Christy O'Connor: Forward thrust for scoring defenders

The patterns between Armagh and Galway had framed all predictions. When they’d met in the group in June, the final scoreline was 1-12 to 0-15. When Armagh edged their round robin game by one point in 2023, they notched 0-16, while Galway managed 1-12. The wider trends reflected a similar pattern; Armagh had averaged 16 scores in the 2024 championship; Galway had averaged 15.

The margins were so tight that a goal was never going to be more valuable, especially when it was likely to amount to 20 per cent of the expected points of both teams. Green never looked more like gold.

Who was most likely to raise that precious green flag? Damien Comer and Conor Turbitt were the favourites amongst the bookies but even their odds were hardly worth the risk. Both players ended up only touching the ball a handful of times, far away from the goal. The safest and smartest bet on a goalscorer would have been a defender.

Aaron McKay was still nowhere near that list. He’d only scored one point in his championship career, which had come eight seasons earlier on his championship debut against Down in 2017. McKay’s goal effectively won the All-Ireland, but was it a surprise that it came from him?

No. Barry McCambridge scored his first goal for Armagh in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Roscommon. He followed it up with another goal two weeks later against Kerry. It was that kind of a summer. From the preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final on, nine of the last ten goals in the championship were scored by defenders.

Some of them weren’t pretty – three came from high balls lofted into the square that either deceived or were spilled by the goalkeeper. Two came in the All-Ireland semi-finals; Paul Conroy’s strike against Donegal was a speculative shot from distance that deceived goalkeeper Shaun Patton, who was distracted by Matthew Tierney; McCambridge’s goal against Kerry was smartly palmed to the net after goalkeeper Shane Ryan failed to hold a long ball.

The other goal that day was a palmed effort from Kerry defender Paul Murphy. McKay’s goal in the final was another palmed strike. It didn’t matter how the goals were scored – defenders were scoring them; of the 56 goals scored from play in the All-Ireland series, 50 per cent were from a defender or midfielder.

It was a defenders championship; Craig Lennon, who ended the seasons as Louth’s second ever All-Star, scored 4-7 from play from half-back, which made him the joint-fourth highest scorer from play in the championship.

Lennon scored more from play than David Clifford. Tom O’Sullivan scored just two points less from play than Seán O’Shea; O’Sullivan would have passed out O’Shea if he’d taken one of his two goal chances against Armagh.

O’Sullivan has deservedly earned the right as the modern game’s most prolific scoring defender, but the balance of the game is completely wrong when a defender is almost scoring as much as one of football’s best forwards.

That was a reflection of where football had gone, where fast-paced and attacking defenders had more scope to get into scoring positions that marquee forwards continually ensnared in defensive webs.

Now that the guardians of the game have stepped in to redress that balance, will the new rules limit the influence of scoring defenders in the game? 

“It’s not going to change at all,” says Aaron Kernan, former Armagh player and Sligo’s new defensive coach.

Nobody knows yet how the new game will work out, but counties will probably identify three man-markers, and then have a fourth defender as a sentry, someone who can either double-up on an inside forward, or play as a quasi-sweeper.

Having that fourth defender also gives a licence to one of those defenders playing close to goal to take off if the space opens up in front of him – and keep going.

“Teams are going to have the help if they need it now but, more importantly, those strike runners can keep going,” says Kernan. “If Armagh, for example, have three men back now, Aaron McKay can do what he did so well last year. He can run through the back wall in Hill 16 if he wants.” 

The potential for defenders to keep racking up big numbers now could be far more appealing that it was. “In theory, there should be more space for defenders to attack into, and to score,” says Éamonn Fitzmaurice, a member of the FRC. 

“So while I would expect the balance to go back to the forwards getting more scores, attack-minded defenders will still have loads of opportunities.”

The culture of attacking and scoring defenders was largely a product of how football became so defensive. In a numbers game, the onus was on the opposition to push more men forward and use the ball smartly.

Players like Lee Keegan, Peter Harte and Ryan McHugh changed how defenders attacked but the game become so tactically fluid that defenders were spending so much time in the attacking half of the field that they needed to be shooters as much as stoppers.

McHugh again underlined his class when scoring 1-10 from play in the 2024 championship. He is a special talent but could the new rules allow more defenders with that kind of flair and attacking ambition to flourish?

“I expect a return to the kind of a game that a player like Lee Keegan would have thrived in,” says Kernan. “With hopefully more kicking, the ball going to a half-forward or full-forward can be played off to a defender coming at pace off the shoulder where he’s going for goal or tapping it over the bar.

“Most of the scores defenders were getting was from recycled ball in cramped spaces inside the 45, and shooting from around the D. You rarely saw defenders running onto a ball and kicking from distance because it was all slow, closed attacks. I think you’ll see more fluid defensive scores now.” 

Defenders will be able to time their runs better, as opposed to just standing around the periphery of the attack, waiting for an opening or a line-break. “It’s about being cute again now,” says Kernan. “If I was a wing-back now and was the fourth defender back, I’d be looking up the field and looking for opportunity that wasn’t there before.

“If a smart defender notices that the 12-15 channel is blocked, but there’s a good chance the ball is going to be switched across to the 10-13 channel, there has to be an opening there if that defender comes like a train into that space. You’re going back to that kind of a game again because more players should be running from deep.” 

Fitzmaurice agrees: “One of the real strengths of players like Tomás Ó Sé, Lee Keegan, Jack McCaffrey, James McCarthy when he was in the half-back line, was how well they picked their time to go and have a real impact. I think you’ll see more of that type of play again. The new rules will promote more decision making on the hoof, rather than everything been practised and routine. Our players are so good, I think they’re really going to enjoy that.” 

The balance of the game should shift now back to where it needs to be. Forwards will get more chances to score now in quick attacks. But so will defenders.