With need someone big who can win the ball in there at least, be it Bocky, Regan, Byrne orsomeone else. Whoever it is might only have to deal with three or four balls a game but at least itâll give defences something different to think about.
That was how Kerry counteracted the blanket defences with Donaghy.
Canât see Banville replacing Carty Gman. The flies in the face of Ryan using a defensive wing forward. Banville should get the nod ahead of Roche, maybe Morris will start ahead of Carty next Sunday.
yeah true there alright. Banville for Roche would make more sense. Just in the setup that Longford had, there is not much need for a defensive wing forward. How many times did they have a half back push up the field? they were so deep and negative maybe having another forward on might create a bit more scoring oppertunities. no point having Morris stuck out on the wing doing nothing like the league final.
Hadnt heard Byrne didnt go well at full forward. in fairness, I cant say I ever rated him much, but he played well when he came on in the league final. Regan at full forward could be an option, but not sure how he is going these days either. If ryan wasnt going to bring him on in the league final, I doubt heâll get any game time now.
the only reason i can see for a defensive wing forward would be to for him to hold the centre whilst malone is man marking barden, but that siad longfords no. 7 has been a potent option for them in other games.
Thereâs a blog on the Wexford GAA site criticising those who question our senior footballersâ style of play. Calling us the most attacking team / best attacking team in the country and pointing to scoring averages in the league and brushing over our terrible defensive record as if itâs a calculated policy decision to be as shambolic in our defending as we were last Sunday and throughout the league in Division 3. Itâs like arguing that a freescoring Serie C team are more attacking or better at attacking than my beloved AS Roma because they scored a lot in a league two tiers lower. The disparity in quality between the levels needs to be acknowledged and we need a tactical rethink if weâre to be competitive with better sides.
Whatâs with these three lines of two in the forwards and none of them moving or creating space? All of them standing in a cluster in the centre of the pitch. At least PJ Banville, despite being somewhat wasteful on a couple of occasions, made runs to either wing to get on the ball when he came on and laid on Lyng for a point and transferred the ball to Barry who was fouled for another pointed Brosnan free.
Thereâs also the slow, lateral passing because nobody upfront is moving away from their markers and thatâs partly to blame for a lot of soloing into tackles and players coughing up the ball cheaply because thereâs no options available for a pass. Fair play to Flynn for kicking the excellent long range points but heâs not going to kick 5 from play every day breaking forward late after a prolonged period of slow tempo, sideways hand passing.
But weâre apparently the most attacking team in the country because we rattled scores past teams in Division 3 (half of whom had their managers resign or were sacked before the championship even began) and we gave Carlow a hiding in Leinster last year. Youâd also think with wing backs following their players upfield that weâd at least have some defensive solidity about us. Maybe a centre back holding his position on the '45 or a midfielder playing deeper or something. Leaving Kavanagh and McCormack 2 versus 2 and an entire half of space in front of them in the first half was bizarre and not worthy of praise for being adventurous or attack minded.
There was one occasion in the first half where our centre back was caught upfield and Paul Barden carried the ball 50 yards untouched and laid it off to McCormack whose shot was parried by our goalkeeper. An actual 3 v 2 situation - that wasnât great commitment to attacking; it was just giving the ball away sloppily, having naive defensive positioning to start with as if it was a Horeswood Sevens game or something and people not working hard enough to get back behind the ball.
The workrate was questionable in both offensive (creating space) and defensive facets of the game (letting runners go forward untracked for both of their goals and their three other goal chances). The point is that our great scoring rate invaribaly comes against lesser and fairly disorganised sides and our system is pretty easy to defend against for any half decent side with designs of doing anything - just plant bodies in the central channel where our forwards congregate for the most part. We also need to make ourselves much harder to play against, as Iâve been saying since Limerick scored 1-18 against us last year in eliminating us. The tackling from the front isnât good enough and we allow players to run off us very easily.
Jason Ryan obviously doesnât give a fuck about club football in Wexford judging by his post match comments complaining about club fixtures and I guess heâd happily limit GAA activity in the county to a 40-man football squad chosen by himself. But thatâs not going to happen so when he does have the team together then he should be getting us better organised - we showed pretty much no improvement from the League Final despite playing two recent challenge games too. And I donât think itâs attributable to the two or three injuries; itâs largely due to our system and set up.
Itâs time for Tony Dempsey to come in and sort out this malaise.
Interesting Bandage. The tactics also worked against eventual All Ireland Champions Dublin last year but for some rotten luck with Mastersonâs brain fart resulting in the own goal that cost us the win. These tactics have also allowed us to take the scalps of Armagh, Galway and Meath in the last few years.
What disappoints me with Ryan is the complete absence of a Plan B. This is where it all falls down. If a team has us figured out, like Longford did in the Division 3 final, then we seem to hit a brick wall when we get to the opposition '65.
What makes you think Tony Dempsey would be any good though. He was over them in the 1980s and no progress was made. He was also the hurling manager who didnât notice that one of his players (Mitch Jordan) had been sent off in the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final.
Either way this will be Ryanâs last year over the side. I think weâre better off with a recruit from outside of the County again to be honest if we can afford it.
These current tactics werenât in place when we had all of those victories. We played with 7 defenders against Armagh and we didnât give the Dublin forwards a plethora of space in our own half last year, for example.
I believe this clustering upfront has only evolved to its current state in the last 12-18 months also. It simply must be a tactical innovation which sees none of them moving until very late; otherwise itâs fairly inexcusable when the man in possession is given little or no assistance by his forwards so regularly.
Itâs like the forwards only make a belated run when they actually feel certain theyâll receive the ball. But it also needs unselfish running, even when you know the ballâs not going to come to you on every occasion. Itâs that kind of movement which opens up space, gives the man in possession multiples options and allows him to choose the right pass.
Tony Dempsey is a legend of the GAA and is a success wherever he goes.
thats an odd one alright. they generally used to always leave no games be on in June at all. a step in the right direction with regards to getting games played, but surely some better notice would be due.
[quote=âGman, post: 638129â]thats an odd one alright. they generally used to always leave no games be on in June at all. a step in the right direction with regards to getting games played, but surely some better notice would be due.
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Indeed - Sars found out today and it basically means theyâll play Round 3 with Lee Chin, for example, not having had one training session with them since Round 2. The Martinâs are probably in the same boat with their county players.
Good post by Bandage, wouldnât agree with all of it, but a lot of it makes sense
Longford have three players who can score, Barden. Kavanagh and McCormac. I would have thought the obvious way to stop them would be to play a sweeper in front of Molly/ He would cut off the space, check Bardenâs runs and double up on Kavanagh and McCormac when they got the ball. When i heard Connor Carthy was starting I assumed it was for this role. Instead he stays rigidly at wing forward and ends up getting subbed.
Weâre 0-15 to 0-8 up midway through the second half. Liam Ăg McGovern and Ian Byrne have been introduced and theyâre both very good players - I think this squad has excellent depth. Most of the scores seem to be coming from Guiney frees and Gary Moore and Barry Carton from play.
*** Bandage told me to come on here and applaud his criticism of Jason Ryan. In doing so I in no way endorse Bandageâs unwarranted attack on Wexford footballâs greatest ever manager.
