Enda McGinley was on OTB AM on Wednesday discussing the logic involved in taking long shots in football.
McGinley was asked why teams should implement this tool if top team Dublin are doing as well as they are without using it.
“The key there is the same reason why Dublin are doing that. It’s percentages. For the vast majority of players, the percentage of a long-range shot is not on. You shouldn’t do it. We all know the times… where fellows line up for shots and you’re saying ‘do not be shooting from there’ and they go and land it. Certain players can shoot from distance, Diarmuid Connolly can shoot from distance.”
The process of deciding whether or not to take long shots is one that boils down to a few factors. The player taking it needs to be used to doing it, be relaxed and reliable and needs to judge the scenario.
“Unless you’ve shown it regularly in lots of other games, a player should know, if you’re sitting on the forward line, whether you’ve got a relaxed quality strike that you can rely on, on the big stage in the big game that at that point is 60/70% on, if you’ve got a 60/70% shooting chance.
“If you’ve got a packed defence ahead of you then that’s the time to do the rugby outhalf move where you’re pushing forward, you lay it back to the man in space and he puts it over but you have to have a player that is a 60/70% man from outfield.”
While the former Tyrone player believes that certain teams like Donegal have enough players to attempt long shots when necessary, he also thought that it wasn’t enough of a strategy to use to win games on its own.
“Donegal have that and two or three of their men are capable of doing that and so it’s not a reliable option. No team will win any game just hitting long-range points because it’s just too difficult to do reliably, over-and-over again.”
“If a team is sitting in defensively, you need to be able to both move that ball and at least pose a threat from distance because then the defence has to come out on you a wee bit.”
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