Transition time: Turning 15-man defence into attack

With three rounds of the Allianz League completed it is obvious that Gaelic football is undergoing a significant tactical evolution, which will have a major impact on how games are approached this season.

There is a change in attacking style by teams, this observation was sparked while sitting in the Hogan Stand watching the All-Ireland Club Final between Kilcoo and Kilmacud Crokes.

While Kilcoo's attacking in the first half wasn’t pretty, overall in the game the athletic prowess and calculated explosive running into open space by both teams was striking.

This change will have many implications for players, team selection and will lead to the game being more exciting for spectators.

In soccer, coaches regularly reference that the game can be broken down into distinct parts; when we have the ball, when they have the ball, when we lose the ball, when we win the ball back and set-pieces.

For any invasion game such as basketball, hurling and football these parts are consistent.

Teams have changed how they apply themselves when they win the ball back and tweaked slightly their approach to kick-out defence.

Just to clarify, 'transition’ is a term used to describe when a team changes from attack to defence or changes from defence to attack.

Don’t be confused with the over-used term to describe a team that is in a building phase and may not be ready to compete to its potential just yet.

It has been obvious by the way teams set up over the last few years that coaches have spent a great deal of time coaching players to transition quickly into good defensive positions when they lose the ball.

In every game you can see half-forward lines and midfielders working hard to get back to defend with clear roles; to mark and track men, sweep, double