Hamstrings, half-time and flowing football
The talking points which emerged from Sunday's All-Ireland
Football Final are many and varied and no doubt the poor souls of
Kildare could add a few to my list.
The first thing that took my eye was the passages of sustained
play, particularly in the first half. We have become used to
football matches with fifty or sixty fouls and had almost
forgotten what an open, free-flowing sport it can be. So Sunday's
match was a marvellous renewal of our faith - it was like making
up with an old friend.
The long periods of play without stoppages also showed that in
the first half Kildare and Galway were very evenly matched, very
fit and very positive. Neither went out to illegally cramp the
other's style.
The second point worth mentioning is the triumph of the direct
style of play. Galway try to get the ball to their forwards as
quickly as possible, whereas Kildare favour the hand-pass to
slowly work the ball out of defence. Galway's style is more
attractive and also pleases the purists. Kicking the ball
accurately over long distances makes for exciting football. It
also makes for winning football, adding more evidence to the
theory that the hand-passing game is not the best strategy.
Of course the biggest talking point is how Galway came out at the
start of the second half and in ten minutes turned a three point
deficit into a four point advantage. They blitzed Kildare before
they knew what had happened them. The Galway players put their
resurgence down to a half-time talk which refocused them on a
game plan which they had been following all year. In that first
half they felt they lacked the necessary sharpness.
They also spoke about a mysterious ``Eric'' from Glasgow who over
the past year has coached them psychologically. Some of them
attributed a large part of their success to him. Galway corner
forward Derek Savage said afterwards: ``We were nervous, but we
had done work about getting that nervous tension into something
positive out on the pitch, converting it to power. We just
exploded in the second half.''
By contrast, Kildare were sluggish. It's harder to explain why,
but going in a goal up may have led to a sense of complacency. My
own view is that hamstring injuries to two key Kildare defenders
finally caught up with them.
I have become familiar with hamstring injuries because I picked
one up last week. ``Picked up'' is definitely the wrong phrase; the
injury hit me as if I had been shot. The muscles ripped in the
back of my leg as I sprinted. I'm told that if only a few muscle
fibres have torn, the recovery time can be as short as a week.
With more serious tears, it can take 3-4 months.
The temptation is always to resume training too soon, resulting
in a chronic injury which may regularly reappear. If you do
return too soon, I can understand how you would be unable to
perform at full speed.
Brian Lacey and Glen Ryan both had hamstring injuries. Brian
Lacey was perhaps the best corner back in Ireland this year. In
the modern game that means he had explosive speed. Long gone are
the days of the big corner back whose meaty hands could catch and
clout with equal ease. Today they are short and fast, preferably
the quickest men on a team. On Sunday Brian Lacey didn't shine.
Glen Ryan was Kildare's inspirational captain and it's not hard
to see why he lined out. But at the start of the second half, the
man he was marking - Ja Fallon - won the game for Galway.
The prevalence of hamstring injuries indicates how the game - and
training for it - has changed. Hamstring injuries are sprinters'
injuries. Football is a game of sprints and quick recovery
periods and modern training takes account of that. The way to
avoid hamstring injuries is to increase flexibility, that is to
constantly do stretching exercises as part of training. Perhaps a
lesson for Kildare next year?
Praise is due to a magnificent Tyrone minor side who beat Laois
at a canter, thanks to two powerful first half goals. They lost
the final last year to Laois who were going for an incredible
three-in-a-row. It will be worth watching the progress of these
counties' U-21 and senior teams in yesr to come.
By Brian Campbell
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)