Observations From Dublin v Mayo Game (2015) #1
Dublin Fouling a deliberate tactic
Watching the game I was reminded of the Ireland v Wales game the day before — Ireland collapsed 2 Welsh mauls close to the Ireland try line in as many minutes. The referee then had an interesting conversation with Paul O’Connell that went something like this — “…that is the second time in a row you have collapsed — I can only assume now that it is a deliberate tactic — if you do it again there will be harsher punishment…” in other words a yelllow card and/or a penalty try.
The massively high count of fouls committed by Dublin in their scoring zone would lead you to believe that it must have been a deliberate ploy on their behalf. Two questions arise, why do this, and why did the referee allow it.
Firstly, the reasoning for Dublin doing this were probably two-fold, one they feared Mayo’s ability to score goals, and two, they under-estimated Cillian O’Connor’s free-taking prowess.
Many may point to Dublin’s indiscipline as one of the reasons they did not win the game. But of course if those fouls had not occurred then Mayo would have scored many of those chances from play, possibly turning some of those chances into goals.
Limitations of the Rule book
This possibly points to a limitation in the GAA rule book. A player can’t be punished for the sins of their team, unlike rugby. When a foul occurs in GAA the player may receive a ‘ticking’ if the referee feels the foul serious enough. They will only receive a yellow card for multiple tickings or for a severe foul like Cooper’s on Sunday. This is the reason so many fouls were able to occur in the Dublin scoring zone. The fouls were well spread out amongst the Dublin defence so no one defender could be reprimanded severely. When a Dublin defender was yellow carded they could then simply be replaced by a substitute who had a clean slate and who could then commit 3 or 4 fouls before being carded themselves. In the earlier example from the Ireland v Wales Rugby Game, if the 3rd maul had been collapsed then the referee would have yellow-carded the player responsible for that collapse, regardless of whether or not they had been penalised previously.
(As a side note there was a 3rd maul minutes later that resulted in a try for Wales — in other words the referee’s warning had an instant effect on the game)
You can imagine the effect this type of rule would have had on the Dublin Mayo game. If there had been 4 or 5 fouls in the Dublin scoring zone in quick succession then the ref could have given a ‘team warning’ and subsequently given a player a yellow card, regardless of whether they had fouled previously. You can imagine that the Mayo forwards would have had a much more free flowing performance.
Mayo Superior Free Taking and discipline Could prove the difference
As it was, Dublin continued to foul for much of the game. Unluckily for them O’Connor was in imperious form. He did not miss a free all day. If he had missed a couple of kicks then Dublin would have won and this tactic would have worked.
I have a feeling that the difference in free taking accuracy may just be the difference between the two teams in the replay. With Mayo committing very few fouls, with Cluxton misfiring, Rock’s starting spot under treat and Connelly set to miss the replay Dublin may struggle to convert their free chances.
Seamie O’Shea having a nightmare season
One thing that has become clear over the year is the severe lack of form of Seamie O’Shea. I saw him play a couple of games in the league earlier in the year and he was painfully poor — his wayward passing being a particular sore point. I put this down to early season sluggishness. Recent displays however point to a much more serious decline in his form which has lasted the entire season at this stage. Again on Sunday he was probably the least effective Mayo player in the middle third of the pitch. If Barry Moran doesn’t start in the forward line the next day then it may be worth trying him out in midfield instead of Seamie.
Mayo must force Cluxton to kick long from Minute 1
One reason you could put forward for Seamie O’Shea’s lack of an impression in the game was that it was not a game for old style heavy weight midfielders like O’Shea. Cluxton rarely kicked beyond the 21 and Hennelly did likewise — with Parsons being tasked to come short for those kick outs due to his superior pace compared to O’Shea. Of course if Mayo can force Cluxton to kick long then Seamie may just be in his element.
But why did Mayo, usually a team that employs a full press on opponent’s kickouts, set up so defensively and allow Dublin to kick short to free players??
Normally, Mayo play with a 2 man full forward line and when opponents are in possession 1 or sometimes 2 of Mayo’s half forwards will also retreat into the defence and midfield zone. They usually only do this once a kick out is taken and lost. Ordinarily they will mark all defenders for kickouts in order to force a long kick out or to put maximum pressure on any short kick-out taken.
However, against Dublin they went into defensive positions before the kickouts.
This can only mean one thing. Mayo were afraid of Dublin’s pace of attack and felt this new defensive system would be strong enough to allow Dublin to win their kick outs and tackle them closer to the Mayo goal. This was only moderately successful. The problem was that Dublin as used to playing teams that set up defensively and by all accounts had been training all year to counter act Donegal, the team that beat them last year and that they expected to play in the semi final. Diagonal long kick passes from the midfield zone into the corner forward zones were extremely successful for Dublin. This was partly due to Mayo players trying to implement this new defensive tactic that they were not quite comfortable with, with many players not sure where and when to defend. The Sunday Game review covered this point well by showing Mayo players caught in no-man’s land on several Dublin attacks.
The solution? Press the kickout from minute 1. Mayo have the better midfield. Seamie might be struggling for form but so is MacCaley. Parsons and O’Shea are superior fielders and Mayo’s half backs and half forwards are excellent under the breaking ball.
If Dublin win the long kickout ?— yes in this case Mayo will be slightly undermanned in defence. However, Mayo’s superior tackling ability should be good enough to slow down most attacks and the pros of winning more possession closer to the Dublin goal out-weighs any negative impact of a more attacking approach.
