They say necessity is the mother of invention. Or maybe boredom is. I often think of our modern football stars, particularly those of the attacking variety. They would have been around 7-8 years of age when the likes of Peter Canavan, Gooch Cooper, Stevie McDonnell, Padraig Joyce and Stevie O'Neill were in their pomp.
How their heroes' feats of attacking play would have fuelled the dreams of those future stars as they reenacted them in the back yard.
Trouble is, since those children grew into men the game has turned on its head. Blanket defences have conquered the space in which the stars of their childhood weaved their magic. I would argue that in terms of sheer ability, the current generation are the most skilful to have ever played the game.
Yet, left standing behind a wall of men what can their skills count for? A helping of single, double, or triple sweeper - what’s your choice today young sir?
Fed up, they drop deeper to get their hands on leather. Heading out around the arc, hand passing backwards and sideways, keeping possession, avoiding contact and wait for the easiest shooting opportunity.
I made it 3-21 from play. Play. In an Ulster Championship game. Between Tyrone and Monaghan
It is the paint by numbers playbook we all recognise but it isn’t what dreams are made of.
Given this background it's maybe understandable the giddiness us from the big-ball side of things have greeted the first few weeks of provincial action. Some big results yes, but it’s the manner of the attacking play that is something else.
Our games leading men are standing up and having fun. Think of Keelan Sexton, Conor Turbitt, Diarmuid Murtagh and Shane McGuigan. Stunning performances from our star men.
Then came that ballroom blitz of a game in Healy Park. The masterclasses from Darragh Canavan and Conor McManus surely brought joy to even the most hardened of GAA traditionalist hearts.
But that wasn’t the sum total of it. Not even half. The quality of scores from right across the pitch could fill an end of season highlight reel. I made it 3-21 from play. Play. In an Ulster Championship game. Between Tyrone and Monaghan.
Like, shut the front door. Or maybe that’s the back door! Whatever it is, I feel like I did when the six McGinley boys, usually straight-laced cubs of course, got a bit carried away with things and my Dad would land in and tell us to head outside and cool off.
You can certainly be sure there will be some cold thinking being done by defenders and defensive coaches around the country. Defensive play is about spotting and protecting against the greatest danger.
In just the past two weeks, Roscommon, Monaghan, Derry and Tyrone have all scored goals where the key goal scoring run came from deep in the corner-forward position.
OK, Canavan’s 1-2 with Darren McCurry was perhaps a more traditional move but the rest were players exploiting space being left on the narrow side through backdoor cut type moves or narrow angle runs.
In all these cases the defenders positioned themselves towards the more likely play rather than the more dangerous play. In some, the difference between the two was a matter of feet.
In Kevin Walsh’s book 'The Invisible Game’ he talks of one component of defensive positioning being summed up by the phrase ‘see man, see ball’. This I believe is critical in reducing the potential for the damaging back door cuts.
Watch above from one minute for Shane McGuigan's evasion of Che Cullen for the first goal
In the Shane McGuigan example, Derry are attacking down the wing. Che Cullen, who had a mammoth game for Fermanagh, was with McGuigan and positioning himself presumably expecting a fist pass to McGuigan to the front or wing.
The fact McGuigan was slowing down on his run out should have raised Cullen's suspicion regarding what the Slaughtneil man had in his head. Having shorn his speed, McGuigan’s cut and acceleration was lethal. Cullen recovered well but the key break had been made and McGuigan made no mistake.
Cullen will wish he had realised that as he moved out the potential for the back door cut was growing.
Positioning himself literally two feet closer to the endline would’ve put him in better 'see man, see ball’ territory and closed off the back door to McGuigan forcing him instead to head out on the loop.
Not ideal as a key player still has possession but in an eminently less dangerous position than where he ended up.
Stephen O’Hanlon’s beating of Conor Meyler for Monaghan’s goal will annoy someone as reflective as Meyler but again it serves as a reminder to defenders that the narrow side to goal has to be cut off at all costs.
Is this all Captain Hindsight? Certainly smells a bit of it I admit. Given the damage they have caused over the past few weeks however, there will be little mitigation for the next defenders caught out by such moves.
Watch from two minutes for Stephen O'Hanlon's goal
Given what we have enjoyed it feels wrong to quibble. Whether it was lashing out at the boredom they had put up with or fed up looking at goalies getting the limelight, our forwards have lit it up. The defenders will have taken note.
They have of course being getting in on the scoring action too but if ever a crew prides themselves on the day job rather than the evening entertainment it is our counties' numbers 2 through 4.
They’ve essentially been falling for the equivalent of a dummy solo now for a few years and right on their home turf too.They’ll be intent on shutting it down but, having tasted blood, and with Messrs Clifford, Walsh, Comer, Mannion and O’Callaghan rolling into town this weekend, our attacking stars may not be ready to be quietened just yet.
I have no doubt in time a degree of order will be restored. For now, I’m just going to look forward to this weekend’s games.
While I do so, I’m going to allow my mind to wander. No, not to imagine that I’m Conor McManus or Darragh Canavan, I’ve embarrassed myself enough on that front over the years, but rather, that I’m out in the local with Ciaran Kilkenny and Ryan O’Toole.
Might even ask what’s the right thing to do if through on goal, from a narrow angle, six minutes into injury-time and you’re one point down…
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