The Down-Low on Saturday night

Right, where do I begin? I'm still trying to get my head around Saturday night in Esler

Division 2?

First of all, if you are expecting this blog post to call for AOR's head you can stop reading now. It's not the solution it's time for reflection and not for making any rash decisions.

If you are still here, good. Lets discuss the nights events and see where we can go from here.

The Start.
Down were favourites to win on the night no doubt about that, we were the underdogs all along. As they are all but a Division 1 team, to win, we needed everything to go for us on the night. 

Right from the get-go that didn't materalise.

Straightaway, we made life easy for Down, even before any ball was thrown in...by the way the team lined out.

I'm not talking about personnel or attitude. I'm simply talking about how our team walked up to their starting positions and shaking hands with their marker.




This would be fine or a non issue if we lined out as per programme, but the team lined out as per our game plan positional switches and all! We were always going to make positional switches, but for all of players to do so before the game it effectively making life easy for Down and their markers. 

I'll explain further, I'll chose Bevan Duffy as an example. He was named to start in midfield but he wanders out to the wing before throw in. The half back now knows, the Down midfield now knows and the Down management see the switch and worse for us, they have time to react. 

Whatever chance of confusing the opposition and gaining an initiative is now gone. So annoying.

The whole point of positional switches is to create confusion in the oppostion and for us to hopefully catch them unaware and gain an upperhand. School boy stuff.



Gameplan 

The extra defender is not working for us....it's working for the opposition but it shouldn't be persisted with. It is too hard to play at the best of times nevermind without our full team.

Management should swallow their pride and scrap it.

Playing with five forwards means they have an extra man back there, Our major problem is in this area. We are so loose to picking up runners from deep and good teams like Down will punish you for it. and they really did punish us.
There was little or no pressure on the ball coming in and you had to feel sorry for our inside defenders who stood no chance of getting near their markers.

As well as that, it has a knock on effect on positions and players roles within the team. 


PK is running around like a mad man and killing himself. Credit to him and his work ethic but he is everywhere bar midfield...he does less with the Pats, a club side!

Frustratingly it's having a detrimental effect on the team. It allows others to hide and pass the buck  marking responsibility wise.




and 

in the end, we have no shape or discipline.

We need to simplify the gameplan and get right back down to basics.

It could be as simple as playing the player in their correct positions.

Reido left half back not right half back.
Bevan Duffy in midfield not on the wing.
Paddy Reilly centre back not in middle.

In case you didn't notice, these 3 were then taken off, bit of a coincidence? I think not!

Crisis in Confidence.


It's as clear as Pairc Esler's floodlights, that the whole team is lacking in confidence. 

When you aren't confident, you aren't playing freely you end up making bad decisions and silly mistakes.It drains every drop of energy from your body no matter how fit you are.

Perfect example is Colm Judge kicking a scorable free short and then the move broke down when he was well able to score and did so in the same area in the second half.
 
For me, alot of this crisis in confidence stems from AOR's brother and selector, Martin on the line, his demeanour does nothing to help matters. He is the first point of contact if they do something wrong and he really lets the players know if they've done something wrong.

You'll probly be thinking that the players are not babies and should be man enough to take the flak but, from my experience the players are the first to know when they've done something wrong and it's definitely not needed, when things aren't going well in the first place!

I hate to keep harping on about Kickouts but at least Gally is trying to work on them there is no jackpot without a gamble, so when one goes wrong and he gets berated how is he expected to hit the next one when he is under such scrutiny!?

Reality Check



Finally, a mention to Down in all this, they showed us a level of intensity physicality we've not experienced in a long time and we were simply not able for it. 
They showed us the difference in decision making under pressure of a division one side compared to us, a lower Division 2 side and we were just not able to get there.

It didn't help we took to the field without our best forward Lennon and in form defender Pop. However I'm not making excuses, that is why we want to play in these high Divisions, to learn and improve. Hopefully we become better for it and all the while building towards championship.

The Down-low on the game is simple, it was a Reality check, not only for me but for Louth fans in general. We must and will learn from it. Roll on Monaghan!


Thanks for reading,

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