Both sides winners in tactical battle

The old cliché goes ‘semi-finals are about winning’.

Yesterday at Croke Park, while neither Kerry or Mayo got to experience that high, they both showed a refuse-to-lose attitude that may be more beneficial to the eventual victor in the long run.

In what was comfortably the game of the championship so far, we witnessed two sets of players and two managers trying to outplay, out-think and outperform each other. Leaving Croke Park it was hard to decide who would be the happier with the draw, Mayo, who’d come from four points down after being reduced to 14 men, or Kerry, who came from five points down in the closing stages?

A case can be made for either team but in a game that was such an intriguing tactical battle both Eamon Fitzmaurice and James Horan will have plenty to ponder when they review the tape.

Fitzmaurice will be the happier with how his pre-match tactics worked and how his team implemented them in an excellent first-half display. Defensively Kerry held their shape, with wing-backs Paul Murphy and Fionn Fitzgerald often opting to hold their position and pass their man on rather than following them unconditionally. This allowed their defence to double up and put massive pressure on any Mayo forward in possession around the scoring zone. Time after time it made Mayo players force a shot, a kick pass or a handpass to a man under pressure.

As the half wore on you could see Kerry grow in the belief their system was working and only for a crucial Lee Keegan score in the 31st minute that stopped their momentum they may have been out of sight at half-time. In the minutes after his score, Keegan saw red and, while it’s a huge challenge to continue for so long down a man, it was much better for Mayo that it came a few minutes before half-time rather than a few minutes after.

This allowed them to process the task ahead and adapt in the comfort of their dressing room rather than trying to get messages to guys during play. While the second-half performance may have looked like they just threw off the shackles and went for it. Thinking like that is not that simple and does an injustice to what would have been discussed at half-time and how they adjusted their game in the second half.

From the start of the second period they began to run at Kerry in numbers, moving the ball quickly through the hands and attempting to make the Kerry spare man redundant. Where Kerry had dictated the shape and speed of the game in the first half, now Mayo were the ones setting the agenda. As a result of this continuous pressure the Kerry defence retreated and in turn invited more pressure on themselves. They were now struggling to transition the ball from defence into attack and create scores.

A big tactical call James Horan made midway through the second half was to move Keith Higgins out of the full-back line where he’d being doing an excellent job on James O’Donoghue and into the half-back line with a licence to attack. This was a bold move to win the game. Higgins and Donal Vaughan added pace and runners from deep that helped push Mayo into a five-point lead heading into the last few minutes.

By this point Fitzmaurice has emptied his bench in an attempt to regain the momentum and will be delighted with the impact of his subs. Kieran Donaghy won a free that was pointed, put a goal on a plate for O’Donoghue after a great catch (a side effect of moving Higgins out?) and then O’Leary showed great confidence to back himself and swing over an expertly taken equaliser.

That score sets us up for a replay next week, and you get the feeling with these two managers and sets of players that we’re in for another engaging tactical battle.