A classic football championship is on the way

You know the way the hurling folk seem to call every second game a classic? I’m guessing we’ll be sounding the same this summer.

Setting aside the few mismatches we’ll see at provincial level, I think we’re in for a rip-roaring championship once there are evenly matched teams going hell for leather at each other.

Even the bad games are much more watchable these days. I caught the last quarter of the Kerry v Armagh game on Saturday night and while it didn’t seem to be a particularly close contest, it was still lit up by some great attacking football.

Then the Galway v Dublin match came on. I thought it was terrific. The one-on-one stuff is super to watch. As much as I've commented previously on how refreshing it is to see the shackles come off for the top forwards in the country, it’s also mighty to watch some great exponents of the defensive work in action.

For instance, Johnny McGrath of Galway showed some super examples of timing in the tackle to dispossess Dublin forwards at crucial junctures. Every bit as good to watch as a super twist and shot over the bar from an inside forward.

Speaking of inside forward play, weren’t the Cavan lads very lively on Sunday? I was fiercely impressed with them, particularly Cormac O’Reilly. They looked like they’d cause any team problems once they’re given enough ball.

That was my feeling coming away from Sunday, that we allowed them too much easy ball into their forward line. Essentially, and at the risk of greatly over-simplifying things, in this 11 v 11 attacking system, teams are likely to score often, even against defenders who are on top of their game.

Therefore, the kickout has a massive importance now, perhaps more so than ever before. Roscommon failed to exert enough control in this regard on Sunday, despite an impressive burst by Eddie Nolan in the second half and Keith Doyle improving things when he came on.

To state the obvious, we weren’t at our best at all on Sunday. Cavan were full value for their victory. It was the worst I’ve seen us on our kickout in a while, which will be a worry. That has to be fixed quickly.

Every time they won a kickout, we looked vulnerable in the full-back line. You could say that’s the way it is with all teams, but there is still the nagging sense that we need to see improvement back there too.

I thought John McManus had been having a good run of performances at full-back but he seemed to play most of Sunday’s game out in the half-back line. Colm Neary made a positive impression in the second half, and you’d have to imagine he’s back in pole position for a corner-back slot.

I’m all for trying out lads in different positions and looking at various combinations early on in the league, but at this stage of the year, I’d prefer to see a more settled team. We do have quite a strong panel with not much between the first 15 and the next seven or eight players, so maybe it’s a case that management are still unsure of much of their best starting team.

I’d be inclined to say at this stage though that we need to quickly get a more settled look about our team — even if we got the central positions nailed down it would be a help. It’s hard to really maximise on cohesion and patterns of play if the line-up is constantly changing. I’d always like to have at least two regulars in each line of the field.

For all the success the Cavan forwards enjoyed on Sunday, I still thought our best player was a defender. Davy Murray was superb. He got in a couple of blocks as well as a few other turnovers and also won a number of important breaks on kickouts.

Other than that, Eddie Nolan showed some very positive glimpses of what he can offer in the second half, as did Conor Hand again. This pattern continues of him being more impactful in the second half as the game opens up.

I’m still banging the drum about him being an ideal wing-back. We may have run out of time to try him out there this year. I’d prefer us to get a settled five and six before throwing him in at seven.

Wasn’t it good to see Hand striking those couple of kicks off the ground so well in the first half? Even though we’re blessed with a number of super kickers, we don’t have many options for striking frees off the ground. It could be a useful weapon to have down the line.

Anyway, back to the here and now. A win this Sunday versus Westmeath is important. A solid performance — getting a better structure on our own kickout and better execution in our skills, offensively and defensively — is even more important.

I wouldn’t get too bogged down in the permutations. Whatever way the cards fall with the other games, we just need to see signs we’re in a good place heading into championship, as that’s coming down the tracks fairly fast.

And remember, with the condensed season, championship has turned into more of a sprint than an endurance race. Teams need to find form early or risk seeing their season unravel.

So with all that in the mix, the lads will feel a pressure to get things right, or at least see a big improvement, this weekend. If management get that, then they can get to work addressing the see-saw nature of our performance levels throughout the league.

SAD WEEKEND FOR LEITRIM

Elsewhere, the big news story over the weekend was Leitrim conceding their game to Fermanagh, thus automatically relegating them to Division Four. They looked as good as gone from Division Three anyway, so that’s neither here nor there.

The idea of not being able to field a senior county team is a big issue though, and one that I’m sure will stick in the craw of many of the passionate Leitrim GAA people.

I get the fact that they didn’t want to play their U-20s. That’s fine. And they have run into a number of injuries. That can happen too.

But you have to think that they had to see this coming a while back. They knew the dates for the Connacht U-20 championship since the beginning of the league.

Were they just too slow off the mark in looking to call in extra players to the panel? Or did they ask a rake of lads to help them out and get turned down by all of them? I’d be curious to know how many players they tried and when they began looking for them.

I appreciate we may not be dealing with all the facts in the case here. There could be more to it. But it is undeniably a low point for all the Leitrim-mad football people out there working hard to keep things going and keep their team competitive in trying circumstances.

*Please continue to send your thoughts and ideas for this column to me at mfinneran.mf@gmail.com.