Billy Joe Padden: Colm Reape proved me wrong

IT was always going to be a difficult task to go to Croke Park and play Dublin. This time obviously, with the new rules in play, it was a challenge for all parties involved and Kevin McStay, his backroom team and the players will have a lot to talk about this week. They had an opportunity to pick up two points against a relatively inexperienced Dublin team but didn't take it.

There are lessons to be learned from Saturday night, so let's try and tease out some of them.

The game ebbed and flowed from start to finish. For the first 15 minutes, it was really concerning to watch. Mayo were all over the place defensively. They weren't sure whether they were playing man-to-man or a zonal system. This left them with bodies defending the 14-yard line and bodies defending the 45, and between those lines, they didn't have anyone. That's the space that Dublin were exploiting by running into it and flooding bodies.

KICK-OUT WORRIES

ANOTHER factor for Dublin's early success was the press they were able to put on the Mayo kick-out. Colm Reape was under severe pressure early on, particularly on those long kick-outs. Now, with the change in the rules so many more of the, the kick-outs are going to have to be long. 

Mayo were under severe pressure, and that created great turnover opportunities for Dublin. Suddenly Mayo were down by six points and you're thinking, this could be a long night.

But in the second quarter, Reape got a lot of short kick-outs to the wing, notably out to the Cusack Stand side. This spread the play, eased the pressure and they showed a lot of character to come back and take the lead.

One aspect I really liked in the second quarter was Mayo being more aggressive on the longer kick-outs, picking up breaks from both ends. I've highlighted this over a number of years: Not being great on those long kick-outs really cost us in that All-Ireland final against Tyrone.

ALL FORWARDS SCORED

AS a traditionalist, I don’t really like the fact that the goalkeeper is out the field the whole time, but now it’s a situation where there are times when the goalkeeper might be your most important attack player. There'll be some goalkeepers out the country that’ll be just crying at this if they don't have the athleticism or footballing skills to get up and down, or if they're not good enough footballers to make a contribution.

I said on a podcast a couple of months ago, that I didn’t think Reape was a good enough footballer to be coming up the field. He’s surely proven me wrong because he made a couple of really good contributions, obviously kicked a score, set up another one. He’s really shoving it down my throat, and I’m delighted to see him do that.

The positive of the first half was all six Mayo forwards got on the score sheet by half-time. When has that happened before for Mayo?

Two-pointers are important. Not only are they important, shooters are important. I think you can probably afford to field a player that mightn’t be as strong, mightn’t be as fast. If he’s a good shooter, you can play him now because he's just going to get a little bit more space, which means more opportunities to shoot.

If you take Fergal Boland for example. There have been times previously when he just hasn’t been able to find the space to swing his boot, but against Dublin he kicked a great two-pointer and missed a couple of other ones that he will be absolutely gutted not to have got.

In some respects, Boland, Frank Irwin and Paul Towey can be very valuable forwards with the new rules. They'll have a bit more space to swing their legs at the ball and they’re good shooters.

SPACING NEEDED

THE optimism of the second quarter was drained out of me in the second half. In the early stages, Dublin dominated the kick-out area again and as the half progressed Mayo went short and drew a lot of pressure. Rory Brickenden got caught with one and a little later we got caught in the right cornerback position and couldn’t get the ball out. In other years you would use the goalkeeper to get out, but the new rules don’t allow that.

Mayo only scored five points in the second half which was poor. They have a lot of work to do in that area and Kevin McStay won’t enjoy the statistics. At one stage eight Mayo shots had dropped short and there were a few more before the end.

There was a stage where our shot conversion rate was down on 50 percent or below, whereas in the first half it had been much better. I can’t remember offhand, but however many two-pointers Mayo attempted, they only got one. Those are the sort of things that Mayo have to learn.

Sometimes you’ve got to have a feel for the game state, as they say in soccer. If you’ve missed a couple of two-pointers already, you have to think: Is it worth our while working it in closer and getting a one-pointer? It seems to me that the Mayo attacking strategy so far was all about two-pointers because they tried a lot.

They had too many players out around the two-point arc when they needed more diversified spacing. You need nearly three lines of attackers when you get into that situation. Three layers of depth. Whereas Mayo just looked like they had two-point players and inside players. And I don’t think that’s going to be enough. That way you’re not going to create enough space even around that two-point arc to get a comfortable shot away. 

Now it’s about putting a game plan in place that can find those players in space more often so that top-quality shots can be attempted. Every opportunity to improve must be taken and the next chance to do so will be an interesting one when Galway come to Castlebar on Sunday afternoon.