The Donaghy debate

WE probably didn’t realise it at the time, but when Joe and Justin McMahon figured out how to deal with the retro-style full-forward in the 2008 All-Ireland final, we were most likely witnessing the eclipse of a particular attacking ploy and the beginning of another era in full-forward play.

Kerry, with one of their most celebrated full-forward lines ever, failed to register a score in the closing 14 minutes of an All-Ireland football final. The writing was on the wall and a two-year-old trick that had transformed their fortunes was about to become part of their undoing.

In that very same game, we saw in Seán Cavanagh’s performance a model or prototype for what the post-modern full-forward could become. On his way to man of the match and player of the year, Cavanagh roamed with impunity, sniffed out breaks and scored mostly by coming off the shoulder of colleagues at pace.

A year later, in Kieran Donaghy’s enforced absence, Tommy Walsh refined the role of the full-forward when flanked by Darran O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper but it was already apparent that the approach of having the big man at the edge of the square with balls being lumped into him was a thing of the past. Most of the ball Walsh received was, in fact, when he was facing the play, and running out towards the ball. This would be meat and drink to most defences but Walsh’s raw strength could see him turn while holding off his opponent. Indeed, Walsh appeared to be developing the capacity to execute that turn-on-a-dime-and-shoot ability that suggested he would have been the perfect modern day full-forward — alas we might never know!

Of all the positions on the field, full-forward is probably the one that requires most innovation, most ingenuity and most openness to change. What worked a treat last year probably won’t this year and even if it does, there will be some defensive strategy to counteract it. It is to Colm Cooper’s eternal credit that he has managed to stay ahead of the game for so long in the full-forward line but he is an exception.

Bernard Brogan has, at times, elevated full-forward play to a different level but even he can be marked — as Marc Ó Sé showed in a recent league clash.

Given that they are the pre-eminent exponents of the game right now, the Cork full-forward line is the one that bears most scrutiny as we head into this year’s championship.

In last month’s league final as in last September’s All-Ireland final, Donncha O’Connor and Daniel Goulding appear to have perfected the art of inviting the ball hopping in front of them, of protecting the arc immediately around them, lulling the full-back into a false sense of security and then pouncing to either win a free or turn and shoot for the score. When taller full-forwards such as Donaghy, Michael Murphy or even Ronan Clarke attempt this, they end up in a wrestling match, find it harder to turn and are less likely to get a free because of their perceived strength advantage. To be able to do what the Cork inside duo do, you also need a clever and varied approach at half-forward that opens up the spaces for the ball to be popped into. Not every team has the wherewithal to pull that one off.

It would appear that the evolution of the game now favours the type of forward who makes three, four and five runs in the one attack and who isn’t necessarily as unselfish as the Donaghys of this world. When Donaghy’s play had stagnated during last year’s championship, apart from the rejected notion that he should revert to midfield, the most commonly held opinion on Donaghy was that he was passing the ball too much.

There were times during the league when you sensed that Kerry were still letting the ball go long into the full-forward too often and that this was restricting the scope and variety of the team’s attacks when fast, low pop-passes into Darran O’Sullivan and Cooper yielded greater results. However, then there were other occasions when you felt the 2006/07 tactic would still work. When it comes to mixing and matching tactics for the prevailing conditions, Jack O’Connor has few peers.

So what’s going to be the big innovation of full-forward play in 2011 and where is it likely to come from?

Given that most forwards of recent vintage freely allow their thinking to be usurped by managers and coaches who look fearfully at independent thinking, the likelihood is that we’ll be seeing a lot of forward play based on safe and sterile structures of obedience that stunt initiative and imagination.

We will celebrate the odd piece of play that represents a departure from the norms. We will welcome the forward who subverts the standard vision but this requires a dual confidence in his ability and in his right to do so. Based, again, on the most recent league campaign, forwards with that type of confidence are thin on the ground. I wonder would a genius such as Maurice Fitzgerald be allowed to thrive under today’s conditions?

Is there still room for a Donaghy? With a bit of wit and imagination, he can once again illuminate the championship as he did before but, five years on, there are very few defences unprepared, unschooled and uninitiated in his wiles.

We await another eureka moment in full-forward play but, in the absence of a stampede of convincing applications, Brogan, Goulding, O’Connor, Coulter and company is where it’s at!