Ways around the massed defence

How to overcome football’s swarm defence?

It is a help if you have a creative player like a Colm Cooper, a Martin Clarke or a Ciarán McDonald in your side. Beat an opponent, draw in another defender and with their vision, slip a pass to a colleague in an open channel.

For those without a Gooch, the conundrum remains because the packed defence is here to stay. I see at club level in Meath more and more, and with some success. Generally, it’s employed by teams who have been unsuccessful and haven’t good enough players to win games in a conventional manner. From a coaching perspective, it is much easier to set your team up defensively, drop men back, have one or two good forwards and get a trainer to have your squad aerobically fit enough to play the system.