Question: IF I WAS TWO PLAYERS SHORT OF A CHAMPIONSHIP-WINNING TEAM?

IMAGINE for a moment that your are an inter-county team manager. Your organisation of the set up is first class.

Your coaching ability is on a par if not higher than any other coach in the country. You have a cutting edge medical and backroom team and you have the full and unconditional support from your County Board officers. All is rosy in the garden except for one glaring deficiency.

Unfortunately your team is just shy of what’s required for September success. Your selectors and yourself have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard the training is; no matter how well organised the coaching and preparation is; no matter how determined the team is, they just fall a little short because they lack that small pinch of quality to get them over the line when the chips are down.

This is an engagement in fantasy, so I’ll advance a little further. As part of sweeping reforms and reorganisation a transfer system is introduced but with terms and conditions as per any financial transaction. Only two players are allowed to be bought within a five year period. All you need now is some finance. As luck would have it, Shaun O’Sheckels, a recently returned oil magnet from the Middle East – and a long time GAA fan – offers to meet you in an underground car park with a proposition.

He will provide the necessary finance to buy the two players permitted. All he asks is anonymity and two tickets if you reach the All Ireland final. Your prayers are answered but which two players do you want?

The standout player all managers would like is Henry Shefflin (above, left). He has done it all. He is a leader, mucks in when he has to and is the complete team player. The only negative is that you need a player for the long term. Someone who will drag this team upwards and reach the summit and stay there over the next three to five years. Someone in their early twenties who may influence proceedings over the next decade is required. Looking over the current crops of players, Galway’s Joe Canning (above, right) is the name that comes closest to fitting the bill.

Defences win championships and forwards win matches is an old maxim. But unless a team has a top class forward or two there is no threat to defenders and it is the perceived threat that can make the difference in close championship games. Most goals emanate from mistakes or indecision on the part of the defender. Granted, some forwards score great goals with a magic touch or individual genius, but in the main most goals can be traced to some defensive lapse. Joe Canning is young. He is a superb free taker. He can score from sideline pucks and convert penalties. He is a goal scorer and point taker. He is quick, big and strong with a calm temperament. The only question mark is his ability to drag a team from mediocrity and lacklustre displays to a position where their intensity and ferocity enables them to succeed whereby in other days they failed.

Joe has always been a “big” player for Galway’s underage teams and for his club side Portumna. In the main, these teams were winners. In our fantasy, he comes into a struggling side. He will have to do a lot more grafting for possession than he normally does. He has to increase his intensity and set the example for others around him to follow as it is the intensity of the forward play, particularly when the ball is lost, that will serve the team in good stead. Joe will score when he gets space. It will be the hidden part of his game that will need development. If Joe can win a ball in ruck-type situations, drive through (as Shefflin has so often done for Kilkenny) and raise the temperature with the fans, the rising tide will lift all boats. Going for Joe is a gamble. He will have to change his style a bit while maintaining that spark of genius. He will have to learn to deal with pulling and dragging of the ball but he probably has a degree of experience of this at club level already. Joe has all the talents skill-wise; it will be up to the coaching staff to ensure that when the chips are down Joe Canning will play it any way it needs to be played and drag the team along in his wake.

Any manager struggling for success should still be able to construct a strong rearguard through hard work, organisation and application. If you look at the counties struggling, it’s the lack of quality forwards that is holding them back. A system can be put in place to protect defences and make a decent side difficult to break down. Top-class forwards are born, not created. That is why my second pick in the transfer market would be Richie Hogan of Kilkenny. The outlay for Joe Canning would be huge. You would expect to get Richie Hogan at a much lower price as funds would be limited under the terms and conditions. He has great skill; he’s fast and because of his Maradona-like build, he is difficult to knock off the ball. He can take frees; he scores goals and is equally dangerous from right or left. He is also a very good worker and he would bring that work ethic, so common now among Kilkenny forwards, with him.

What I particularly like about him is his anticipation and reading of the game. He moves into positions anticipating breaks and makes runs of 30, 40 metres at times across the pitch where he invariably picks up a break or a pass. He also has the ability to operate in any of the forward positions which provides flexibility for a manager when alternative game plans are required. So both picks would be good hurlers, first of all. Good scorers, free takes etc. but with different talents where dragging a team along with him may be required. They’d complement each other. But would they transfer? Joe might feel that Galway are the perennial underachievers and transfer. Richie might feel there’s too much competition for places with Kilkenny. For me it would be a dream combination up front. No more struggling – style, success and tickets for Shaun.