Experience, they say, is the teacher of all things and this is one area where Kerry’s David Moran will tower above the rest of the players on Sunday.
Sunday will mark Moran’s sixth All-Ireland final as a player, including the replay in 2019. Galway will be the fifth different county Moran has faced in an All-Ireland final and he has, so far, experienced what it’s like to win, lose and draw a final as well as to start, to play the full match, to come on as a sub and to come off.
Moran came on in the 67th minute of both the 2008 (loss to Tyrone) and 2009 (win over Cork) finals but missed out in the 2011 loss to Dublin, having ruptured his cruciate ligament against Monaghan in the league that April.
He was on board at midfield in the 2014 final win over Donegal, the loss to Dublin the following year and for the two finals against the Dubs three years ago.
Kingdom’s struggle for final goals
Kerry may have boasted some incredible forwards over the last 15 years – David Clifford, Seán O’Shea, Paul Geaney, Colm Cooper, James O’Donoghue, Kieran Donaghy, Darran O’Sullivan et al make for quite a shooting gallery – but their goalscoring record in All-Ireland finals has been dreadful.
After hitting the net nine times in the All-Ireland finals of 2005, ‘06 and ‘07, the goals dried up. Including the 2019 replay, Kerry have scored just four goals in their last seven appearances on the big day.
In that time, the Kingdom have drawn four blanks. The goals came against Dublin in 2011, Donegal in 2012 (two) and Dublin in the drawn game in 2019.
The 2009 final against Cork, which Kerry won by 0-16 to 1-9, was the last occasion in which a team lost an All-Ireland SFC final having scored more goals than the opposition.
Hurson’s big opportunity
Tyrone’s Seán Hurson will be the man in the middle on Sunday and if the trends tell us anything, the Galbally Pearses clubman should be able to look forward to taking charge of more deciders in the future.
Over the past 15 years, the GAA have tended to select from quite a limited pool when it comes to appointing the whistler for the big day. There have been 17 finals since 2007, including replays, and they have been handled by eight different referees, with Marty Duffy (Sligo), Eddie Kinsella (Laois) and David Gough (Meath) the only three to have reffed a single final.
The others are Joe McQuillan and David Coldrick (four finals each) and Maurice Deegan and Conor Lane (three each).
Finalists look to old standards
Not only are Limerick hurlers now the leading Gaelic games ‘franchise’, they also boast probably the coolest post-game celebratory tune.
When whoever it was manning the jukebox at Croker hit play on the Cranberries last Sunday, it crowned another epic afternoon for the Treaty. This Sunday, we are more than likely looking at either the Rose of Tralee or the Fields of Athenry. Okay, they’re iconic in their own way but Dolores O’Riordan they are not . . .
Quote of the day
“For all of the brilliance of that 1998 and 2001 team, Pádraic went on longer than any of them and dominated club football more completely than all of them.”
– Ciarán Murphy of this parish argues on the Galway Advertiser podcast that Joyce is the greatest Tribesman of his (Murphy’s) lifetime.
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Matches Kerry have won in the All-Ireland SFC, which is more than Galway have played (356), as per @GAA_Stats on Twitter.
