More Piggery is good for Football

IN ALL FAIRNESS

I can’t say I have heard the word ‘Piggery’ used in a sporting parlance before last Sunday but Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney’s reference the contest for possession from a kick-out in the middle of the field as such, is one that is going to stick.

Among the raft of rule changes brought into improve Gaelic Football in the last fourteen months or so, the two-point arc has been seen by many as the main success story. It’s not surprising as there is something beautiful about a sweetly struck shot from distance, and the fans of the kicking team knowing from a fair way out that it is going to dissent the posts and lead to the raising of an orange flag.

I have been particularly surprised the willingness of teams to have a go at them more often than I expected, particularly at the end of games when only a point might separate the sides, with Meath in particular a keen proponent of going for two and the win, instead of working the ball closer to goal and improving their chances of getting a point and at least not losing a game by taking a draw.

It shows what a mindset shift can do where players now feel emboldened to take on the opportunity whereas less than two years ago, they would have been told not to take it on as it would have been too risky. The risk wasn’t just that they would miss the opportunity, it was about handing the ball back to the opposition, either by the shot dropping short or going wide thereby giving the opposition the kickout.

It is from here where I think the most impactful rule change has come with the kickout having to go beyond the two-point arc. It is still an option, particularly if the inside forwards sit off and allow the inside backs to take possession uncontested, however, more and more kickouts are going long, and into the “piggery” as Kieran McGeeney described it.

I can understand it from his point of view; managers are control freaks and look to put a team together to play the game to their strengths and that is what Armagh did to win the 2024 All-Ireland Final. However, as a spectacle, it will go down as one of the worst All-Ireland Finals of all time, all out defence from both Armagh and Galway, leading to long periods of nothing, with spontaneity effectively coached out of players as it was too risky.

The new rules have thankfully taken the control of the game from the conservative managers and coaches and back into the hands of the players to make the decisions themselves on the field, and the game as a spectacle is benefitting as a whole, seen by the bumper crowds in the first three rounds of the league, even with the poor weather we have been having.

The long kickout has led to a number of things. 1 – the return of the high catch in the middle which is one of the most beautiful sights in the game; 2 – if the ball breaks to the ground, there is now a contest for possession where you get a glimpse of which side is hungrier and up for the game; 3 – it also allows for big swings in momentum.

Prior to the new rules, you rarely saw teams getting a scoring run on an opponent. If a team was under pressure, they could easily work a short kickout to secure possession and get up the field. Now, teams with the upper hand can push up on the kickout and force an opponent to go long an at least create a 50-50 battle for possession where a short kickout is almost a 100% success rate.

The likes of Jack O’Shea, Dermot Earley, and Brian Fenton type midfielder was almost becoming extinct prior to the new rules but the tall and strong midfielder is now back in vogue, and while it might be just a coincidence, that Cork and Meath are improved over the last year or so might be down to this change, two counties with a tradition of producing powerhouse midfielders.

The Tipperary v Carlow game on Sunday had all those aspects. When Carlow got a run on Tipp either side of half time with nine unanswered points, much of it was down to forcing Tipp to go long with their kickout, winning either primary or breaking ball, and not allowing the home side to get out of their own half for a significant spell. It was the same in the closing stages when Tipp turned the momentum back in their favour and ultimately had the chances to equalise or indeed in the game before coming up just short.