Victory to the calm within the chaos
This Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final between Galway and Limerick will undoubtedly provide us with something special. The quality of the championship to date has been dramatic, to say the least.
It will be the third time these teams meet to contest an All-Ireland final. The first was in 1923, when Galway emerged victorious on a score line of 7-3 to 4-5. The second, in 1980, when Galway again came away with the win on a score line of 2-15 to 3-9.
High scoring affairs appear to be part of the DNA of hurling and even more so in recent years. In fact, if this year’s provincial and All-Ireland championships are anything to go by; we may witness scoring records being broken this weekend. Incredibly, Galway have scored 8-135 en route to the final this year, while also conceding a whopping 9-95 down the other end of the pitch.
Limerick, to their credit, have been even more prolific in front of goal with a huge total of 11-183 so far in this year’s campaign, but possibly more worryingly, have themselves conceded a massive 7-147 to date. Moreover, there appears to be no signs from either side that they intend to change much from what got them into this weekend’s decider.
Galway as champions will be looking to emulate the last team from out west to win on consecutive years. The fact that that was back in 1987 and 1988 will be reason enough for this team to discard it as having anything to do with them as none of the current team were even born back then. The same can be said for Limerick, whose last All-Ireland win was further back again, in 1973.
Also that this is the first final to be played outside of September since the 1920s will bring a novel element to Sunday’s action. But of course, finals are only great occasions when both teams manage to peak on the day in question. There is nothing quite as painful to watch as a one-sided final, especially, when the build-up is always predicting and expecting so much more.
So what does it take for a team to bring their best effort on the most important day of their season, and in some cases, their career? Routine, order and belief that their preparation is all it could be, would probably be a safe answer.
Of course, the best-prepared players can take a change to their plans in their stride. Maybe the pre-final media event ran on far too long: no problem, we’ll amend the next training session. Or the pre-match meal was overly delayed: not to worry, we’ll eat something else. Or the police escort into Croke Park didn’t materialise leaving us a little tight on time arriving into the stadium: no harm, we’ll adapt our warm-up. The top teams have an answer for everything. In fact, they appear to thrive in such circumstances.
But what about the more important details, the tactical match-ups, the unforeseen team changes and the inevitable loss of form from someone who has been a talisman all year long? This work can never be fully accounted for in training, so the best method to prepare for the unpreparable is to pass ownership over to the players.
At the dawn of modern day sport science, when the minutiae of the workings of the human body began to emerge, there was a misconception that everything should be done for the players so they could focus solely on their training and performance in pursuit of maximising their potential.
How wrong we were.
Players, through no fault of their own became passengers in their own journey. Everything became a convenience and the appreciation that would have once accompanied the finer things in life was replaced by an arrogance of expectation.
The job of the kit-man became a logistics post akin to a major corporate organisation, with a lengthy list of items to prepare for each athlete. The thinking behind such over-bearing organisation was that the players should not have to think about such frivolous things as what gear to bring to training or what fuel to prepare for afterwards, as it would only distract them from the task of getting better on the pitch.
But of course, decision-making, problem solving and coping with adversity are skills like everything else, the more you do them, the better you get. And yes, the decisions and problems encountered by simply getting ready for training come from the same part of the brain, the frontal lobe, as those made on the pitch. In addition, the frontal lobe contains dopamine, which is normally associated with reward and pleasure. However, it is also linked with attention, focus and the drive to complete tasks. All of which one would agree are vital components for any aspiring, all-conquering athlete.
So rather than molly-coddling players, we should be aiming to make them more independent in their thinking and interactive with their surroundings. Rather than creating bubbles around them that create falsehoods, we should aim to create an environment that demands engagement and interaction. Tricky thing to do when more and more people are as quick to communicate through text as speak to you when you are in their presence.
Remarkably, when athletes are given more responsibility, they often respond favourably to the increased demands on their attention. Which begs the question how this overly protective approach ever came to fruition? Unfortunately, the answer often lies at the feet of the head coach, who all too often does not trust their players. Worse still is a control freak trying to micro-manage every conceivable detail to the beat of their drum, believing restraint breeds obedience and order.
However, sport in general, and finals in particular, are more about disorder and novelty and the capacity of teams to handle the occasion. Therefore, the preparation from day one should be about creating a challenging, ever-changing environment that breeds players capable of adapting and dealing with chaos.
This is what will be fascinating about Sunday’s final as few sports are as chaotic as hurling. You can be at the complete opposite end of the pitch away from the play and in the blink of an eye have the ball at your feet. However, evidence to date would suggest that Limerick’s John Kiely and Galway’s Micheál Donoghue have created the appropriate environment having overcome plenty of adversity in this season alone to make it to the final.
Limerick’s two-point win over Kilkenny in the quarterfinal marks a turning point for this team that stood to them in their defeat of Cork in the semi-final. Equally, Galway’s wins following their drawn games against Kilkenny in the Leinster final and Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final, is proof enough that they too are capable of playing at their best when the script doesn’t quite go according to plan.
So rather than a tactical masterclass ruling the day on Sunday, as hurling appears to have thrown caution to the wind in that regard, look out for the players who rise to the occasion.
Those players who appear to handle the madness and distraction that comes with All-Ireland final week as just another week of dealing with adversity. The team with the most of such players will rise triumphant in the Hogan Stand come late Sunday afternoon, legends in their own time.
? Irish Examiner 2018
@DrSkillAcq