Christy O'Connor: devil in the detail in Padraic Joyce's analysis
Galway manager Padraic Joyce during the Allianz Football League Division 1 Final against Mayo. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
The devil is always in the detail of the data. It was easy for Padraic Joyce and Galway to say afterwards that 10 of Mayo’s 14 scores were either from placed balls or marks, and that some of those frees may have been soft. But in a local derby that was always going to be a tight and taut arm-wrestle, Joyce will surely have a different and a more circumspect attitude towards the source of those scores when he analyses the data more closely this week.
Joyce’s starting point will be Mayo’s opening score in the third minute. Galway were in a good attacking position when Dylan McHugh turned over the ball cheaply and Mayo counter-attacked at pace before Johnny McGrath fouled Ryan O’Donoghue, which Colm Reape scored.
Mayo’s third score came from another cheap Galway turnover. Galway’s first score in the ninth minute, a fisted effort from Seán Kelly, came after Reape made a fine save first from John Maher. Mayo then got their fourth point – an O’Donoghue mark – off another Galway turnover. Ten minutes in and the tone and pattern of the game was clearly set - Mayo won the match from Galway turnovers, and four Reape saves.
Mayo got 0-8 from Galway turnovers but three of those turnovers originated from what could be termed unforced errors, while two more came from a blocked shot and a Reape save. As one of the best forwards of his era, or any era, those missed goal chances will have furthered angered Joyce.
Reape was outstanding and he fully deserved the man-of-the-match award but Joyce will surely remind Matthew Tierney and Peter Cooke this week about the quality of their finishing as opposed to Reape’s brilliant shot stopping. Reape’s stop from Cooke was a quality save but it was still directly above his head and one Reape would be fully expected to make.
Damien Comer’s goal chance in the second half will have infuriated Joyce the most because it would have put Galway ahead and handed them the momentum at just the right stage, especially coming directly after Shane Walsh’s brilliant solo point.
Comer got good power on the shot, while he went to Reape’s near post too to give the ‘keeper less reaction time than going across his body. It was an excellent save, but Comer and Joyce know full well that the forward put it in the one place – at mid height and within Reape’s direct handspan – to give the ‘keeper a chance at getting a hand on the shot.
Joyce will be pleased that Galway showed again how their tackling, especially their swarm-tackling, has been one of their biggest improvements during this league. Of Mayo’s 18 turnovers, 10 were from relentless Galway heat in the tackle. Joyce will have appreciated that detail in his post-match debrief. But he’ll have taken account of all the other stuff too, and how Mayo really won the game.
When Dublin dismantled Kildare in last year’s Leinster final, much of giddiness and excitement around the performance centred on the five goals Dublin scored. Goals, especially in Leinster, had largely been the poison in Dublin’s bite during their relentless march to immortality. But the poison had dried up. And so had the bite.
Apart from the four goals they scored against Kerry in the 2021 league, Dublin didn’t really score goals in 2021 and 2022. After raising just two green flags in the 2021 championship, Dublin only bagged four goals last spring. Outside of the Kildare game, Dublin managed just three goals in the rest of the 2022 championship.
It was easier for Dublin to start filling their boots again in Division 2 this year but they didn’t, scoring just five goals in seven regulation league games. Yesterday though, was a sign that Dublin may be finding that mojo again – four goals could have been at least seven or eight.
Dublin will still be annoyed that they weren’t far slicker but Derry will be sick that they were so uncharacteristically open. The way in which they were carved apart undermined a critical plank of their identity.
Before Dublin’s fourth goal in the 68th minute, Derry had four players within eight metres of Paul Mannion, who was ten metres from the sideline, while Derry had 11 players either inside their own 20-metre line or in and around the D. When Mannion hand-passed to Lorcan O’Dell, there were still three players around O’Dell by the time he won possession.
O’Dell didn’t even take the pass at massive line-breaking speed because Mannion’s pass needed height to clear the Derry cover. O’Dell’s two feet were nearly planted by the time he secured the ball but he still evaded the covering Derry players before taking four steps and slotting the ball into the net off the top corner post. It was a brilliant finish, but it summed up Derry’s miserable day.
On the otherhand, Derry have been here before. Prior to last year’s league meeting with Galway, Derry had kept five clean sheets in their previous five matches, before Galway hit them for four goals. Prior to yesterday, Derry had only conceded three goals in seven league games.
So were Dublin that good or Derry that bad? In any case, both will look back to last season. After that Galway game last March, Derry shut up shop again. After that Leinster final, Dublin never rediscovered their goalscoring mojo. So can they keep the blade sharp this time around?
In his TG4 interview with Micheál Ó Domhnaill after the Division 3 final on Saturday evening, Cavan goalkeeper and captain Raymond Galligan spoke about the tactical tweak Cavan had made at half-time. Cavan weren’t applying enough heat on Fermanagh building from the back, especially on their own kickout so they pushed and pressed higher up the field to try and pen Fermanagh back.
It worked. In the third quarter, Fermanagh only managed one shot at the target. Although Fermanagh did shave the deficit back to one point with 10 minutes remaining, Cavan had 13 more shots than their opponents in the second half. Cavan didn’t score a goal but they could have had at least four.
The wet and slippy conditions were a factor but this game encapsulated the best and worst of the modern game, especially in trying to strike that correct balance between risk and reward. Outside of shots (with Cavan getting off 30), kickouts and free kicks, Cavan only kicked the ball 20 times in the match. Fermanagh kicked it 33 times.
Fermanagh absolutely dominated possession in the first half but Cavan took over after the break when their whole gameplan was based around pressing and committing more bodies into making more penetrating runs.
The way in which Cavan used Paddy Lynch – one of the best forwards in the country – was revealing in that tactical tweak. In the first half, Lynch had seven possessions, where he was fouled for two frees, won a mark and scored a point.
Cavan kicked the ball marginally more in the second half (still only 11 times) but the way in which they used Lynch in that period showed how they were willing to adapt to facilitate a more aggressive running game; four of Lynch’s six possessions in that period were out around midfield, where he was being used as more of a link-man than a target-man.
In total, Cavan only kicked the ball into their forwards (from play) on ten occasions. But they still largely blew Fermanagh away in the second half. Whatever about how it looks, or what supporters think, the end always justifies the means for the winners.
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