I’d say Westmeath get much more out of themselves.
Kildare come across to me as full of blowhards who don’t have the mettle for matchday, guys who love the big “I’m a county man” type nonsense but when things go wrong for them on the pitch they fold easily. This tends to happen a lot of counties who have successive good underage teams but struggle to make it materialise at senior level. They believe they are better than they are and don’t quite work as hard or react as well to setbacks as other counties.
I think that’s a simplistic view of things - the problem is managers seeing Donegal becoming successful with a specific system designed for a certain set of players and trying to replicate with their side, even whether it’s not suited or not.
You look at the way Fermanagh are playing under McGrath, they have a few top players, a system revolved around getting the best of these players and a game, hard working supporting cast which allows them to be very competitive.
Then you have sides like Kildare and Meath who have plenty of good footballers but no real identity or effective tactics and a load of shapers who believe their own hype.
Don’t get me wrong, my issue is its very poor on the spectator eye. Possession is the absolute key in Football for a team but its really just turning Footballers into lads who need fitness more so than the supreme skill of foot passing IMO.
Modern day defenders are scared shitless of kick passing a ball these days.
No I think it’s more about identity of the players. You play to your strengths but certain sides impose game plans that does not suit their players simply because they’ve seen Donegal or Tyrone etc being succesful doing it.
I very much enjoy watching Donegal play the way the do, I find them an exciting side to watch - and they handpass the ball a lot but they move it quickly and at pace. The problems is teams trying to copy Donegal without the right personnel to do so.
I do think a return to a style where less hand-passing is the norm would mean more exciting skillful games. I see the other side of the overuse hand-passing off debate from being involved with teams. You would pull your hair out watching a defender kick a clearance to the opposition but in reality a poor skill set is the root cause.
You have corner backs coming up the field and hitting points from 45 yards out these days.
The skills are higher but so too are the physical and fitness requirements. You simply cannot afford to let runners go at you isolated any more, they are too big, quick and powerful, you can’t stop them from a static position in these situations.