Opinion: Size matters in the new battle for golden possession

By Michael McMullan

GROWING UP, I loved watching Anthony Tohill play football. To me, he is the best player I have watched playing.

He was a brilliant place kicker off the ground. There was the athleticism. He had both the composure and power to get in to finish goals.

He had the leap to make his size count under the high ball too. When Antrim looked to have beaten Derry in the 2000 Ulster Championship, he rose above the Casement Park crossbar to swat Sheeny McQuillan’s long-range free to himself. Derry fans could breathe again.

On the other side, he had a booming kick and I can still see a shot he rifled over the bar in Croke Park, into the Hill 16 end.

Picking the best player is all relative. Jack O’Shea will be the choice of many but I was too young to have watched him in his prime. Peter Canavan carried a Tyrone team to within an inch of Sam in ’95. A magical player, but, for me, Tohill had it all.

In the club: A look at life under the new rules

The way football had morphed before the rule changes, big men like Tohill were becoming redundant. Slick handpassing players took over.

I always remember Darragh Ó Sé saying how he was catching ball after ball against Mickey Harte’s Tyrone until he realised they were allowing him get the ball. Once he hit terra firma, they hounded him down.

Since the new look game, under Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee, I have not been in favour of the rule where all kick-outs have to clear the 40-metre arc. To me, it robs ‘keepers of variation.

Now that it is here, we have to settle ourselves and find a way around it. Kevin Cassidy noted on these pages how the new rules were a breathe of fresh air. He’d have a bag of balls and Gaoth Dobhair u-12s would be coached the basics that would stand to them.

That brings me back to Tohill. I remember him from his days of winning the All-Ireland minor in 1989, the same year St Patrick’s Maghera landed their first Hogan Cup.

Building blocks

Maghera supremo Adrian McGuckin played a big part with his coaching of the kick and catch.

Three men. Two balls. The middle man had to field a ball give it back, then take one from the other side. There was variation. High balls, the one bounce ball inside forwards love and the pop pass into the chest.

The middle man was rotated and the drill continued. There was fitness work in it too. It was so, so simple but the core skills were polished on the move.

As I look at the footballing landscape, Sunday week in Letterkenny will show the benefits of having size along the middle third.

Down have Odhrán Murdock but they don’t have another physical man to plonk beside him. They need Ryan McEvoy there and at full back. Kilcoo found the same in last year’s Ulster Club final. When he went to midfield the game totally changed.

From chatting to a few men who know Down football well, Conor Laverty has all the best players in the county on the panel. He has exhausted the avenues, looking to see if there is anyone else.

What he wouldn’t do for another Murdock type player. Or even two or three of him. When you watch Down, they are excellently coached, have the skills and possess pace.

LEAP OF FAITH…Kieran McGeeney persisted until Andrew Murnin accepted an invite to the Armagh squad

As Kerry found out in the league final, Down are going to face a wall across O’Donnell Park. Michael Langan. Michael Murphy. Jason McGee. Hugh McFadden. Caolan McGonagle. Ciarán Moore and, when fit, Dáire Ó Baoill and Ciarán Thompson can do a job there too.

While allowing Paudie Clifford the freedom of Croke Park in last year’s All-Ireland final was footballing suicide, it wasn’t helped with Donegal being without McFadden and McGee from the start. I must admit I felt leaving Paudie free was a mistake at the time. Watching it back, how dominant Joe O’Connor was allowed to be was more telling.

Back to my dislike of the 40-metre kick-out arc, we have to suck it up and move on. My outlook on county development squads and school teams has now changed.

The neat player who can hand pass a ball off sides, in a two-on-two pressure cooker drill, without a ball hitting the grass, is valuable.

We also need to look at the big, lean, athletic lad too. If there is a sliver of football in there – and an interest – the sliver needs to be developed into something more.

Back to Adrian McGuckin on Maghera’s back pitch. One minute on, two minutes off. High ball, chest ball, one bounce ball. Rinse and repeat.

There was an excellent piece written by Meath man Paul Keane last year on the Royals’ squad and their sheer size.

Beat the sweeper

When I think back to watching Derry in the noughties when Paddy Bradley’s brilliance brought a second and sometimes a third. Paddy developed a right boot and doubled his game. Imagine if he had a Kieran Donaghy figure beside him, someone to win any kind of ball. Sweepers couldn’t clog both of them.

Like 2002 Armagh, Aidan O’Rourke’s sliced, diagonal ball to Ronan Clarke with Stevie McDonnell and Diarmaid Marsden peeling off them. Deadly.

The player who can win ball in today’s game is absolute gold. That’s why if there was a transfer market, Kieran McGeeney would literally fight anyone who tried to take Andrew Murnin off his hands. His leap is absolutely insane.

He has also a thirst of improvement. Back in the day, he’d take part in the goalkeepers’ initial warmup before the team came out. Anything to get his hand-eye coordination in while flying all around the place.

Laverty would love a Murnin in the Down dressing room on Sunday week. Who wouldn’t? While not the biggest man, he more than makes up for it.

We have to settle ourselves with the kick-out arc. The onus is on underage coaches to not bin the big man too quick.

Jack O’Connor lifted the phone and found a job for Mark O’Shea. A late developer, yes. Would Kerry have won Sam without him? Maybe. Maybe not. Jack wasn’t prepared to spend the train journey home from Dublin wondering – what if….

email: m.mcmullan@gaeliclife.com