DOWN boss Conor Laverty says the new rules in Gaelic football were “needed” and have “added to the openness of the game” – but that it is being undermined by the 12v11 scenario.
His side found themselves frustrated by Meath’s clever use of goalkeeper Billy Hogan during the first half on Saturday evening.
Afraid to push out and be caught by the overlap, the Down defence sat in. That allowed Meath to slow the game up, most notably during a ten-minute black card spell that they killed with the minimum of fuss.
Robbie Brennan’s impressive Royals, led by Jordan Morris and Eoghan Frayne up front, became the first team to win a 70-minute game in Newry since Laverty took over.
“I think that football needed tweaked in a way,” said Laverty in his first interview addressing the changes.
“It had become boring and very safe and very lateral, and that’s not how we grew up watching the game and how we would all like to play it.
“I would feel it definitely has added to the openness of the game, and has made for more contests and more open football, and particularly the ability to use your foot when possible.
“If we want to use our foot more I still feel having the 12v11 and letting the goalkeeper come up is going to lead to a lot of safeness and a lot of handpassing and a lot of control.
“Meath got ahead with three or four minutes gone, they were able to bring their goalkeeper up and play safe. I think it goes against what we’re trying to do with the rules, I think the rules want to make it more exciting and take that safety blanket out of it.
“It just goes a wee bit against what we’re trying to do. But there are a lot of the rules I really like. I think the tap and go has really added to the game, it’s speeded the game up, particularly for smart players who will be able to seize the moment and use the opportunity.
“I like the three up because it means that teams are able to use their foot with the ball.
“But I think the penalty for a team stepping across the three-up or a mark, to take a score in front of the nets and then the conditions we play in, where there’s some kind of a breeze, there’s opportunities to kick two-pointers, which is a harsh penalty for something so small in the game.”
There was a prominent sense of frustration among the home crowd in that first half as the red and black shirts sat inside the arc.
Asked about his team’s deep defensive shape in the face of Meath’s slow, goalkeeper-led attacks in the first half, Laverty countered.
“What are you gonna do, are you gonna run out and mark the ‘keeper and leave somebody inside standing free? I think that’s where it is.
“Most teams that get possession on a slow play, unless you play by foot, if it’s a slow attack, Meath loaded up with six or seven inside and left a 5v4 or a 4v3 at times and what are you meant to do? It’s a risk-reward thing.
“Yes you want to get after the ball, you want to get out but you’re leaving it from a lower percentage shot to a higher percentage shot because the ball’s being tipped over your head to somebody inside the high percentage scoring range and he’ll take the score.
“It’s inevitable when teams have the ball, they’ll get the shot away. The way it is, it’s just damage limitation. Can you force them far enough outside the high percentage scoring area where they’ll take the shot from?
“But good teams, 90 per cent of the time they’ll get the shot away. I thought Meath’s shot-to-score ratio would have been pretty high there, they didn’t kick a lot of wides. Whenever you have that scoring ratio, you’re gonna score quite heavily.”
His side made a great rally from seven down to bring it back to just two points in the dying minutes, having come from ten down to beat Cork a fortnight earlier.
They scrapped and battled and broke their way into a middle sector that they lost heavily for the first 50 minutes of the game.
Laverty is not the first Down manager to suffer from the county’s lack of natural out-and-out midfielders.
He brought Aaron McClements and Conor Francis on to decent effect in the final quarter but the Kilcoo forward admitted it’s an area of constant concern, particularly with the rules forcing a big change in the kickout battle.
“Listen, it would probably be common knowledge if I’m scanning around club football looking for lads who are over 6’2”, we haven’t produced that type of player in a long time.
“Odhran Murdock is our standout player but is still standing smaller than some of the opponents he’s coming up against. Aaron [McClements] had a good [club] championship, he came in and I thought he had a good impact tonight around the middle.
“It’s something that we definitely hunted far and wide for big men that were able to move quite well. It’s one area that we just aren’t blessed with a number of people.”