TOO EASY…Kieran Donaghy had it far too handy at Pairc Esler

Down are experiencing a very difficult time at present after a real rocky end to 2015. Indeed it is now nearly a full year, 5th April – a home win against Laois, since Down actually beat an inter-county side in a competitive game.

That run is stretching eight games now, something that can be very damaging to a player’s psychological state going into games.

We can listen to all sorts of nonsense about the players that aren’t there, we are rebuilding, it’s a young team. Ok whatever, but one thing that totally mystified me on Sunday was how bereft we are of a well-rehearsed and coached possession re-start policy from our kick-outs, which totally had a bearing on the first half dominance of Kerry.

It was clearly evident on Sunday past Down were getting cleaned out in the middle third on re-starts, there was even occasions when Kieran Donaghy was reaching for the ball with only one hand, it was verging on the level of embarrassment.

So when Down knew they would be faced with this type of physically superior opposition, why the midfield restarts were not completely avoided is beyond me. Possession re-start strategies at inter-county level have become extremely important, the key goal on any re-start from the goalkeeper or outfield player, if we consider restarts to be kick-outs, side line balls, free kicks from outside the scoring zone, is to retain possession of the ball at all costs.

It’s important to remember though that re-starts from the goalkeeper should not just be his sole responsibility alone to make sure that it is successful.

Obviously the placement of the restart, the height, the pace etc., are all controlled by him but more importantly he must have options on his re-starts, and that comes from outfield players providing options with some lateral movement, decoy runs, possibly a basketball type screen on an opponent, well before the goalkeeper is actually on the verge of kicking, something which is going to help find that little yard of space which is crucial to the accomplishment of the re-start.

Last season the Ulster GAA sports Science department completed an analysis of kick-out patterns in the Ulster Senior Football Championship, some of the results were very interesting.

Over 330 kick-outs were analysed and were broken into three types, short inside 45m, mid between 45-65m and long beyond 65m. There were more long kick-outs than any of the other two but interestingly of the 120 short kick outs, possession was gained by the kicking team approx. 96% of the time.

On top of these stats, it was found that kick-out possession would lead to a shot at least once in every two re-starts, phenomenal statistics.

Obviously you have to be careful with statistics like this but if you consider there are approximately 25 possession re-starts from a goalkeeper per game and you manage to keep possession on these re-starts, then you are basically creating approximately 12 scoring chances a game or possibly more, hence why it’s become a massive part of the modern game.

Is it any wonder Dublin are so effective at possession restarts? A number of years ago Dublin made sure there was a goalkeeping coach involved with every single academy team from u-14 right through to minor level to help not just improve the basics of goalkeeping as in the handling, agility etc but more importantly in their kicking technique.

Goalkeepers were coached technique from a very early age, not to force their kicking as they’ll lose their technique but to be more measured and accurate with their kicking.

They started teams working on heavier weighted balls so come match day the ball felt like a balloon, the kicking tee sizes were reduced to near ground level so as to help them simulate a turf of grass when coming up to strike a 45 or long-range free, they also time the ’keepers to speed the process of re-starts up, Cluxton use to take close to 20 seconds, now he’s down to under 10 seconds. Dublin realise the massive importance of the possession re-start, Down fans left Newry on Sunday scratching their heads wondering where do we go from here, well at least there’s a starting point.

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