Ireland quarter-final back at HQ would be progress. A second defeat in succession would lose much of the wind in their sails.