Blanket defences - they haven't gone away, you know. Armagh, widely accepted as the most entertaining team in the land, arrived down in Tralee on Saturday and drove their bus straight on to Austin Stack Park.
As Armagh made their journey from Division 3 to 1 under Kieran McGeeney, he often commented on the game management and 'smarts’ demonstrated by other teams.
Sometimes it could have been misconstrued as a dig, but this is McGeeney, an ultimate competitor and winner, a man who loves his bit of mixed martial arts. It was hardly likely that a team moulded by him would rigidly stick to any notion of only wanting to win playing beautiful football.
And so to Tralee. David Clifford had about as much space during the game as he is afforded by the autograph hunters after it. Likewise, Seánie O’Shea got the human backpack treatment.
However, more than the close attention of key men, which was to be expected, and the universal retreat of men behind the ball, it was the return of the classic ‘blanket defence' tactics that may have been a surprise to some.
What stood out was Armagh giving up the Kerry kickout (even when playing with the wind or after free kicks) and happily waiting until the 45-metre line before getting the pressure on.
49' Kerry 0-08 Armagh 0-08 - Tadhg Morley's score here, and a subsequent David Clifford free, draw Kerry level
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) February 25, 2023
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I received a few messages despairing at the return to tactics circa 2014 and saw plenty of criticism of Armagh’s negative approach. Some said it showed a fear of Kerry and an aim of keeping the score down.
I’m 100% sure there was no fear of Kerry behind Armagh’s approach. Nor are defensive tactics ‘negative’, rather, they are a necessary skillset.
Whether defending a lead with a man down, playing against the elements or playing against a superior side, there will always be reasons for a team to consider setting up this way. It doesn’t make for a beautiful game but it's effective.
Just ask Derry, maybe not in Division 1 (yet) but find me a team that would want to play them right now?
As long as the rules allow for it, it will be part of our game. And as for the jibe regarding a return to 2014, I’m not so sure. There are enough differences for me between the original iteration and the modern interpretation to suggest this was more defensive football 2.0.
Armagh’s defensive effort was much more active than the broad zonal defence of the past decade.
There appeared a clear attempt and willingness to overload sides. It’s something that has been in vogue with top soccer teams, where teams crowd into one zone, regaining possession from sheer weight of numbers.
It’s a high-risk strategy as your opposite flank is left lightly defended but it did give Armagh a lot of turnovers.
Opponents’ approach to playing against the blanket has also evolved. The previous response was to play in arcs around the outside and refuse to engage until a space opens, as demonstrated to ultimate effect by Dublin’s great team.
"Avoid the contact" only lost out to "ah ref" and "head injury" as the most common phrases shouted from management on sidelines this past several years.
Yet there was no avoiding contact from Kerry. Rather than sleep-inducing passive play, Kerry continued to try to drive holes in the Armagh rearguard and on several occasions used fantastically silky hands to get critical scores.
The fact that Kerry went on and won led to the usual ‘negative tactics never win’ response. That’s rubbish. They are effective and can often win.
More significant is realising that the league represents a team's key development opportunity. For teams to win something they need to be able to play the game in a variety of ways. McGeeney knows Armagh’s ‘A’ game is in good shape, but titles aren’t won by playing things only on your own terms. And Armagh want titles.
Setting up this way against Kerry gave McGeeney both a credible chance of points and an opportunity to see how his team looks with this approach
An Ulster title, for example, will likely require taking down Rory Gallagher’s Derry and modern wisdom suggests that one of the few ways to approach such a task is to mirror them in defensive shape and hope to profit, like Galway, from a more ruthless attack on the day.
Setting up this way against Kerry gave McGeeney both a credible chance of points and an opportunity to see how his team looks with this approach, searching for learnings that will stand to them on down the line.
For example, too often in both halves Armagh simply didn’t have enough up front to win the ball and build good attacks. All three members of the full-forward line ended up in the full-back line as either the sweeper or tagging men.
Across the whole game they only had four or five decently built attacks and less than half their shots came from what could be perceived as good shooting range. So that balance needs to be tweaked.
He will also have seen the vulnerability on their opposite side when going for the overload turnover, it was no accident that the last four Kerry attacks of the first half all hurt Armagh on their ‘open’ side. To a certain extent, that is a necessary risk but being better at covering across is possible.
Make no doubt about it, ‘blanket defence’ remains a key part of our game, but its current iteration is different than before.
Players' physicality, skillset and knowledge have changed massively over the past 10 years. Every team will need to stress test themselves and for me this, rather than them being afraid of Kerry, was the reason behind Armagh’s approach on Saturday past.
Two points lost but valuable lessons learned. Next game please.
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