Here we go again. All this talk of rivalry and tradition and whatever other beef there is between Kerry and Dublin is always great fun from the outside looking in. But let me tell you, it counts for little within the inner circle of players.
All they’re thinking about is winning the All-Ireland final that’s in front of them on Sunday. At this stage, every player has their own reason for winning, and doesn’t require any extra motivation. If you need a call to arms for an All-Ireland final, something is radically wrong.
Go back to the beginning, Dublin were my favourites for the championship. Okay, they’ve stuttered along the way, perhaps haven’t been as good as I thought they would, maybe even showed their age at times. But they’re still doing the right things with the ball, in clutch situations, still exceptional in some of their decision making.
Dublin might have had their own motivation to get back into the final this year, and to win. Like Kerry did in 1984, after losing the five-in-a-row to Offaly in 1982, then losing to Cork the following year. But it doesn’t matter who is standing in their way now.
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From the beginning I felt Kerry would struggle, and at times they certainly did. Winning back-to-back, even getting to back-to-back finals, is very difficult in the modern game. But they’re here now too, possibly with better legs than Dublin, even if at times that’s been thanks to David Clifford getting them over the line.
For both teams the blackboard is wiped completely clean from the semi-finals. That roaming goalkeeper threat of Derry and Monaghan is gone, for starters. Jack O’Connor has also been throwing out some soundbites about it being an open game, or maybe playing more defensive. Dessie Farrell has been at it too, talking about the damage-limitation on David Clifford. You’ll definitely see Dublin dropping bodies back, they also have the work-rate to counteract that.
Lets cut to the chase though, of where this game will be won and lost – we know Dublin will finish strong, and Kerry won’t want it to come down to that.
For Kerry to win, they’ll need players doing things we haven’t seen them do before. At least not this year. Things that will even shock themselves, a bit like Peter Casey hitting those incredible five points for Limerick in the second half of the hurling final last Sunday.
Every Kerry player will need to go out thinking “I’m not letting this pass me by”. It’s dream time now, time to create your own dreams and carry them out.
For Kerry that will mean going at Dublin, trying to blow them out of the water. They need to attack Dublin’s strong points, which is their midfield, their forwards, and also Stephen Cluxton. Hit them where it hurts, hammer the hammer.
For me this Dublin team really haven’t been tested like that. Kerry are going to have to grapple Dublin at every level, come with fire in the belly that they won’t be able to match.
What age is Cluxton now, nearly 42? Put in some high balls under him, test him in the air, crash into him. He looks confident once he’s let play with confidence. Right, he let a ball slip through his hands at one point against Monaghan. But work on that, get some heavy traffic going into him, see how he copes.
I’d certainly be going all out Oppenheimer on Cluxton. To me he’s been getting a free pass. Tom Brady didn’t get a free pass like that in the NFL, he was giving his big linemen bonuses every year to keep him injury free. There’s no one paying Mick Fitzsimons and Eoin Murchan like that.
Kerry won their semi-final against Derry with just about five players at their optimum. If they can bring that to 10 or 12, they’ve a fantastic chance. Because I’ve no doubt Kerry will match Dublin for fitness, tactics, hunger, all of that.
My worry is, from 60 minutes onward, can they match Dublin in that period? Especially when Dublin start emptying their bench; Ciarán Kilkenny, whether he starts or not, Jack McCaffrey, Dean Rock etc.
We often see similarities with hurling finals, and look how Limerick opened up in that last quarter, once their bench was emptied. Kilkenny couldn’t match that depth of talent and quality.
We saw that weakness in the Kerry bench again against Derry. Okay Stephen O’Brien made an impact, but Tony Brosnan and Micheál Burns struggled. During the league, when Kerry’s form wasn’t great, O’Connor didn’t really run his bench and stuck with the Cliffords and Co. That bench looks weak compared to Dublin, and that’s an Achilles’ heel going into the stretch of any game.
Ciarán Kilkenny is definitely an option to start now, and if he does, probably on Paul Murphy. That’s a physical mismatch straight away. You’d expect Fitzsimons will take on David Clifford, Eoin Murchan on Paudie; either way Dublin will identify the two Cliffords as the big dangers.
Seánie O’Shea is back in form, so it might suit James McCarthy to go on him. Those matchups with be crucial. Look at Dublin teams in the past, I think Cian O’Sullivan was huge in that role, not an exceptional footballer in the mould of James McCarthy or Brian Fenton, but he understood that role so well, and if Dublin were crying out for any player right now it would be him.
Both teams have scoring forwards on form, so it’s also how much they can negate the other. Looking at midfield, Diarmuid O’Connor had a fantastic game against Tyrone, even if Tyrone were a bit flat, and I know there’s talk Jack Barry has done well on Fenton over the years.
That would filter back to Fenton. As a midfielder, I know for a fact if someone gets one over on you, you’d double down and whatever else happens, think “I won’t be found wanting here”.
As club mates, it’s a huge game for O’Connor and Barry. It’s a big ask for both of them to click like that at the same time, because outside the Tyrone game it hasn’t happened this year.
As a midfielder that’s also the challenge you want. I’d love to be written off going into an All-Ireland final. Barry had a poor game against Derry, Brendan Rogers was winning that game on his own. Now it’s time to say: “We’re better than that, we’re going to win this game for you.”
But I’d say the part of the game that would keep me awake at night is that last 10-15 minutes. Unless Kerry can blow past that phase, that’s when Dublin will show what they’re still capable of.
