Forward thinking
Steven McDonnell
Managing Director at Site Crew Limited **** PERMANENT CONSTRUCTION RECRUITMENT SPECIALISTS **** Ireland | UK | Europe
A forward’s job on any team is simple, isn’t it? Score. Not quite. I wish it was that simple. Were it so, I would probably still be playing. Early in my career, I was taught a valuable lesson by Cathal O’Rourke. He recognised a trend developing in my career and he felt the need to sit me down to discuss it. The trend was not necessarily a bad thing but the conversation made me realise how easy I was to mark. It was simple – I had an eye for goal and, nine out of 10 times, I had goal on my mind when I gained possession. I felt the need to take my man on time after time. I’m sure this infuriated my team-mates. Cathal made me realise the essential art of kicking points, the value of creating movement and the overall importance of making changes to my game. The type of changes that had the potential to take my game to the next level. A vital change he encouraged me to do was to think more about my game and not just to expect things to happen. As part of this thought process, I looked more at my direct opponent’s game, identifying their weaknesses in particular and recognising areas where I could hurt them. This required serious movement and work-rate on my behalf. This also meant mixing my game up like laying the ball off, creating opportunities for my team-mates, shooting for points when the time was right, dragging my man to the sideline to create space, and realising that the goals would eventually come if I started to do all of the above.
“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire†WB Yeats
7 å¹´Excellent stuff Steven McDonnell I'm enjoying these reads at the moment. I work as a motivational and mindfulness coach but still play senior football with my club. I've coached up to u-21 and will continue to do so when my playing days are over. Just wanted to share, for any inside forward looking to sharpen up on those selfless runs, to train in a similar fashion to a receiver in NFL. Their primary focus is to make as much space possible in the shortest time available, whilst slipping their opponent. You were handy at it yourself. There are endless videos for receiver training on YouTube with great drills. With the intensity of the game today, gaining any edge is vital, and agility is something everyone can work on. I particularly like your piece on stopping waiting for something to happen and go try make it happen! Hard work will always be rewarded in some shape or form. Keep up the great work. Kieran