Patrick McBride: New Gaelic football rules will force teams to rethink how they defend

Antrim footballer Patrick McBride believes all teams will have to be able to implement a zonal defence and a man-on-man defence. 

Speaking on the Irish Examiner's Gaelic Football podcast Antrim's Patrick McBride discussed his county’s decision to threaten a boycott of their Ulster SFC quarter-final earlier this year. Pic: Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile

The rules passed by GAA Special Congress last weekend will force teams to rethink their defensive systems, according to Antrim footballer Patrick McBride.

Speaking on the Irish Examiner’s Gaelic football podcast, McBride discussed his county’s decision to threaten a boycott if their Ulster SFC quarter-final against Armagh was moved from Corrigan Park. He also lauded the new rules, while stressing teams are still coming to terms with their implementation.

“If I am playing and you get man-marked, it felt like once you beat your man, you had someone else to get past,” he said.

“It was tough. Having that space now, I even enjoy the defensive side of it. You have to tackle. It got to a stage where, if you were back in a shape, you could move and be in an area to stop teams doing something. Teams wouldn’t bring the ball into tackles because they are looking at percentages, the attack-to-shot and all of that.

“It is so exciting. I love the two-point rule. I love the three-up rule. It means you have to tackle. When you are going forward, there are so many things you can work on. I love basketball and I see a lot of basketball attacking play in teams. Loops, cuts, backdoor, overloads, a lot of set plays that are happening.” 

Donegal were heavily criticised for their approach against Kerry in the All-Ireland final, but McBride said that the zonal system will still be utilised by some teams.

“All year, everyone was lauding Jim McGuinness and how smart he was with his defensive system. They seemed to still defend like they did with 15 behind the ball. Then he played in an All-Ireland final, everyone spoke as if he didn’t know what he was doing.

“You talk to some people and it’s like, do you realise who you are talking about here? It just shows. I look at my club team, the lads are trying to learn what is the best way of defending here. The county team at the start of the year, our talk was should we put four in the front? Then the next game was we’ll have to put six on the arc.

“How many do you leave behind? Do you play a plus one? If you play a plus one, they have an overload on the outside. You watch Donegal basically being very hard to score against. In an All-Ireland final, Kerry made it look easy to score against them.

“I think it will be very interesting to see how teams play. I think every team will have to be able to play a zonal defence and a man-on-man defence, or a bit of both, depending on who they are playing against.”