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You are > Home > Kingdom will set the GAA record straight against Mourne men
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Kingdom will set the GAA record straight against Mourne men
THE meeting of Kerry and Down in the football championship is always special and I expect this Saturday’s All-Ireland quarterfinal in Croke Park to follow in similar footsteps.
This tie will bring memories flooding back from the great clashes of yesteryear between the two counties, and even the mention of Down reminds me of the likes of Joe Lennon (a man who once accused Kerry of being in the back woods), Seán O’Neill, Paddy Doherty and Leo Murphy, among others.
While history shows that we haven’t beaten Down in the All-Ireland championship in Croke Park, I believe that it is a record that we can put right this Saturday.
While I would consider Down a dark horse for honours this season as they have improved since their Ulster championship, this is a game that Kerry would expect to win.
Down have players like Matty Clarke, Benny Coulter and impressive midfielder Ambrose Rogers who did so well against Sligo in the qualifiers on Saturday.
One of their subs, Ronan Murtagh, actually scored 1-5 when he came off the bench on Saturday so they are a team not to be underestimated.
This is a tricky game for Kerry but Jack O’Connor’s men are more than capable of securing their first championship win against Down and advance to the semi-final.
Even without Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin, I feel that Kerry are just too strong for Down, and I can’t see anything but a win for the Kingdom men on Saturday.
But midfield will be very important, especially if, as is expected, Micheál Quirke doesn’t start.
Down, to me, are the team that has come in under the radar, making it through to the quarter-finals of the championship without too much written about them.
As we all know, they totally demolished Sligo on Saturday, and they will be tough.
I expect Kerry, Tyrone, Cork and Meath to come through from this weekend’s quarterfinal action and it’s only then that we can really assess who’s in the best place to win this year’s championship.
Let me also say, without fear of contradiction, that the standard in this year’s football championship has been poor up to now.
The quarter-finals need to provide some excitement because the round four qualifiers games were of a poor standard.
I would have to question the judgment of a lot of sports editors and journalists that tipped Monaghan as possible Ulster champions.
Some pundits even spoke of Monaghan as possible All-Ireland finalists. Having watched them in the National League against Kerry in Killarney, I thought that maybe I was missing something but I needn’t have worried.
Their display on Saturday against Kildare was hapless and the final scoreline flattered them somewhat.
Now you have people suggesting that Kildare are possible contenders for Sam Maguire but that’s more due to the poor standard of the other teams in the qualifiers.
Cork are the prime example. They are everyone’s fancy to win the All-Ireland, including mine, but they won’t do so on the display that they gave against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening. That just won’t do.
If Limerick just had another forward or two, and even more belief in themselves, then they could have beaten Cork. The Rebels were there for the taking. But they survived.
The other team to survive the qualifiers is the Dubs. Once they don’t start believing what the guys in the national newspapers write then they will have a chance.
While they defeated Louth with a bit to spare, it’s important to remember that Louth were obviously suffering the ill effects of their Leinster final defeat to Meath.
The Brogan brothers, Bernard and Alan, almost need a ball of their own and unless there is confidence in the whole forward line then Dublin won’t be bothering the big boys come the third Sunday of September.
Now the cause for so many poor games in the championship is due to the huge amount of hand-passing that is now taking place in all games. It’s atrocious to look at.
The basics of the game are not been taught properly in training as there are a load of wides in every game, while the free taking leaves a lot to be desired.
One thing it will prove is that a free-taker that can kick off the ground will be worth his weight in gold – step forward Bryan Sheehan. Kerry is lucky to have good free takers, both off the hand and off the ground.
I personally prefer to see place-kickers kick the ball off the ground, like Mike Frank Russell, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Mikey Sheehy, Maurice Fitzgerald and now Bryan Sheehan.
As poor as some of the displays were last weekend, at least one of the results would have been different if teams had a reliable freetaker in their starting 15.
The pundits are now excited about Tyrone – and there is no doubt that they could be right – but I still fancy Cork to win this year. But I am not ruling Kerry out of the equation.
Tyrone can be beaten, regardless of what people tell you about their on-field intelligence.
Kerry and Cork can both beat them, depending of course on what teams they pick.
I have said all along that Conor Counihan doesn’t know what his best Cork first 15 is, and it’s about time that he found out fast because the championship has now reached the business end of the competition.
And Kerry will still be alive and kicking after this weekend.
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