After weeks of touring venues around the country, suddenly the football championship feels like Glastonbury. All the headline acts on the main stage.
And the four matches included some great rivalries – particularly Kerry against Tyrone, and Dublin against Mayo. Throw the Armagh-Monaghan local derby into the mix, an old tune in Derry-Cork, and Croke Park will be rocking.
Even before the draw most Kerry people reckoned it would be Tyrone. Most Tyrone people probably reckoned it would be Kerry. Sure it had to be.
Now, Jack O’Connor has already said it’s the draw he was looking for, only I’m not sure if that’s true. I think, at this point in time anyway, Monaghan would have suited them better.
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I also suspect the Tyrone players were happier with the draw than the Kerry players. The general mood around Kerry is one of trepidation, let’s put it that way.
First of all, Tyrone look to be hitting form at the right time, really champing at the bit right now. There are also certain teams you love playing against, and Tyrone love playing Kerry. They’ll always get revved up for it.
Same as with Kerry, we’d always get up for Dublin or Cork, knowing there’d be some bite about it. For Tyrone, that team has always been Kerry.
Having said that, Tyrone have only been average, at best, so far. Nothing spectacular, nothing special. Similar to Kerry in that regard, their progress hasn’t been that impressive, I’d say low Cs, if you’re talking in old exam reports.
They fell over the line against some earlier opposition, but then Darragh Canavan has been excellent in the last couple of games, especially against Donegal last weekend. Younger brother Ruairí too, just a year out of the Under-20, both coming from good stock of course. Two young players, but fearless.
Darragh is also establishing himself as an outright leader now. That point he got about Donegal the last day, off his left boot, showed his pure talent too. In some of their earlier games, they’d been depending on one or two players to pull them over the line, on any given day. Like Darren McCurry has done it before. But over their last couple of games, they’re getting more guys playing well together at the same time. Which is a real sign of a team coming into form.
The other beauty about these Tyrone players is that they’ll work their socks off. Especially in Croke Park against Kerry. We know Tyrone will designate two or maybe even three players on David Clifford, get in his face for the whole afternoon. Tyrone players love that kind of challenge.
One obvious reference point is the 2021 semi-final between the teams. Once Clifford went off, unable to start extra-time, Tyrone really started to take control, and then it was game over. During this year’s league, up in Omagh, Tyrone also won in the physical stakes and on the scoreboard. Even if Clifford didn’t get too much protection that day.
I spoke before about the advantages of going straight into the quarter-final, but I just think Kerry could have done with another game, that Tyrone are coming just one game too soon. Louth were no test to Kerry at all, let’s be honest.
It’s also been said Tyrone might have some sort of psychological edge on Kerry, and can get under their skin, going back to 2003, then 2008, but that’s more myth than truth. Maybe some of that psychology comes down to specific players, but Kerry have beaten Tyrone in the championship in the meantime, and Tyrone have beaten Kerry. So that talk really is just specific to some personnel at the time.
For me, the thing about Tyrone is that you knew they’d be physical, knew they’d be tough, and I also found they’d this ability to click into this frantic pace, come at you wave after wave, for a set period of time.
Maybe at the start of the second half, for about 15 or 20 minutes, they’d start shooting the lights out. You could not get your hands on them or the ball. That happened a few times against us, in league matches as well, but then they couldn’t always keep that going.
And that’s the thing, you will get chances, maybe late in the game, if you can ride that out. That’s what we found anyway.
But Kerry will want to settle early because I’d be worried Tyrone will get to the pace of the game quicker, and are just that bit ahead of Kerry, in terms of where they want to be.
Also if you look through the teams right now, Tyrone have more players in form than Kerry. The two Canavans, as mentioned, McCurry, Mattie Donnelly, plus two midfielders in Conn Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy.
For Kerry, we know David Clifford will give what he always gives, and will kick some scores that Tyrone won’t be able to stop. But will they be enough? Because we know he’s going to be contained for large parts too.
After that the question is can the other Kerry players stand up in that gap, the likes of Paudie Clifford, Seánie O’Shea, Paul Geaney. They’ll basically need to pick up the slack. Okay, Seánie is finding some form, but form against Louth, and form against Tyrone, are two totally different things.
A few weeks back I wouldn’t have put Tyrone in my top five, but they’re an entirely different proposition now, playing with more confidence, but also a different brand of football. They’ve also two shrewd managers in Fergal Logan and Brian Dooher, have been here before, and will know the Kerry players inside-out.
If Kerry can overcome some of that dependency on David Clifford, of course they’ve a good chance. It’s just hard to know. Same as it’s hard to know if Kerry will travel up in great numbers – maybe they will, knowing it’s Tyrone, and that it might be Kerry’s last game.
If there’s one downside to this new format it’s that it all happens so fast. The Mayo-Galway game is already forgotten. Quality-wise it wasn’t hectic but it was very physical, from both sides, and Mayo’s physicality probably won it for them in the end. On the bounce off that, they’ll be in a good position to compete with Dublin and I’d give them a right squeeze, especially with their confidence back.
And who would have put Cork here, after their loss to Clare back at the start? They’re looking more structured now, especially in defence, and are very hard to play against. Derry will know that’s a tricky draw too. And I fancy Armagh to advance at the expense of Monaghan on Saturday.
In some ways too, everything up to now feels like a sort of soundcheck, because whichever four teams are still standing come Sunday evening will absolutely start believing they can go all the way.
It might get loud.
