Mayo's game almost impossible to figure from the outside looking in

What kind of conservative, controlling thinking is killing the creativity that Mayo’s sensational performers have in abundance?

It is almost impossible to know what is happening when watching a game from the outside looking in.

The complexity that defines a relationship between a coaching staff and their players is so multi-faceted that it is impossible to know that what you’re watching is actually what they practiced in training.

Unless we know the intention behind the action, it is very difficult to make judgments on what happens during a game. Are the players doing what they have practiced and have been coached to do or are they going off script? Should there even be a script?

If things are going well on the field, we assume they are doing exactly what they were directed to do, and we are left debating who deserves the praise, players, or coaches.

Conversely, if things are going poorly on the field, the same debate rages.

But maybe what you’re seeing on the field is neither of the above. Neither the good play is what was practiced or coached, nor the bad play.

How often as coaches have we found ourselves pulling our hair out when a player appears to do something unexpected only to hear ourselves sheepishly saying “great score” shortly afterwards.

The great teams appear to have this balance. The ability to play what’s in front of them and stick to a structure to provide them with a solid base, all at the same time.

This is not a natural gift, this is nurtured from a young age and if it is not there from a young age it is patiently coached when they are older.

Take the Dublin football team under Pillar Caffrey. They couldn’t go off script and it cost them year after year. Such was the structure within which they had to play, they appeared to have no clue how to exploit an opportunity when it was presented to them during a game.

Then Pat Gilroy comes along and brings Mickey Whelan with him as coach, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Immediately, the players were given a platform to rely on, in order to protect their goals, but beyond that, they were given the freedom to explore the ways and means of building a score.

Problem-solving and decision making at training became the frustrating norm for players who were used to being told what to do. Until finally the penny dropped.

“The reason Mickey isn’t telling us what to do is because he can’t predict everything that is going happen, so we have to learn to assess the situation on-the-go and figure it out for ourselves.”

Of course, this takes time and is dependent on how ingrained the old ways are. The brilliance of Jim Gavin is that he didn’t interfere with the nurturing process of making players independent thinkers.

The environment he inherited, and has since improved to make his own, is built on the premise of creating a space for players to be free to think clearly in the heat of battle.

To counter the nurturing story of Dublin, Kerry would be everyone’s example of a naturally gifted team. I’m not buying that. The culture of Kerry football is not too dissimilar to that of Brazilian soccer.

Their nurturing begins from the day they’re born. Outside the danger zone in front of their own goals, they are encouraged to play. Simple as that.

Eddie Jones, the England rugby head coach, has consistently spoken of the need to constantly change the stimulus at training to ensure the players don’t get trapped into thinking they know what’s coming up, and, as a result, switch off.

This week he was a keynote speaker at the International Council for Coaching Excellence annual conference in Liverpool. One quote that is doing the rounds from his presentation succinctly sums him up — “the game is won or lost from unstructured play, yet how much of training focuses on this?”.

Watching the Gaelic football last weekend and this weekend to come, the inevitable and predictable script for August and September will be written.

As ever Kerry found a way, as will Dublin against Monaghan, Tyrone against Armagh and Mayo against Roscommon in their replay next Monday.

These are the four semi-finalists that most would have singled out as far back as October. One other thing that you can be sure of happening is that Kerry, Dublin, and Tyrone will all learn from each outing in Croke Park and Mayo will once again appear to learn nothing along the way.

It beggars belief that sensational players like Lee Keegan, Keith Higgins, Colm Boyle, Andy Moran and Cillian O’Connor, among others, are playing on the same team for the past seven years and will finish this season still without an All-Ireland medal.

How are the lessons not being learned? What kind of conservative, controlling thinking is killing the creativity that these players must have in abundance?

Kerry and Dublin will do their opposition analysis, but will not get bogged down by it. Choosing to focus on themselves more and their ability to break down attacks as they come and build attacks in response.

Mayo exhibit no such flair or freedom. Not to mention the fact they still do not know their best team or trust young players with a starting place, no matter how vehemently they put their hand up to be noticed.

Lee Keegan’s championship saving exploits from last Sunday are nothing new. Every year one of their stalwarts breaks out of their rigid mould and does the spectacular play to haul them back into contention only to be put back in their box shortly thereafter.

Chris Barrett’s outstanding points against Tyrone in their 2013 semi-final is a case in point. Not to mention Colm Boyle against Kerry in the 2014 semi-final replay, or in fact, anytime Keith Higgins ventures into the opposition half.

All the opposition analysis accounts for nothing if and when they do something unexpected.

It was laughable to the point of embarrassment how telegraphed Mayo’s dummy team last weekend was a feeble rouse to throw Roscommon off. A team of Mayo’s class and experience shouldn’t need to revert to such pointless mind games.

It tells us that all is not well. Still, seven years on. Yet both Dublin and Kerry appear to have evolved and will continue to evolve.

The whole country would like to see Mayo win one, if only to stop us all from being so patronising. But that day will stay a distant dream as long as they continue to play the game as if they’re in the 1990s.

Gaelic football has experienced several changes in recent years that have taught the alert coach the wisdom that Eddie Jones now preaches as gospel.

We cannot know for sure how this Mayo team are being coached because we are not in the set-up. Only those on the inside have that knowledge.

But if their performances reflect their practices we are left to consider that either the players are not playing the way they’re being coached or they’re being coached to play too close to an all too familiar script.

Either way, until such time as someone is prepared to risk it all, they will not win it all.

The author is a skills acquisition coach who has been involved with several inter-county teams, including Mayo.