The Basketballisation of Gaelic football: learning that comfort is expensive when it leaves value on the table

Imagine rehearsed sequences for every permutation: down one with eight seconds, level with four, ahead by one with possession and six on the clock. Decoy runners. Blocking patterns. Pick-and-roll concepts adapted to GAA dimensions.

X'S AND O'S: Basketball’s focus on analytics emphasises efficiency in every possession. That ethos is drifting to the GAA.

FIVE SECONDS remained on the clock at Fitzgerald Stadium in the opening round of the National Football League. Kerry 2-16, Roscommon 1-19. Seán O’Shea is standing over a sideline free. The clock had stopped. The hooter is imminent. He launched it long towards the square. 

Tomás Kennedy rose out of Kerry DNA, fetched, punched — and the ball squeezed over as the hooter sounds. Winner.