Kick-outs will be key battle ground against Kildare

Opinion

This is a winnable game for Cavan but they will need to brush up on kick-outs, writes DAMIEN DONOHOE.

With the shadow boxing of the McKenna Cup over, Saturday will see Cavan take on Kildare in Netwatch Cullen Park, Carlow in the Division 2 league opener. New manager Raymond Galligan could really do with a win to get the momentum moving in the right direction after two defeats in the pre-season competition.

It was never going to be easy to jump into the role of Cavan senior football manager without having experienced the role of manager at any level before, but you can see his imprint on the team’s style of play.

In the opener of the McKenna Cup in Kingspan Breffni against Ulster champions Derry, there were no signs of a Cavan sweeper. It was man-to-man football with each man responsible for his direct opponent.

Where Mickey Harte’s side got the better of Cavan was the use of Jack Cassidy wearing number one. While Derry had possession of the ball, Cassidy was playing outfield in a free role. At times, there was pressure applied to Cassidy and Cavan really should have punished Derry when they caught him out of his goals - and the same could be said for the Down game.

Cavan struggled to create enough scoring chances in the Derry game with 17 compared to Derry’s 23 which is much closer to the number a winning team usually produces. For example, Kerry created 27 to Cork’s 25 in their match that went to penalties last weekend and Down created 33 when they beat Cavan in Newry.

Cavan did show a greater ability to engineer chances in Newry as they hit a total of 28 shots, scoring 16 times, which would win most games.

Defensively that evening, things were going well until Killian Clarke was taken off. At that stage, Cavan led 1-9 to 0-6 but lost the remainder of the game 2-9 to 0-6 with Clarke’s man Pat Havern kicking five points after Clarke had left the field. In moving the Shercock clubman to full-back, Galligan has freed up Padraig Faulkner to play more on the front foot and break lines in the middle third while not taking from the defensive strengths of the team, with Clarke equally as comfortable wearing the number three jersey.

In attack, we’ve seen more direct ball played to the full-forward line with James Smith and Oisin Brady particularly effective inside when this tactic has been applied. It’s something that supporters are most likely to get behind because it creates contests in the area of the field that yields most scores.

We have also seen Cavan players taking on their man quite a bit and with the likes of Niall Carolan, Padraig Faulkner, James Smith, Oisin Kiernan, Patrick Lynch and Oisin Brady all comfortable doing that, it should yield positive gains.

Brady was the outstanding player for Cavan in the McKenna cup scoring nine points from play in two games. His pace, power and accuracy off both feet means that when he has run at a defender, he has mostly came out on top.

A big area for concern and probably a major reason for the defeat in Newry was possession won from kick-outs. In that game, there were 45 kick-outs in total, but Cavan won just 18 of them.

Down had 20 kick-outs and won 17 (85%) of them while Cavan had 25 and won 15 (60%). In a first half in which Cavan built up a two-point half-time lead, they had 12 kick-outs and won 10 (83%) of them but in the second half when John O’Hare came up to block one side of the field, Cavan only won five of their 13 restarts (38%). A lot of the lost possession was on longer kick-outs where Cavan were well beaten on breaking ball.

With all of the above in mind, what do Cavan need to do to get their first win of the season this weekend?

In attack, they will need to create close to 30 chances and if they take 75% of them, it would give them a very strong chance of winning. Brady will need to continue in his current form, but others are going to have to chip in with more as the attention on him from opposition grows.

If Cavan can get a goal from a fast counter-attack, which they have come close to doing on at least four occasions, then it will be a big score and confidence-builder.

Cavan’s half-backs need to break lines and beat their man to create that important overlap. On several occasions against Derry, Carolan did this, but he needed a trailing/support run with him to lay off to when he hit the defensive wall. When the overlap is created, it’s important that it’s continued with support runners until the conclusion of the attack.

Above all else, the winning or losing of Saturday’s game will come down to kick-outs. Cavan have to do better than they did in the Down game on their own restarts and have to win more of Kildare’s. Kick-outs are such a massive part of the game now because they account for so much of the possession a team gets in a game.

It was once the keeper’s job to send it as long as possible and let his outfield teammates fight for it. Then it became just about retaining the ball regardless of how close to your own goals you were. Now, it’s about winning possession in the most advanced position possible.

Cavan, in the past few years, have had some exceptional ball-winners, in particular Gearoid McKiernan and Thomas Galligan, but neither are on the squad at present and without obvious replacements at their level, a new strategy most be deployed.

Movement by the players out the field will make the goalkeeper’s job easier and the three lads battling for the number one jersey have all shown they can hit their targets.

The opposition kick-out is the area of highest risk and highest reward. If Cavan can win some of the Kildare kick-outs and turn them into scores, they are worth so much more than their value on the scoreboard. At the start of the game against Down, Galligan set up with a zonal press which had four players in the full-forward line and four in the half-forward line, which was aggressive and brave.

Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful because the players didn’t follow the tactic to its end. Once the ball was in a Down player’s hands, it appeared like the pressure was off him.

On a number of occasions, goalkeeper O’Hare went short to the edge of the D, but the Cavan players didn’t all rush to push him backwards and restrict his passing options. Instead, the receiver of the kick-out got his pass away to another outfield player which meant O’Hare was now back in play. If they go with a zonal press against Kildare, they must swarm the area the kick is sent to and fully commit to winning back the ball.

If Cavan go for a man-for-man press on the Lilywhites’ kick-out, which they did for long spells Derry and Down, then they may need to bring up the goalkeeper to block one side of the field to give them a chance of turning it over. One thing that could be used to do this which involves less running for the number one is allow him to come out and mark a Kildare attacker and free up a defender to give the extra body needed as a deterrent to kick to one side of the field.

There have been positive signs so far this year, but they haven’t delivered positive results and sport at this level is all about results so hopefully Saturday is the start of a run of wins this year. With a couple of bodies back, Cavan should have enough to get the win and get the league off to a perfect start.