DESPITE BEING REDUCED to 14 players with 10 minutes to go, Dublin held on to claim a one-point victory over Wexford last weekend.
The result means Wexford are without a win after two home games. Speaking on the latest hurling episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast, Anthony Nash wondered if Darragh Egan’s outfit will resort to their past system in the coming weeks.
“I don’t know what Wexford are going to do. I wonder will they do back? The use of Damien Reck, I don’t know why they went away from it in the second half when Dublin had a man sent off. What they do is interesting.
“Normally a sweeper stands behind the centre-back, in front of the full-back and covers side-to-side. What Wexford did under Davy with Murphy or Reck, they would stand on the left-hand side. The other defenders would mark on the right-hand side.
“Basically, if you are a goalkeeper and you see a spare man in defence, you won’t puck it on top of him. You will puck it on the other side. But the Wexford defenders are already on that side. They have a head start. That is what they did the last day.
“At the start of the game, Dublin got the ball to midfield, Danny Sutcliffe hits a diagonal ball to Ronan Hayes. He was looking good and next thing, the sweeper goes back. Even if he isn’t influential on the ball defensively in the first half, Reck influenced the game with his positioning. Are they going to revert to a sweeper and play that way?”
Nash went on to praise Danny Sutcliffe’s last-minute block on Liam Ryan. The Wexford full-back, who scored a long-range last-minute point against Kilkenny last July, looked to do similar but a diving Sutcliffe intervened.
Heroic block down by Danny Sutcliffe in the last few seconds to help win the match for @DubGAAOfficial pic.twitter.com/0tUAMyGn9j
— The GAA (@officialgaa) April 23, 2022
“It looked like he was having a pop. Worst case scenario it is going to the edge of the square to Conor McDonald. It might not be remembered as a score but it was massive. I said to Mattie Kenny after, you just don’t know where that ball was going to end up.
“It is all about moments. It was a huge moment. Who knows what would have happened? That is why I got so excited about it. He is lining up the shot, it could well go over. Wexford draw and Dublin are heartbroken. It was some effort.”
