Former Clare footballer David Tubridy has said that management teams must be wary of the differing reactions of players consigned to the 'finisher' role despite a weekend where sides across the country made the most of their attacking substitutions.
In the 16 games played across Saturday and Sunday, a mammoth 6-57 was posted by those coming off the bench with some of the scores proving especially telling.
In the top flight, Cathal Sweeney came on and grabbed three points for Galway as they held off the challenge of Tyrone while Seán Jones and Conor McManus combined for 1-04 as Monaghan took over in the second half against Donegal at Clones.
Neil Flynn (0-04) and Daniel Flynn (0-02) were the catalyst for Kildare's thrilling comeback win against Clare in Division 2 while James McCarthy and Jack McCaffrey were both on target as Dublin fended off a stubborn Cork.
In Division 3, Conor McGee and Seán Quigley both grabbed three-pointers in Fermanagh’s entertaining win over Down. Odhrán Eastwood (0-03) and Dominic McEnhill (0-02) took the game away from Tipperary as Antrim won in Thurles. Paddy Lynch and Conor Madden also scored seven points from play as Cavan crushed Longford.
Somewhat surprisingly, Laois, who have now won three games from three in Division 4, were one of only two teams in that division not to get a scoring impact off the bench, London were the other.
The value of the impact sub has never been higher, but speaking to the RTÉ GAA Podcast, Tubridy said that most players still wouldn’t want to be cast into that specialist role.
"The latter few years of my playing career, I remember a few fellas telling me that you’d be an impact sub, you’d come on for the last 10, 15, 20 minutes," said Tubridy, who became the highest-ever scorer in the National League after hitting 1-08 against Cork in 2021 and added nine more points in his remaining games for an overall tally of 22-421.
"For me, as a player that always started, it was very hard to take.
"A young fella to hear that, that [he’s] going to be sitting on the bench for 40, 50 minutes and then coming on to try and make an impact – it’s very hard for them.
"You’ve got Jack McCaffrey the last day [against Cork], he’s a man who would take it and James McCarthy. They’d be able to understand it a lot better than other players."
The Doonbeg man said that the decision to hold top players in reserve can also be to strike a psychological blow as well as simply unleashing talent.
"Daniel Flynn had a massive, massive impact [for Kildare], he was just full of legs.
"When you see a fresh player coming on to you, it's just hard for a defender to take after doing 40, 50 minutes of running."
Tubridy also said that Dessie Farrell’s Dublin side would receive a huge injection of quality from McCaffrey’s return as he appeared in a competitive fixture for the first time since a league loss to Tyrone in Omagh in February 2020.
"I pity the wing-forward for Cork when you see Jack McCaffrey coming onto the pitch and his first run was straight up the field, a 50-yard run."
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