Forward thinking beats blanket defending

A senior club coach writes: "Our best forward is getting marked out of a lot of games. Opponents always put their best defender on him and often they double up. What can we do to get him more into the game?"

We put your question to a man who knows this predicament well, two-time All Star winner and iconic Tipperary forward, Declan Browne. Only 30 but retired from the inter-county scene for a year, Browne has given a few forwards' sessions to Matty Forde and co in Wexford recently as well as taking charge of the Under-14 team at his club Moyle Rovers.

He's thinking of getting into inter-county management "maybe in five to ten years", but is still focused on playing at club level. Unfortunately Tipp's most famous ever footballer is sidelined with a cruciate injury and will be out until at least early 2009. It's a long road back but he has trademark determination on his side, and drew encouragement from the rehabilitation of the man who many would see as his hurling equivalent, Henry Shefflin.

"First of all, coping with the best defenders is part and parcel of the game," he said. "As a forward you're depending on your outside men to get the right ball in to you. Then it's easy to make space for yourself. Otherwise it's 50/50 and most good defenders will win the majority of 50/50s. You need to weight it 60/40 in favour of the forward."

And the right ball is? "First-time ball every time. No soloing. The forward needs to be isolated and as soon as he makes the run the ball must be played in to him, then it's up to the forward to do his job."

As we discussed last week, the ability to kick off both sides is essential to a forward. "Training my juvenile team I practice that more than anything else: it gets you out of so much trouble," said Browne, continuing: "And as regards getting double-teamed, I try to stay out of the game as much as possible then – drag the markers out to the sideline because if I do that then someone else has to be left free.

"It can be frustrating not to be in the game as much when that happens but it's a team game and you have to put the team ahead of yourself."

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