Victory was more important than overall performance

MANAGERSCOPE

Every manager, no matter what the code, or what the team, has decisions to make before sending the troops out to do battle and right up there is a very important question: What tactics do we employ?

When coming to the final decision a manager has to consider a lot of factors - just as Brendan Skehan had to before sending his side out onto the fine pitch at O'Toole Park, Crumlin on Saturday to take on Dublin.

He could have gone for a cavalier, gung-ho, all-out attacking strategy. That, no doubt, would have led to a very entraining game but, it may not have led to a Meath victory.

Instead he took a much more practical, one could say, sensible option. He made sure the Meath defence was bulked up enough to withstand the pressure Dublin were sure to exert.

Get the defence right and the rest will take care of itself was how his strategy could be described.

It may have lacked a certain sense of adventure but it proved to be successful. Meath won and made sure of their place in the last eight of the National Camogie League Div 2 as a consequence.

"We knew arriving here today we needed to win by a couple of points, we didn't have to go out and score goals and see it home that way," said manager Skehan after his side had done the business in warm conditions.

He went onto explain the kind of factors he had to consider before opting to ensure his team's strategy was based on a strong defence containing the normal personnel - the backs - bulked up by outfield players, who also had their defensive duties to perform.

Skehan was concerned by the fact his side leaked 6-14 in their previous two games.

"Once we got our noses in front the key was to stay in front, to keep it ticking over, stay in front, don't take any chances, don't plough up into attack and put too much pressure on and leave ourselves exposed. So at times we were playing it safe because we had a breeze against us in the second-half.

"Basically the girls followed that plan and they are able to think on their feet themselves which is good.

"Maggie Randle looked nice an comfortable with her defensive colleagues around her so everything looked good there.

"We were more conscious of conceding goals than actually going for goals ourselves.

"We were letting in a few goals in recent games and we had to do something to address that."

Another of the foundation stones of Meath's success was the way the players battled and blocked, ran and closed down, hooked and hurled their way through a physically bruising encounter.

The first thing any manager has to look for in a team is a positive attitude and Skehan certainly got that.

"Our players battled exceptionally well. Kristina (Troy) blocked a ball with her arm, Megan (Thynne) put in two fantastic blocks, there was just some serious battling and I think that was the difference between the teams in the end.

"I knew we were playing a young Dublin team, but they were on their home patch and all of them were out to prove a point and try and climb onto their senior team."

One of the key cornerstones of Skehan's strategy as a coach is to focus on NOT giving opponents the chance to knock over easy scores from frees.

The helter skelter of a game invariably ensures frees are conceded, but there were just too many for his liking on Saturday.

That's something that can be costly, but it's also something an invaluable lesson can be gleaned from as well. How a negative can be turned into a positive.

"I was just a bit disappointed in the free count. You'll always get decisions given against you, but a lot of it too is a case of us having to take a look at ourselves, at our discipline and our technique in the tackle.

"I don't want to say anything against referees, but there is an inconsistency from week to week in the way the rules are being interpreted, the way the 50-50 challenges are being interpreted.

"We can put that down to experience, as I said to our players when we come to our next game don't shy away from those tackles because the free count could be half, the tackles could be interpreted completely differently. We need to learn how to play the referee as well."

So it's not just about strategy it's also about the players learning as they go on. Learning just as much from setbacks as the positive things achieved in any game.

The Meath manager paid tribute to all the players who turned out on Saturday but he picked out also two relatively new additions - Leah Devine and Maire Kirby.

"Leah did exceptionally well in one of her first games, so hats off to her, and Maire came in and did well too getting that score near the end."

Meath had only six subs available on Saturday while Dublin had about 16, another indication of how the Sky Blues have more resources than many other counties in the broader GAA fraternity. Where have we heard that line before?