Lessons learned from Iniskeen - Space is key on two-pointers

Meath cannot afford to give Louth's two-point kickers the same space to shoot as they did last-time out in Iniskeen, this Sunday in the Leinster SFC Final

Tom Gannon

One of the key talking points in the lead-up to this weekend's Leinster Final clash has been the idea that Louth now have Meath's number after their last two victories over the Royals in Iniskeen.

While that may be the case, Meath can certainly learn from those two defeats and in particular the latest one in this year's NFL, where Meath had a golden opportunity of gaining promotion to Div 1, only to be foiled by the Wee County.

Looking back over that game, one of the areas that Meath struggled with was Louth's ability to create space for their two-point kickers. Three of Louth's five two-pointers that day came from play, and they were all relatively comfortable kicks for the shooters with not much pressure being applied.

Tommy Durnin two-pointer

Louth had made a very good start to the contest and their first two-pointer from play came midway though the first-half. In the image below, Paul Matthews is advancing the ball forward for Louth, but the key men to keep an eye on are circled in blue, Ryan Burns (closer to goal), and Tommy Durnin (out wide).

Ryan Burns receives the ball from Matthews and the dangerous Louth corner forward draws the attention of six, yes six, Meath defenders, meanwhile Durnin is left in acres of space.

The result.....Burns passes out to Durnin and he has as much time and space as he wants to kick a comfortable two-pointer to make it 1-9 to 0-1.

Conor Brannigan's 1st two-pointer

A few minutes later, Daire Nally finds himself with an opportunity to shoot, but in the corner of his eye he can see that Conor Brannigan has taken up a fantastic position, unmarked, even though there was four Meath defenders, circled in blue, watching the play unfold.

The end result...a quick lay-off and a handy two-pointer for Brannigan.

Conor Brannigan's 2nd two-pointer

Later in the half, Meath were caught off guard when trying to push high up on a Louth counter-attack. The issue here comes from an overload of Meath defenders in one area, which left a lot of space on the right-hand side of the pitch for Louth runners to take advantage of.

The end result...... Louth's Daire Nally an Conor Brannigan are left free to their own devices to advance forward, and the pair link up again for Brannigan's second two-pointer.

So what is the biggest take-away from Meath's last defeat to Louth to bring with them to Croke Park on Sunday? Simple....give Louth space and they will punish you with two-pointers.