Soul with science the Northern way

Seán Moran argues that what distinguishes the game in Ulster is passion and planning rather than a signature style of play

In the fuss about last week's grim spectacle in Croke Park issues have become entwined. The Kerry-Tyrone match featured 72 fouls and was a grim spectacle on that account. Tyrone played the better football when that mattered and duly won well. But there has been a broader question about the style of football being played and whether an Ulster style has evolved to the point that traditional football is being stifled.

There is no doubting the success of northern counties this year. Three of them qualified for the All-Ireland semi-finals. Next month Ulster will become the first province to supply both teams to an All-Ireland final.

Only two counties, Derry and Monaghan, were beaten by opponents from elsewhere. And those two defeats have to be set against victories in the other 12 matches between Ulster counties and teams from other provinces.

This is a level of success that has been facilitated by the qualifier system but it is unarguable. The All-Irelands of the 1990s asserted Ulster as a competitive province at the highest level but the qualifiers have shown the depth of strength within.

Whereas that competitiveness is an influence on what has happened this season, some are reluctant to read too much into the evidence of one season and even more reluctant to ascribe the success to a common style of play.

Seán McCague has just completed his term as president of the GAA. He also has experience of administration in Ulster and a hands-on track record as the manager of three Monaghan sides that won the provincial title and in 1985 took Mick O'Dwyer's Kerry team to a replay. He has watched the evolution of the northern game and strongly disagrees that there is a signature style.

"I don't think there is. The Armagh style is totally different to Donegal. There's no one style in the province and this year you could say that there's a similarity between Tyrone and Kildare. I don't see an Ulster brand of football. Donegal have been playing the same way nearly for as long as I can remember.

"Armagh play along the same lines to Galway: work it out from the back and put a long ball into the corners.

"They were a bit more defensive against Laois, bringing Tony McEntee back but that was to suit Kieran McGeeney in a particular match rather than a game plan for the team."

If the onfield specifics don't match a uniform pattern the approach to the game does exhibit a common intensity. The GAA's national Head of Games Pat Daly says that whereas he doesn't believe there is qualitative difference to the coaching in Ulster, the attitude within the province is noticeably more competitive.

"There's still a passion about the game in Ulster that isn't always in evidence in other provinces.

"Looking at the young fellas we select for the International Rules (under-17 series), the Northern players have a drive and determination that other counties don't have."

Daly believes that there is one obvious, if not definitive, reason for this, which also influences the province's approach to preparation.

"They also by and large haven't been successful and there's no greater appetiser than hunger. How did Cork lose to Waterford (under-21 Munster semi-final on Thursday)? Waterford gave it 100 per cent and had the desire and hunger that makes a difference if teams are relatively even.

"There's also a greater desire to do things the way they should be done. I saw one big county team from another province in Croke Park this summer after their game and they were straggling along in an assortment of clothes. You expect some uniformity. Northern teams come to Croke Park kitted out in team uniforms with their statisticians and everything else in tow."

Armagh's All-Ireland win last year brought to light a number of practices that in the eyes of many took team preparation to a new level. If Joe Kernan's half-time coups de théâtre tended to hog the limelight, they obscured a rigorously scientific approach to everything from diet to the analysis of data during matches.

Eugene Young is the Gaelic games' Director of High Performance at the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland. He says that intercounty teams have progressed during the two years since he started in the position.

"Most of the senior teams have developed a more rounded approach, with nutritionists, psychologists and the area of performance analysis all being catered for.

"There has been a drive to create centres of excellence like Owenbeg in Derry, a county base that means the county team is not moving around begging for a place to train."

Even the existence of a role like Young's would appear to be evidence of the advanced thinking within Ulster even if he rejects the notion that the province is way ahead ("10 years ahead," in the words of one Ulster coach) of the others.

"I think people are jumping to conclusions. You have to look at grass roots development as well as the elite. I wouldn't say that Ulster is way ahead but we're trying to get ahead. Next year you could have two Leinster teams in the final."

Young is careful to emphasise that he isn't blindly focused on the senior elites and that games development has to be an integrated plan, which takes into account the needs of clubs and ordinary players.

"I took up the post and looked at the structures underpinning development teams, under-16s, minors and under-21s. Then we implemented the Level Two coaching course with the first target of working with development squads. Workshops in the winter support Level Two by taking a subject, say nutrition, and dealing with it in more detail.

"We are currently looking at how young talent is managed in an effort to put burnout higher up the agenda. On October 18th we're having Istvan Balyi (international sports consultant who work with, amongst others, the NCTC) to talk about young player development and how to manage it.

"I know from here at the Sports Institute that young rugby players are limited to 40 games. Some of our young players could do that in three months."

He knows that many of his projects aren't going to be completed in the short term but can also see the positive in the here and now. He cites Tyrone as a good example of a county doing things right.

"Tyrone are going ahead with their senior championship this weekend. I think it's great that they're not letting the fact that they're in an All-Ireland final hold up the whole system.

"Schools is also an area where Tyrone is very strong.

"They have key people coaching Gaelic games in vocational as well as grammar schools and if there are gaps they get people in and make sure that the games are being strongly promoted."

Tyrone's reward is to be one match away from the county's first All-Ireland. Armagh and Donegal are two matches away from their second. And Connacht, Leinster and Munster that bit further back. How far it's too early to say.