JOE BROLLY: The FRC are looking into the wrong problem

YOU probably haven’t heard of little Tommy Loughran, the coal man’s son. He is 13 years old, two footed and fast.

Last weekend, his tiny club Lissan met Glen, the giants of Derry club football, in the Derry U-14 championship final. The Wattys’ management assigned two of their children to mark Tommy. So, the two kids followed him everywhere, even to the corner flag.

When Lissan brought the ball upfield, one played in front of Tommy, preventing the early ball. The other man marked him. Video footage of this has gone viral. If you think this will embarrass the Wattys, think again. Their point is that Lissan play a blanket defence, with most of their outfielders dropping back inside their own 45. Why would the Wattys not double mark the Lissan star? It would be self defeating not to.

In this new bastard version of Gaelic football, winning is the only thing that matters. The depressing thing is not that Tommy was double marked. It was that there is no longer any shame in doing so. We booed and jeered Jimmy McGuinness’ Donegal in the 2011 semi-final. Now, it is the norm, so deeply embedded in our culture that even children are not exempt.

The problem with this second Playing Rules Committee is that, like the first, they are providing answers to the wrong questions. The right question is: How do we prevent Tommy Loughran being double marked? The Rules Committee should be concentrating on this since this is the fundamental problem. It is sweeping and zonal defending that is ruining the spectacle.

It began with Jimmy dropping Mark McHugh back onto the feet of the opposing full forward, killing the quick ball to the danger area. Soon, everyone was doing it. In their All-Ireland run, Armagh played with four zonal defenders, operating between the 21 and the 40, moving back, forward, sideways, doubling up, killing the space, killing the game. It was a triumph of system.

In the entire seven games after the Ulster semi-final, they conceded one goal, a weird out of the blue goal palmed to the net by Kerry’s Paul Murphy. Aside from that, they never even looked like conceding a goal, so expert was their zonal defensive system. In the final, Damien Comer might as well have got an armchair and sat on it drinking tea.

Kieran McGeeney said afterwards that people harking back to the good old days of Gaelic football were in dreamland. “The players have a good laugh watching games from 20 years ago,” he said. The players might. The spectators don’t.

The Rules Committee are considering a rule that forces each team to keep three players (including the ‘keeper) inside their own 65 metre line. This does nothing to prevent the sweeper or zonal defending or double marking. The sweeper will still be plonked in front of the full-forward. The opposing team will still retreat quickly behind their own 45 and get into their endlessly rehearsed formation.

For years, Jim Gavin has had a single idea in his head to improve the game and disrupt the sweeper/zonal defensive system. The committee are considering this idea and given Jim’s enthusiasm, it is certain to become a rule.

Jim’s idea is this: Two points for a point from a new 40-metre arc. I have had this out with Jim before – If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it already, keeping the scoreboard ticking over with beauties from the 45. The problem is that there are not many Maurice Fitzgeralds or Diarmuid Connollys out there. Again, with this rule, the sweeper system remains intact. The defensive team will merely make sure that someone pushes out slightly on any Maurice Fitzgeralds they encounter. Teams already station the frontline of their zonal defence along that 40 metre arc. Also, the notion that players will start taking potshots from outside 40 metres is a non-starter.

The culture of safety and not wasting possession means that no player will want to damage his stats. If he does blast a few long ones wide, he will soon be on the sideline and the pundits will agree that his actions were reckless.

Four points for a goal is another illusion. If the opposing team’s zonal defensive system does not allow you to create goal chances (think Donegal, Armagh, Galway, Derry before Mickey Harte, Kerry, Watty Grahams, Kilcoo etc) then it is irrelevant whether you get three or four or even five points. The Committee might as well propose seven points for a point from play scored from beyond the 65.

A big part of the problem is that the committee is powered by managers who are experts in the field of sweeping/zonal defending.

Malachy O’Rourke has built his reputation on it, from Monaghan to Watty Grahams. He will be depending on it again when he takes over Tyrone.

After Donegal demonstrated the naivety of Jim Gavin’s man to man system in the 2014 semi-final, Jim held auditions and chose Cian O’Sullivan as his sweeper. Cian went on to dominate the centre of that Dublin defence through multiple All-Irelands. There were no more Donegal style ambushes.

The Committee are solving the wrong problem. Their possible solutions leave the sweeper/zonal defensive system intact. No one will be able to score a goal against Armagh. Little Tommy will still be double-marked, and one can assume he will not be kicking points from outside the 40.

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