Should I stay or should I go?
It’s a catch-22 for the inside forwards. Chase them down and you mightn’t even get a word of thanks because you are just doing your job. Leave them be and your man could go down the other end of the field and rattle the net.
And then you’re 100 yards away from him with your hands on your hips as they punch they air and sprint back to you. A quick word in the ear follows to rub salt in the wounds.
“I’d say you’re heading for the sideline soon, bud.”
Corner backs tear off like scalded cats and most corner forwards go with them. In doing that the corner forward is falling into the trap being set for them but have they really any other option?
Nothing looks worse for a corner forward than their marker going down the other end of the field and notching a score. Nothing.
But at the same time, all of that tracking takes its toll and then the corner forward is a lot worse at doing the job they’re really there to do, which is to run at his man and probe all day.
The times they are a changing. God be with the days when the corner backs stuck to their man like glue and followed his every step. Nowadays, these boys are way too cocky. The corner backs will stay all day, they’re well able to kick a score and they’re not afraid to rampage forward.
That’s because they’re instructed to do just that.
Cork and Nemo Rangers corner forward Luke Connolly appeared on Monday’s GAA Hour Show and he told of his frustration at the modern day corner back tactics.
“Corner forwards have to do the work that they never would have dreamed of doing years ago.
“It’s another tactic you have to analyse and have to go through. As a forward and as someone who wants to score with every attack, it’s not a tactic I’m enjoying. It is only getting worse, like it’s turning into a free for all there some games,” Connolly said.
“A lot of these fellas who break, they’ve no intention of getting involved with the play, it’s just a case of ‘I’m going to run up here and run back and down again.’ There’s always going to be that danger that one time when you leave him and take a gamble that he gets forward and sets up a goal or a score.”
Connolly’s Nemo Rangers were well defeated by a rampaging Corofin in March’s All-Ireland senior club football final. On that occasion, the 25-year-old was picked up by Liam Silke. As the experienced Galway champions strode all over Nemo, Connolly felt like it was him who was doing the marking.
“It was never better highlighted than in that game. When they won the ball he’d just go. I’d have to follow him. Unfortunately, we were in sixes and sevens at the back so there was no case of me saying to the lads to pick him up.
“When we turned the ball over, we had 60 or 70 yards in front of us, we were just trying to get back up to the pace of play, but then you’ve to try get involved as well.
“The Philly McMahons and Jonny Coopers have revolutionised the position in a way…When your back goes up the field and scores, there’s no worse place in the world you can be.”
Colm Parkinson feels it’s a great method for corner backs to throw a corner forward off.
“They have and it’s almost as if it’s a tactic to throw you off your game. It absolutely works, now corner forwards are programmed to work hard. All a corner back has to do is take off, and suddenly you’re gone and your game is messed up.”
On the other hand, if the forward takes the risk they could just as easily be the one who rattles the net because of the absence of their back man.
It’s a tough one to get right but it’s the dilemma facing nearly every football corner forward in the country right now.
You can listen to the Connolly interview and much more from Thursday’s GAA Hour Show here.
