I'm a fan of the advanced mark
GAA President, Jarlath Burns, has set up a Football Review Committee to examine the rules of the game. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane
So, a colleague of my wife asked her last week, ‘What’s he going to write about EVERY week?’. As in, how does he expect to fill a column each week? The truth is, I don’t have a Scooby-doo.
Yet it doesn’t worry me. I’m sitting here to put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard rather, on Friday night, and there’s any amount of things I could talk about.
The obvious move would be to wait until after the Connacht U-20 final tomorrow evening and then respond to that and see where it takes me. Or there’s a plethora of issues that come up in conversation on a regular basis — such as rule changes, the split season, the club scene, integration between the female codes and the GAA, and so on.
I love football. Love it. Yes, I agree that it could be improved, and I’d like to see some new rules tried out, but even as it is, I think it can be a fantastic spectacle.
What I don’t like is the narrative we tend to create around our biggest national sport. So much of the post-match commentary hones in on the negatives.
What irks me most of all is probably the way we talk about our league games (our best competition). No matter how well a team perform in a league game, the talk afterwards is always with a view to how they will fare come championship.
As John Giles says, we’ve got to take each game on its merits. I’d love to see more of a focus on some of the sublime pieces of skill we see in each game — like a Diarmuid Murtagh over-the-shoulder effort, a wonderful pick-up on the run by Enda Smith, a flying block by Davy Murray.
I must temper my statement above about loving football — I could love it more if we were more adventurous with our rules. I was delighted to see one of Jarlath Burns’ first acts as Uachtarán being to set up a committee to recommend rule changes for football.
I’d like to see a small committee stay in place indefinitely, regularly reviewing and analysing and offering tweaks to rules if needed. I suppose the first place they should start is getting some agreement on what they are looking for — what kind of game do they want?
For me, I’d like to see a return to more one-on-one contests.
Even with rules as they are, if two teams are evenly matched, and if they both push up on opposition kickouts, we can be treated to some superb games. The second “if” there is the big one, but when it happens, quick attacks are more likely and there’s a chance to kick ball into a forward being marked by just one player.
I have to say, and it feels like I’m in the minority on this, but I’m a fan of the advanced mark. Not so much for the sight of a forward catching a ball and claiming a handy free kick, but for the indirect consequences of the rule.
In fact, I’m surprised teams haven’t made more use of it yet.
Because of the advanced mark, defenders now have to stay tighter to forwards as they run out from goal looking to receive a pass. Previously, defenders would be more likely to err on the side of caution and keep half an eye on the space they’re leaving behind them.
Now they are more enticed to compete full-blooded for the ball to deny a mark. This leaves more space behind defenders, very often used by the forward they’re following who jams on the breaks and rolls in behind them for the ball over the top. Or it’s space that can be exploited by runners from deep. Either way, I believe the advanced mark leads to more goal opportunities.
I’d love to see Roscommon use it more. I think, especially on a slow attack when faced with a blanket defence, we should be getting our best passers, the likes of the two Smiths, on the ball just outside the ‘45 and looking to pick out handy marks on the edge of the scoring area.
Yes, crowded defences still mean that the long ball into the full-forward position can be almost impossible, but even with 15 defenders, teams struggle to cover off all of the scoring area at once.
Invariably, there’ll be space on one side of the top of the D. Exploit that and defences will have to squeeze up higher, leaving more space in behind again.
What a game the Connacht U-20 football final was — super stuff from both teams. And what a win for the Rossies.
I wrote last week that winning is not the most important thing at underage level, but it certainly helps! That’s a second title at that age in the last few years and confirms that the conveyor belt is in a healthy state.
The match was a cracker for a number of reasons. The referee deserves great credit for letting it flow. This allowed for a number of big, fair tackles and collisions, along with some great battles for breaking ball all over the pitch.
Senan Lambe, among others, was involved in a lot of these and came up with some big plays for Roscommon, not least late in the game when he was involved in a poor turnover from a sideline kick for Ros’ but immediately battled back to regain possession on our ‘45 and this led to another score for us.
Roscommon didn’t quite put a lot of pressure on the Galway kickout but they did engage high up the pitch to force those turnovers I mentioned. Galway put bigger pressure on the Roscommon kickout, and this led to lots of contests for possession.
When Roscommon did manage to get out from under the Galway press, there was space in front of our full-forward line and we exploited that brilliantly.
Some other big moments stand out. Dan Casey at full-back made an outstanding goal-saving tackle towards the end of the first half, diving from behind to slap the ball away.
Bobby Nugent had some great moments. My favourite was in the second half when he gained possession 30 yards out to the left of the D and everyone in the McHale Park expected him to shoot. Yet he saw and executed a brilliant over-the-top pass with the outside of his boot to set up an easy score.
Shane McGinley skinning his man along the endline to set up the opening goal for Niall O’Donnell was class. As was O’Donnell’s point on the run from 45 metres. Eden Kerins, Eoghan Carty and Ethan O’Reilly each had some massive dispossessions.
A great victory, no doubt. The sizeable challenge now is to get ready to produce another big performance against Tyrone this afternoon (Saturday) in Breffni Park.
It’s the turn of the ladies to enter championship action this weekend.
Both the Connacht LGFA senior and intermediate finals are in Kiltoom on Sunday. Roscommon face Leitrim in what essentially has become a jockeying for position in the All-Ireland series starting in June. The winners will theoretically get the easier draw in the national competition.
Roscommon come into this game on the back of a very good league campaign. While the performance in the league final was disappointing, they won’t have lost too much sleep over that as they were already promoted to Division Two.
Leitrim operated out of Division Four this year and failed to get promoted, so that line of form would point to a Roscommon win this weekend.
They have been tricky opponents for Ros’ in recent years though. It’s not unusual at all to see a big change in teams between league and championship so Roscommon will be weary, but you’d still have to fancy them to earn the silverware.
Thanks to John McHugh, of Strokestown fame, for sending in his Top 5 — the best players/individual performances he’s seen against Roscommon over the years. Here’s his list:
1, Padraic Joyce (Galway), 2001 All-Ireland Q-F
2, Keith Higgins (Mayo), 2017 All-Ireland QF replay
3, Dara O’Cinnéide (Kerry), 2003 All-Ireland Q-F
4, Kevin Feely (Kildare), 2023 All-Ireland Group Stage
5, Peter Reilly (Cavan), 2022 League semi-final.
I’ve come up with a similar list, although I restricted it to players I played against (outside Roscommon), and looked for the players who just seemed to be a cut above the rest.
Pádraic Joyce (Galway), Kevin Cassidy (Donegal), Niall McNamee (Offaly), Johnny Doyle (Kildare), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone).
Next week, I’ll look at the best matches I’ve been to watch. The All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Dublin in 2013 is the first one that springs to mind.
Let me know your Top 5 matches please by sending your list to mfinneran.mf@gmail.com.
