GAA Hurling 2017

First noticed this lad at last years drawn SF between us & KK. There were a queue of young lads going over to him getting their photos/selfies with him. We hadn't a notion who he was, so one of the lads went & asked him. Buff is something of a social media superstar, if you have a relative or friend around 25 years old or younger who is a hurling fan, they will have heard of him, and will look at you as if you have 2 heads if you tell them you haven't. 

He basically attends every game of hurling in the country, a hurling version of LOI's Tom the Gom if you like, only he has FB, Instagram & twitter pages & things like that. Seems to be a harmless type of lad doing it for the love of the game more than anything else, but he has, whether accidentally or by design (I'm thinking accidentally) managed to connect with a whole generation of young people that, as Larry Ryan pointed out in the Examiner a few weeks back, big marketing companies would pay serious dollars for to access. 

 

But systems do have a place too, in themselves they won't get you over the line, but they can help a lot. Changing systems at a certain point, like we do around the 50-60 minute mark, can be tough on defenders, even experienced ones. You are tuned into Shane Bennett running off toward corners & following him around for an hour, then Shan comes on & stands in one spot waiting for a high ball, totally different skillset required. Same with Brick, darts about here & there around the HF line, usually to good effect, get a handle on him and next thing yer looking at Tommy Ryan or Brian O'Halloran, absolute speed merchants. That sort of thing is difficult for defences to deal with. 

On the other side, cutting out puckouts to certain players by marking them tightly, as WD did on Sunday generally cutting supply to Lehane & Coleman, lessens the chances for the opposition, any high ball going in direction of FF line is no more than a 50/50. No team can get it perfect for an entire game or anything, the opposition will win their share of ball & scores, but these little things can switch a match in your favour in a close game. Not conceding goals will normally keep you in the game, to a degree, til late on, which is the very basic idea behind the sweeper in the first place.