‘Death’ jibe for football premature

Just over two weeks have passed since Dublin played Derry in the now infamous ‘death of football’ league game in Croke Park. Yesterday they returned to headquarters against another northern opposition, Monaghan, who they happened to have beaten by 10 points a week ago in Clones.

There was a substantial reaction to that Derry clash a fortnight ago which generated much debate about the future of Gaelic Football and how there was a need to look at rule changes and other drastic solutions.

Thankfully, over the last week or so the knee-jerk reaction stage has passed and there is a realisation that one horrific match doesn’t paint a fair picture of our whole game.

Are there areas we would like to see improve? Of course. Is a complete overhaul required? Not in my opinion.

One of the interesting takes from the fallout of that match was the discussion that Dublin and Derry had lined up the same system and played the game with a matching defensive mindset, which led to an equal share of the blame. Is that a fair charge against Dublin?

I struggle to see how you can label this Dublin team as defensive. That’s not to say they don’t have a defensive system and appear to be in the process of trialling and tweaking areas of it to find the best fit for when they’ll want it to be as robust as possible come the business end of the Championship in August and September.

Yes, on occasions they have ended up with 12 and 13 bodies in their own half but in the majority of instances this is a result of players tracking runners or a midfielder such a Denis Bastic dropping back. This is a very different tactic to what we have seen from the likes of Derry and Tyrone where the minute they lose possession, players turn and run back to a dedicated area inside their own 45 often, ignoring where the ball is. That’s not something you’re likely to see Jim Gavin request of Paul Flynn or Diarmuid Connolly any time soon but the demand for high work rate and tracking will remain.

Any Dublin player who does retreat will also look to attack at pace and they continue to commit bodies forward when in possession, again another major difference from some of the defensive styles.

After recent poor results against Dublin and just home from a week’s training camp in Portugal it was interesting to see whether Malachy O’Rourke would opt for an ultra-defensive set-up but Monaghan trusted their normal game plan and from the opening exchanges it was obvious the biggest change from those previous games was in their intensity rather than tactics.

In the absence of Bernard Brogan, Dublin deployed Ciarán Kilkenny in the full forward line and found him early and often with some accurate kick passing.

Kilkenny off-loaded the majority of his possessions to support runners coming at pace but I’d like to see him get a run of games in the inside line and would look for him to add more of a scoring threat to his game in there.

There was a couple of signs that Dublin are learning when teams do get bodies back inside the 45. Towards the end of the first half it looked as though a Dublin attack had run its course when Kevin McManamon had been bottled up under the Hogan Stand. In previous games this often meant a number of lateral hand passes to men in standing positions, who then in turn struggled to make in roads. However, on this occasion McManamon recycled the ball back 20 yards and Dublin changed the angle of attack with a crossfield kick pass, with this quick switch and an injection of pace from Jack McCaffrey and then Denis Bastick.

Dublin had worked an excellent goal opportunity for Cian O’Sullivan who pulled his effort just wide. This will be the type of play that will be highlighted in video sessions for how they’d like to attack against a mass defence.

With the intense Ulster Championship on the horizon for Monaghan and a longer break for Dublin it might also have been the best result for the two counties.