Wexford GAA 2018

not really fair on the lad, as he must have been fouled about 6 times and could have been concussed at one stage.

first thing I said when I heard it was that it was fucking stupid. sure what else was going to happen? no way a lad on junior will stop someone like that without trying to kill him, and no better buachaill than the guy I heard clattered him a few times. pointless. I suppose in one way he still needed a bit of a run out with the club, but surely better games to do it in than that.

yeahā€¦ a bit irresponsible but i suppose it was the only way ye were going to stop the St. Jameā€™s juggernaut.

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hurling? Iā€™d doubt it. He was in around the football one last year for a bit. Heā€™s giving rugby a go now too, fucked up an initial college contract but is sorted now with clontarf. Personally, I dont see him doing that long term. Heā€™d be a good addition to either set up though, has serious pace and great at running with the ball. Still young too, plenty of time for him to do either. Whether he wants to bother or not is another question too.

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Could we see Mikey on the senior panel?

Iā€™ve only ever seen him play football in the flesh. Iā€™ve always been very impressed with him.

not a bad hurler, direct. stick work might lt him down at a higher levelā€¦

If it was all he was doing though heā€™d be fine. Considering the point he is at now with hurling as a semi professional rugby player who plays more football than hurling, if hurling went first on the list Iā€™d have no concerns about him. He was a far better hurler than footballer when younger too, always had it in him.

ah yeah, i remember him destroying teams at an under age levelā€¦be interesting to see how he goes at the rugby

I get the feeling that heā€™s a Davy Fitz type of player. Iā€™m sure Davy will have him in for training.

tell that to his paymaster in Clontarf RFC

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Yeah to be fair to the lad he is right to be at the rugby. If it doesnā€™t work out Iā€™m sure both squads would love to have him.

Short puck out fucked us last night, how did we not push up on every man for the last puck out?

similar to my point on the ball into the square, and similar to the footballers point conceded to Laois etc. When players get to a stage of the game and they are unsure of what to do, they will automatically just start running backwards and defend space.

Watch the goal again and watch Molloys movement for it. For some reason, he as the midfielder was marking Bleahane the full forward. As the ball drops, he runs back behind the last line of defenders towards the goal. I wouldnt be putting blame on him for this, itā€™s a natural reaction, but itā€™s one that needs to be coached. I hate quoting other sports or coaches, but Belichick is a mastermind of situational football and has specific drills for players to put them in game situations and see what their reaction will be. Game situations where you have 60 seconds to score/not concede should be part of trainings. Do you all fall back in defence en masse? Or do you man mark and keep tight? The easier thing to do is mark space, tired minds and bodies. One on one can be dangerous too if you let your man through.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it is annoying to lose games when ahead by poor play and conceding decisive scores with last shots of the game. (and I include our own junior final this year in that too)

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prevent defence prevents very littleā€¦by trying to prevent a big play you give lads time to set it up. I know itā€™s easy to say from the ditch, but surely if you work on marking for puck outs wholesale it becomes second nature as itā€™s ingrained in you.

Disappointing to lose obviously when you a win was there.

Were ye in a Junior Final? dont seem to recallā€¦

Its just lads lose focus at the end of games in tight situations. Its why the good teams succeed (see Dublins reaction to going a point up) and the bad ones dont (see Meaths reaction to going a point up v Tyrone). Prepare for that specific part of a game. Similar to Wexford in 96 who had prepared for being a man down and how to play if that happens. Our lads last night went to shite when we had the man extra. As you say, very easy to say sitting on the ditch.

yeah we got to a Junior final there alright. I think ye were in the same competition last year too, but lost in the first game of itā€¦

if im honest itā€™s hard to keep track with all of our recent successā€¦

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@Gman, I find your posts on situational coaching very interesting. Iā€™ve had intermittent thoughts on this when watching Wexford teams at all levels playing over the years.

Aside from points youā€™ve made like training for a specific instance such as having a minute to defend a lead or work a score, I sometimes got the impression that we didnā€™t actually have any general plan of how to attack or defend cohesively. It was the old line out where selected and win your position. Watching a defender win a ball and blem it up the field time after time often made me wonder, for example, ā€œhave we ever trained for the left half back getting clean possession with time to deliver the ball forward?ā€

Thankfully that has changed more recently and we play some decent stuff with support play and movement. I think we could be more organised, mean and cynical (in a borderline legal way) when defending collectively though.

I get that hurling is played at a high tempo with less natural breaks, itā€™s physical and the ball moves quickly and travels far so itā€™s not straightforward to control a given ā€œsituationā€. I also donā€™t necessarily think itā€™s a bad thing to funnel men back to protect the ā€œDā€ when trying to prevent a late goal. Itā€™s just a pity the young lad last night decided to leave his man and to cover the space behind those going up for the ball.

I imagine Davyā€™s system(s) involves plenty of this situational coaching. Do you know if this is the case?

When I say situation type training, its more to do with a particular scenario in a game rather than having set plays or anything. So like the above, the opposition need a goal in 60 seconds, or 2 minutes or whatever, what do you do. Or vica versa, you need to score. Do you just lump it forward in hope, or pick off points whilst the opponents drift back aimlessly.

We took some serious scores last night, O Connors one where we had about ten passes in the lead up to it left him free to score. Exploited the passing and created space. But when we had a man extra we were hitting and hoping instead of doing what worked when we had 15 on 15. Its that type of scenario too. How do you utilise the extra man? Have they played training sessions with an extra man on either side? The more they train this way, the less likely theyā€™ll tire in the mind and just revert to type, ie lumping it forward or running back marking no one. I dont mind numbers coming back, but it has to be organised. Not just everyone going back to fill spaces. It should be set, man on man and who will be free to challenge the high ball in.

I would imagine Davy does train this way. Iā€™ve only seen a couple of sessions which were much earlier in the year and they didnt really do that sort of stuff at all. Just the run of the mill drills and game and plenty of shouting and cursing.

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Didnā€™t Griffin famously plan in the build up for the All Ireland Final in '96 what we would do if someone was sent off, went through all eventualities for every player so when it happened, everyone knew theyā€™re role. I imagine that level of meticulous planning for situations hasnā€™t happened in quite a while.

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