One constant annoyance for me throughout this winter championship has been the advanced mark. I have this nagging fear that it could decide - and therefore ruin - what promises to be a very special All-Ireland final.
I suppose there should be no surprise that it has come down to Dublin and Mayo again. My sense is that these few weeks, strange as they are, will be very special for both squads. The championship has been a success and hugely significant in helping the country through a brutally tough few months.
I was lucky enough to be involved with a few All-Ireland finals with Donegal. But when I reflect on the biggest of all days it is memories from the distant past that come to mind. I’m back in Glenties in national school and All-Ireland final day is sort of a Christmas day in its own right. Those occasions were always very special - Sunday dinner of roast beef, ice cream and jelly and tea and digestives.
And then everyone into the living room for the game. We had these big green drapes that darkened the room and blocked out the daylight. The television was turned up. I don’t have many clear memories of the games but so many seemed to feature Kerry versus Dublin. And Michael O hEithir’s voice. It was the ritual- the family coming together and also knowing the whole county, the whole country, was doing the same thing that made the occasion resonate. It was the pinnacle of the year for so many people.
I am still waiting for that moment of electricity to be created by the mark
Fast forward to this year: a pandemic and all the uncertainty and feeling lucky that the championship even went ahead. We have seen very tough games and weather conditions and two fairytale stories and after everything, it boils down to the two teams with a history of very tight tough All-Ireland final encounters over the past decade.
The advanced mark
But a specific feature of this winter has been the advanced mark. To my mind, it is an abomination and it completely destroys the brilliant history of defenders versus forwards which have defined so many All-Ireland championships.
I am thinking here of old, famous match-ups, like Kieran McKeever and James McCartan or Martin O Connell and Vinnie Murphy or Marc Ó Sé and Bernard Brogan: it’s a long list. But in those duels, the ball being kicked to the corner was not the end of the action. It was the beginning. The forward races out to catch a ball and receives it and his defender is primed: Ok you have caught it but can you beat me? And that is when the jolt of lightning went through the crowd. What would happen next?
I am still waiting for that moment of electricity to be created by the mark. I don’t believe I will ever see it. A ball is kicked in chest height on the diagonal about 25 metres. And then the catcher puts his hand up and kicks a rudimentary point. And that is what this rule has been reduced to. If you think about Peter Canavan or Michael Murphy or Con O’Callaghan: a prerequisite of inside forward play is to win your own ball. Should the mere fact of catching a pass threaded through a space of 20 metres earn you a handy score? If you coach at Under-12 level and a kid drops a chest high catch you would be disappointed. It is a basic skill.
For me, the mark is an example of the focus of improving the game moving away from soft skills - defending and ball skills - to an emphasis on gym, gym, gym. And this new rule suits the player with a certain physical profile.
The mark does nothing other than kill the momentum of games in critical moments when the stadium normally comes alive. And looking at the way the rules have been applied, there is no contest in it. There is a loophole in the system which allows forwards to kick handy points which are literally free kicks. In championship football, when games are finely poised, you had to earn scores which might decide games. And it does a disservice to the history of players who fought for every single millimeter of space to earn their score.
All the courage and skill it takes to create a score in open play is removed from the equation
The mark originated in Australian Rules. But: we are Irish. And Gaelic football is an indigenous sport. And I think we are looking around too much and pulling rules and adaptations from every conceivable place in a misguided attempt to ‘improve’ a game which, arguably, has never been better than it is right now.
I feel there is a doomsday scenario here. Imagine this. There are just seconds to go in the All-Ireland final. Dublin and Mayo have taken each other to the edge again. The country is at home, riveted.
For me, this is the perfect storm. Look at the way teams set up now. The system is man to man plus one. The top of the D is being protected so the ball is recycled out around the 45 a lot of the time. And that means you are in that kicking zone for the mark. And if a player inside jinks one way, goes the other way and catches that pass, that move can win the All-Ireland final. All the courage and skill it takes to create a score in open play is removed from the equation.
So I think that if the team in possession is chasing a score with a minute to go, it will come from a set play in open play built around the mark. You can already see teams working on it- forwards clearing to one side and leaving one guy free on the other side of the pitch, isolated with a defender and with loads of space to come and claim a ball.
Antithesis
And if you think about how hard it is to win an All-Ireland, the concept of championship football: it really is the antithesis of everything we hold dear. And that moment that we are speaking about has always meant that courage and skill must collide. That is no longer as relevant.
Everything about it, from the moment the player raises his hand, is a huge anti climax
I did a little work with a team in Louth this autumn and I couldn’t bring myself to coach the damn thing. I knew there were handy scores in it but I hated it so much that I just couldn’t coach it. I spoke to the other coaches and they were fine with that. I was just back in Ireland and I really resented it. I don’t think it is part of our game. Now: If I was in an All-Ireland with Donegal, of course I would have to coach it. It would be negligent not too. But I would also wish it was not there.
When I think about myself as a youngster watching those All-Irelands, I think now of the players next weekend also watching previous finals a decade ago. And I know for sure that when they imagined themselves playing finals in their back gardens and inevitably kicking the winning score, it was a more glorious ending in their minds than an advanced mark to win it an All-Ireland. Everything about it, from the moment the player raises his hand, is a huge anti climax.
I feel strongly that it has to be abolished. If the GAA try to dig their heels in and produce statistics that makes excuses for the rule, then two things need to happen.
One would be: it must be kicked from outside the 65 to anywhere inside the 45. With the current rule, kicking from outside the 45, you are simply threading a pass. At least from the 65, you have to truly kick long.
And two: the ball should be caught overhead. At least that gives the defender a fighting chance to get tight and judge the flight of the ball and maybe try to break it. Right now, defenders don’t have a chance. A forward can push off and move and win the ball at the edge of the D. Is the forward going to get blown for that push? No. It happens a hundred times a game.
Finally, it leaves the defender in a hugely vulnerable place for that half second between his opponent catching the ball and either raising his hand for the mark of playing on. There is always that half second of a hesitation. And that dynamic is not in place in Aussie Rules because you are kicking for a goal anyway. But in Gaelic football, a forward may have a goal on his mind. The defender doesn’t know that. So he has all of these extra doubts to contend with - as well as the bag of tricks the forward possesses. So the whistle blows and there may be a split second where the defender thinks the mark will be played. And then the forward blows by and it is too late to do anything about it.
We can only hope that the magic of Christmas and the All-Ireland is not destroyed by this daft and needless imposition.
