I was never as worried about Dublin as other people seemed to be. Even with all the players who’ve left that dressing room over the past few seasons, there’s still enough quality in there to handle the rest of Leinster. The All-Ireland series will be a different kettle of fish but I’d be amazed if they aren’t Leinster champions on Sunday night.
Even so, you can see they have certain weaknesses. They could live without Con O’Callaghan against Louth and he probably won’t be necessary against Westmeath. But that won’t be the case against any of the All-Ireland contenders. They haven’t replaced Brian Fenton either. Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne was nominated for an All Star last year but I think they need more from him.
Good goalkeepers make good midfielders – and vice-versa. Dublin were comfortable for most of the game against Louth but they had a wobble in the run-up to half-time and it all came from Evan Comerford’s kickouts. He had a good start to the game and didn’t miss a kick until they were 0-7 to 0-2 ahead and cruising.
But in the last 10 minutes before half-time, Louth made him go long with every kickout and Dublin were all over the place around the middle. Soon enough, there was only a point in it and all the Louth attacks were coming from the Dublin kickout. That’s where Comerford needed Ó Cofaigh Byrne to step up. And also where Dublin needed a better plan to help the two of them out.
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I keep hearing this stuff about kickouts being a total lottery under the new rules. I don’t really buy it. The big giveaway was when Kieran McGeeney called it “pure piggery” and everybody grabbed a hold of it, as if this was proof that there’s nothing to be done about kickouts except throw your hands in the air and hope for the best.
I know McGeeney a long time and he’s a smart fella. My feeling on it would be that if McGeeney wants everyone in the outside world to think that kickouts are all down to pot-luck, he’s telling a different story inside the dressing room. Blaine Hughes got 20 out of 21 kickouts away against Down. Don’t be trying to tell me that’s all piggery.
There is plenty you can do for kickouts. I’m not saying it’s easy but this is top-level intercounty football. It’s not supposed to be easy. If you’re a midfielder for one of the Sam Maguire teams, this is your bread and butter. It’s non-negotiable.
It starts with the goalkeeper. You need a keeper who will take a chance and who is good enough to pull it off. One weakness Comerford has is that his long kicks are predictable. He kicks left-footed across his body, so that just about every long one goes out to the same spot, between midfield and the Dublin right half-back sideline.
Any team worth its salt will do two things on every Dublin kickout. One, they’ll push four or five players up around the arc to make Comerford go long. And two, they’ll send bodies over to that wing ready for the breaks. He rarely changes his body shape to kick one out the other way, meaning that teams are able to just ignore one side of the pitch.
So if you’re a Dublin midfielder, that means you’re working in a very tight space from the get-go. Louth didn’t even have Tommy Durnin on from the start the last day and they were still able to pile on the pressure in that spell just before half-time, purely because all the kicks were going to the same spot.
If you’re an opposition midfielder playing against Dublin, you’re able to get into the goalie’s head. If the long balls are going to the same place, you’re able to mess him up by anticipating the kick, then getting across there and spoiling the ball. It’s a double hit – you’re making him check where you are every time he puts the ball down and you’re also playing yourself into the game.
Louth weren’t good enough to build on that good spell but we’ve seen how these games can go. Three lost kickouts can become four, five or six if you don’t come up with a way of stopping the rot. If you lose six kickouts in a row, you’re under siege. The Dubs can’t have that happening against the better teams.
What they really need is for Comerford to build that relationship with Ó Cofiagh Byrne or whoever is going to be his established kickout target. He hasn’t been able to do that, for various reasons. Stephen Cluxton kept him on the bench for a long time and he hasn’t had much luck with injuries either. The upshot is they’re basically working this out in real time.
But they can do it. It isn’t rocket science. The big buzzword these days is overloads, which basically means flooding a heap of lads over to one side of the pitch and getting more of your players in there than the opposition. But to me, it makes more sense to go the other way.
Every football team in the country has their go-to midfielder. I don’t care if you’re playing club, county or under-12 – you know who it is you want your goalkeeper aiming his kickout at. And you also know who your best half-back or half-forward is under the breaking ball.
So if you’re under pressure with your kickouts and you need one clean one to turn the tide, I’d be isolating your best midfielder rather than crowding him out. Get him and your best break-ball merchant in space on the far side from the overload and have one knock it down for the other. Every top level midfielder knows how to break the ball in a certain direction – work on it as a set-play and drill it until it’s second nature. You might only get away with using it once but it could turn a game for you.
It’s not all down to piggery. Don’t let anybody tell you it is.
