Jack O'Connor: Playing gung ho football is not living in the real world
The Kerry manager says it wasn't one for the pursits but maintains kicking in more ball against Derry's defence wouldn't have worked.
Jack O’Connor says anyone claiming Kerry should have played more 'gung-ho football' in this afternoon’s All-Ireland final quarter-final victory over Derry at Croke Park is not living in the real world.
Kerry booked an All-Ireland semi-final slot against Armagh in a fortnight’s time on a 0-15 to 0-10 scoreline but it was a hard watch.
The game was almost the exact opposite of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final classic, which Kerry pulled out of the fire in the last 10 minutes to win 1-17 to 1-15.
Read Next: Andy Moran on his future with Leitrim, Aidan O'Shea and Kevin McStay
Derry had real opportunities to win that one, but in today’s rematch Kerry held them comfortably at arm’s length from the hour mark onwards, where they led 0-10 to 0-7.
In the opening half, only four kickouts were challenged with both sides withdrawing every player behind the ball to defend in an ugly enough affair with space at a premium in the two defences.
Derry had just five scores from play to Kerry’s nine, and their only forward who scored other than Shane McGuigan with five points was Paul Cassidy with one.
Jack O’Connor felt Kerry stood off Derry too much in the first half and outlined how they made a pact at half-time to go at Mickey Harte’s side more aggressively.
“I definitely felt we needed to bring more energy to the game and we spoke about that at half-time,” said O’Connor.
“But like, if you think you can play a kind of gung-ho open football against that type of structure then that’s not living in the real world.
“The last thing you need to be doing is kicking away loose ball to a team like that who can seriously hurt you on the counterattack because of their pace.
“So you can’t blame players for being a little bit cautious. But we spoke at half-time of players being a little bit braver - being more energetic. If that’s trying to open up the game then that’s the language you need to use.”
When it was pointed out to O’Connor that Kerry only kicked one ball inside in the first half and that David Clifford took a huge mark to score, he said: “David Clifford caught it between two Derry men.
“It wasn’t as if it was one-on-one. So like, you can kick in the odd one of those balls, 100 percent. But most of the time, if there’s two v one, the two are going to come out with it.
"It’s such an energy-sapping game to play. Giving away the ball kills you. So I can see why players are a bit cautious.
“But I agree, we needed to bring more energy which we did in the second half.
“We needed to be braver and commit more players ahead of the ball to allow pivots develop and runners coming off. It’s a different game.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of space to kick ball inside. That’s credit to Derry. They blocked up those channels.”
O’Connor said nothing about the type of game that unfolded surprised him after Derry’s recent run of results, which included bad defeats by Donegal, Armagh and Galway, before they recovered to beat Westmeath and Mayo.
"Look, Derry got bitten two or three times in the last six or eight weeks,” said O’Connor.
“They were bound to go back to a more structured, defensive type of game, which they did against Mayo. So it was no surprise to us that they were as defensive as they were.
“But I just felt that if we hung in there, we might have the legs in the last 15 minutes because of the freshness that we had coming into the game.
“Derry, going to extra time against Mayo eight days ago was bound to take a bit out of them. I don’t care how much recovery they did. And I thought it did maybe in the last 15 minutes.”
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
