Steven Poacher – Attacking and defensive principles

Benny Coulter was a player who had the guile and creativity that could penetrate defences

The definition of the word “ignorant” is an adjective describing a person in the state of being unaware and is often used to describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts.

I like to use the word to describe some people who rant and rave about coaches and the way a coach sends their team out to play.

First and foremost the role of a GAA coach starts with an understanding of what kind of sport Gaelic Football actually is.

I wonder how many actually know Gaelic Football is not only an invasion game but a “Focused Target Invasion Game.”

By this I mean, not like Rugby or American Football where it’s an open target, a fixed target of a set of goals where the only way to score is by propelling the ball into the net or over the bar.

The ultimate principle of the game of Gaelic Football is penetration, so as a coach we need to examine 2 simple questions;

1. How do we achieve penetration in our attack?

2. How do we deny penetration in our defence?

To answer question one, if faced with a blanket/packed defence or a defence that simply marks man to man, the same key attacking coaching tips will still apply.

First you need to try and shift the defenders out of their comfort zone, this can be achieved through lots of lateral movement and introducing plenty of width into your play to try and stretch the opposition’s defence as much as possible to allow gaps to open to be penetrated with passes or runners.

Transition play from defence to attack needs to be precise, efficient and sharp, delay of passes, lateral play in defence allows the opposition time to get defensively set at the other end.

Another method of penetration in attack is by being direct in your play to bypass lines of the opposition through accurate, direct, diagonal kick passing. To achieve this, not only does the passing have to be quality but also the checking/slanting runs in your forward line and this method can be particularly effective in by passing an opposition sweeper.

Finally, not all teams are blessed with these sorts of players, but positioning real creative players with a bit of guile in between the opposition’s defensive lines where they can find small gaps and cause problems.

Secondly, how do we deny penetration in our defence?

This can be achieved similarly in a number of ways.

The obvious and most common method in the current game is by positioning a player or two players back into your defence to crowd space and make it difficult for your opponents to find space and scoring opportunities.

Another method is by putting pressure on the opposition high up the field, in essence a full court press. To sustain this for 70 minutes though is simply impossible but on regular occasions in a game if coached correctly can be hugely effective in keeping an opposition’s attack at arm’s length.

Overloading the middle third and focusing on putting pressure on the quality of the pass into the forwards will help your defence repel an attack.

Having six defenders whose primary job is to defend and go man to man is a simplistic method but requires real effective disciplined tacklers.

Whichever way you decide to set your team up is entirely down to yourself and your management team, but consider this when coaching your team.

A guy called Dick Worthing, Ronald Regan’s chief pollster in American politics for over 20 years, once gave advice to political parties which we as coaches can use in relation to the group of players you have to work with: “Identify your single strongest issue and never stop talking about it”.