Buckley the perfect fit to take Galway to next level
WHENEVER I’m ever asked what good coaching can do for a player, I cast my mind back to the Aghadoe Heights Hotel in early summer 2011.
I was as content as a serial All-Ireland winner could be. I was 31 years old and believed learning at that stage of my career was a foreign concept.
And then Donie Buckley called me aside – he had something to tell me.
At that stage, we were a very orthodox football team. We knew we possessed the quality to sting in attack, but we were very light on structure at the back.
That meant I spent high summers in the company of some of the most lethal forwards in the game – the likes of Andy Moran and the Brogan brothers – staring out at a half acre of unoccupied grass.
To compensate for that yawning space, more often than not I got into the habit of turning my back on the play and simply watched my man and played off his reactions.
That would not have been my way starting out, I studied play, anticipated the ball and then used my speed to get to it, but with the space to defend getting larger and legs getting slower, I changed tack.
Donie saw this too, but he was not having it. I remember in that room he showed me three clips of my man-stalking. And there I was in all my vulnerability, eyes on the forward, back to the play, and defending a huge swathe of grass.
‘Tell me, Marc, I am just wondering how you intend to get the ball from that position?’ he enquired.
And I felt like a university graduate, sent back to national school to learn how to add two and two. It was as valuable a few minutes I ever spent in my time and helped extend my football career.
The correction was simple, but then the best solutions are. Donie told me to change my body position so that I was side-on to the forward instead of the front, keeping one eye on him, the other on developing play.
You might think that is so obvious it hardly needs learning, but when the pressure is on, it is amazing that what seems obvious can be lost in a blur of excitement. After that, whenever I found myself in that position, Donie’s question would echo inside my head.
Opinion is still raw down here after Donie’s departure from the management team last weekend, with the general consensus that everyone is a loser. Donie has lost the chance to coach his native county to All-Ireland glory, Kerry have lose their best coach, while Peter Keane will be under extreme scrutiny for the remainder of the season.
The same kind of scrutiny that Donie’s old team, Mayo, are currently experiencing.
There are any number of reasons why Mayo’s fortunes are on the slide, most obviously a climbing age profile and a mileage clock that a second car salesman would not have the cheek to sell, but Buckley’s absence after six years is hurting.
This is a team that was built on good defence, and a lot of that was down to exceptional quality in the likes of Keith Higgins, Chris Barrett, Lee Keegan and Colm Boyle, but it was also down to Donie getting the best out of them.
What will torment a lot of Mayo heads is the thought of what Donie could do in developing their rising young stars to ensure they make that step to another level, easing Mayo’s considerable transition pains.
Realistically, though, that is not going to happen. But what might happen, although hardly this season, is that Donie will end up next door in Galway.
He is the perfect fit. True, Galway are surfing a wave of momentum and look a topfour team and rising. But, right now, all we are seeing is a team on the front foot. They are not unlike the team I played on in with exceptional quality in attack.
However, their defensive issues haven’t disappeared in the blink of an eye. Kevin Walsh is an astute football man, he didn’t erect a defensive screen for the sake of it.
And, on top of that, because of how the game has evolved over the past 12 to 18 months, allied to Pádraic Joyce’s attackminded philosophy, it is likely that his defence will be asked some stern questions when action finally returns to our fields..
Such is Joyce’s charisma, Donie’s talent and Galway’s potential that I believe Kerry and Mayo’s loss could be the Tribesmen’s gain, when the ball is thrown in next year.
There is a sense that Galway have now put clear water between themselves and their neighbours and should the League defy the coronavirus and conclude, I expect Mayo to be relegated from the game’s top flight.
That will give them more time to think about the good days when Donie was there.
Kerry’s time for reflection may yet be to come.
Someone will also end up a winner out of this.
Right now, that could well be Joyce and Galway.