Actually the two goals are a good example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNwqSLnMIw
Look how many Kerrymen are spare around the Wexicans
Itās commonplace to drop back in unison on opposition puck outs to have more men positioned where a standard long puck out will land. We played a standard 6-2-6 in Kerry, same as yesterday against Offaly.
As I said above if ye dropped that deep on puckouts against a decent team ye would be absolutely murdered.
Itās a standard alignment when facing puck outs though. All the top teams, and Wexford, do it. It was started by Kilkenny over a decade ago. Simply moving each line back so you have a couple more players to contest for possession if the keeper goes long.
Some teams can go short and then work the ball crisply through the lines or get up the field a bit before delivering a pinpoint ball to the forwards - I guess this is your point and Dublin did it to us in The Walsh Cup final.
More often you get the corner back receiving the short puck out, one of the full forward line advancing on him before he wellies it upfield where a goalieās puck out would have landed anyway. Offaly didnāt really work the ball brilliantly around and through us yesterday - they were more forceful, sharper and determined.
My original point is that an alignment like this for opposition puck outs doesnt really constitute playing defensively. We played the standard hurling formation throughout.
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Indeed. Most club teams do this now even. The midfielders drop back to the half back line to pick up the breaks and the two wing forwards drop back to around midfield. It has nothing to do with a defensive strategy
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What are you basing your views on, two minutes of highlights on the Sunday game? Listening to it on the radio?
Is it just for a change of scenery for the players to move about the pitch so or what?
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oh snapā¦
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Iām going to have to get out a pen and paper Fagan style to illustrate this to you.
I agree there is nothing new to HF dropping towards the middle for puckouts. However ye lined out much deeper than standard.
Normal puckout
45__
HF1_____________________65_________________HF2_____
ā¦HF3ā¦
MF1ā¦MF2
65__
HB1ā¦HB2ā¦HB3
Wexford puckout
45__
65__
HF1___________________HF3_____________________HF2
65__
HB1________MF1________HB2________MF2________HB3
No its to give your team a greater chance of winning the ball by having more men there
It was indeed. I forgot that. Mea Cupla
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So what youāre saying is, itās to better defend opposition puckouts?
No its to win opposition puckouts
@Bandage ye also had only one man in FF at times and two at most for most of the game. Surely thatās defensive?
So to clarify, does that make it an offensive strategy? Or is it to defend against the opposition winning the ball? Or to have bodies in place in case the opposition do win the ball.
Iām still struggling to see how it has ānothing to do with defensive strategyā.
Maybe you can ladybird it for me?
Not really, no I/C team plays with three orthodox half forwards and a 3 man full forward line any more.
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Its to win the ball when it breaks from the puckout. More players there means there is more of a chance of winning the ball
Have a look at the second goal in particular. Only one forward inside the 45 as the camera pans across and Kerry were a man down at that stage.
And winning the ball has no connection at all with, say, defending against the opposition winning the ball?