Kildare vs Offaly - 2009 Football Championship

[Lone Shark]

That's exactly the point - this is not football as people might necessarily like it, but it is the way the game is, at least until we decide to go thirteen a side or some such.

I do believe that Kildare only looked better since their superior strength gave them more time and space, that if that factor was levelled off we mightn't be asking questions about our own tactics or abilities to the same extent.

[azoffaly]

I don't think it's mutually exclusive. I think you can be a finely tuned physical side, and still play proper football. You have to earn the right to play your football though, and for Offaly that's getting harder and harder.

Look at Tyrone, Kerry, Galway etc. They are not animals in the Armagh mode, but they are significantly more 'built' than the likes of Offaly are now. But they don't negate their football either. All 3 of those teams know that they have to be physically able to impose their game plans, which are all different, but attractive in their own way. All 3 of those teams have great attacking players, and great attacking strategies.

The point is that you have to be at a certain pitch physically in order to really see the benefits of any football advantages you may or may not have. Tactics can allay this issue slightly, but as Lone Shark says, it can be very contrived at times, such as Westmeath's blanket defence.

At the end of the day, as Tony McTeague used to preach to us, 'You have to win the fucking ball, and the man that has the ball is God, because he decides what happens next'.