You also need good scoring forwards for any defensive system to work. McNulty was a bit unlucky that we didn't have an over flowing stick of them for his last two years. Still though, we competed with tier one teams and were only beaten by the reigning all Ireland champions to knock us out in his last 2 years.
What followed in the next 2 years best forgotten about.
There's no doubt about Cunninghams influence. It is early days. As Cork hurlers found out against Tipp, you can't develop a sweeper system in just 8 weeks. Sure we are finding out feet, but it was always going to be brutal against Armagh. They are also very defensive. Effectively what you had last Saturday was both teams retreating with 13 players to their own '45 when they lost the ball. It looks completely different against Dublin when you are breaking into a half an acre of space.
The thing about this system is that it is effective. Effective against tier 1 counties as it provides protection for your full back line and effective against your own level because you will never concede high scores. Let's just put it this way, would we have conceded 5 goals to Derry playing like we did last Saturday.
The previous comment was correct in saying that McNulty fell down because we didn't know what to do with the ball once we had it, we have better forwards now, so we just have to utilise them better. But it will take time. I mean at this stage, so we even know our six best forwards?
It's scrappy and looks awful but it's a hell of a lot better than having Derry or Galway saunter down the middle of your defence scoring at will.
Finally, it's going to be tight again on Saturday, but beating Armagh twice should see us have the composure to see out a tight game. I think we'll win 0-14 to 0-13 or something like that. Wouldn't be surprised if we were behind for a lot of it, Clare are a good well drilled side.
Them if we got Sligo at home and then Tipperary in Tullamore, we could potentially be having a cut off the Connaught champions for a place in an all Ireland semi. That's the dream. That's why inter county players for Laois put in so much effort.
There's a great opportunity here, the systems not perfect, the football maybe tough to watch but the lads will leave it all on the field and I for one, am fairly happy with where we are now, and where we are going. Up Laois!!
What followed in the next 2 years best forgotten about.
There's no doubt about Cunninghams influence. It is early days. As Cork hurlers found out against Tipp, you can't develop a sweeper system in just 8 weeks. Sure we are finding out feet, but it was always going to be brutal against Armagh. They are also very defensive. Effectively what you had last Saturday was both teams retreating with 13 players to their own '45 when they lost the ball. It looks completely different against Dublin when you are breaking into a half an acre of space.
The thing about this system is that it is effective. Effective against tier 1 counties as it provides protection for your full back line and effective against your own level because you will never concede high scores. Let's just put it this way, would we have conceded 5 goals to Derry playing like we did last Saturday.
The previous comment was correct in saying that McNulty fell down because we didn't know what to do with the ball once we had it, we have better forwards now, so we just have to utilise them better. But it will take time. I mean at this stage, so we even know our six best forwards?
It's scrappy and looks awful but it's a hell of a lot better than having Derry or Galway saunter down the middle of your defence scoring at will.
Finally, it's going to be tight again on Saturday, but beating Armagh twice should see us have the composure to see out a tight game. I think we'll win 0-14 to 0-13 or something like that. Wouldn't be surprised if we were behind for a lot of it, Clare are a good well drilled side.
Them if we got Sligo at home and then Tipperary in Tullamore, we could potentially be having a cut off the Connaught champions for a place in an all Ireland semi. That's the dream. That's why inter county players for Laois put in so much effort.
There's a great opportunity here, the systems not perfect, the football maybe tough to watch but the lads will leave it all on the field and I for one, am fairly happy with where we are now, and where we are going. Up Laois!!