Conor McKeon
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Because they will toy with you with possession.
If you want to sit back, they'll keep the ball.
If you want to press them, they'll run through the middle.
And if you're behind them and you also have a man down, you have zero, I would say zero chances of anybody beating them in those situations.
And like, they've nearly, like the big thing, I thought one of, I thought the best rule of them all when they came in was the getting rid of the pass back to the goalkeeper.
I was looking at their hurling yesterday in Parnell Park and as good a game as it is,
When a defender wins the ball, they can turn around and just play it back to the keeper.
And it just relieves possession.
So it disincentivises the press.
But Donegal keep the ball so well now, even without the use of a goalkeeper, that they've disincentivised the press.
It's just like, well, do we want them to break us down when we're out of shape, trying to press them up the pitch?
Or do we at least want to get into shape?
And I think nearly every team now is just dropping back against Donegal.
There's another thing, just the first point that you said about going over to the sideline.
What Kerry did brilliantly in the All-Ireland final last year was when they set up their slow attack, if you want to call it that, when Donegal were fully formed, David Clifford would stand on the wing.
So it meant that he had Brendan McColl out of the Donegal shape.
And if you go back to the scores that Gavin White got, that Joe O'Connor got, they're bursting through a 10-man defence, which by definition has one player fewer in it and are slightly more stretched.
So in a situation where Paddy Clifford can't even get on the ball, like it was a little bit, it reminded me like the job that Lee Keegan did on CiarΓ‘n Kilkenny and that's 2017.
And Enda Smith one game in the replay.
You kind of just, you hound him, you hound him everywhere and it's almost like it's preferable if he doesn't get the ball.