Armagh’s 15-minute downfall
In the 42nd minute of Kerry’s quarter-final with Armagh, the kick-out after Joe O’Connor’s rallying point to cut the deficit to 0-15 to 1-16, was intercepted by Paudie Clifford, who made such a difference when introduced for the second half. He laid it off to his brother David who was short with a point attempt.
Kerry didn’t fluff another shot until Micheál Burns’s last-minute wide with eight seconds left on the clock.
In the meantime, the Munster champions hit Armagh with 14 points – 11 unanswered scores. As Enda McGinley put it on the RTÉ commentary, the All-Ireland champions couldn’t get their hands on the ball.
During these 15 minutes of pure destruction, Ethan Rafferty’s kickouts were feasted on by Kerry. Up until Graham O’Sullivan’s score, the last of the 14-point salvo, Armagh lost nine of their 11 restarts.
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This was all compounded by the champions’ inability to get anything back on the scoreboard. Careless wides by Ben Crealey and Niall Grimley were followed by a brilliant tackle from the excellent Joe O’Connor and a frustrating 4v3 breach by Rian O’Neill.
Credit so to MOTM Seán O’Shea, identified prematch by his manager as a team leader, who scored 0-12, including three two-pointers and no wides.
The eight-point winning margin appeared a bit understated but given the starting point of trailing by five, it was a 13-point turnaround. Coincidentally, the last time Kerry dethroned All-Ireland champions at Croke Park was 23 years ago when they beat Galway, also in a quarter-final and also by eight points.
Kerry had travelled the extended road of the qualifiers just as Jack O’Connor’s team had done at the weekend. They will of course hope that the similarities end there, as they went on to lose that year’s All-Ireland final to Armagh. – Seán Moran
Not-so-disgruntled Donegal
It’s the sharp end of the championship so obviously everything is heightened. Everybody is that little bit tetchier and more willing to see the worst in everybody else. But even allowing for that, some of the derision that has been aimed at Jim McGuinness and Donegal over the past few weeks has felt a bit much.
The Jimmy’s Whingin’ Matches stuff does at least boast the upside of being a reasonably serviceable pun. But there’s a barely disguised subtext to it all – that Donegal are always moaning about something and they should whisht up and get on with it. Their second half on Saturday was the perfect answer, an eyeballs-out gallop to the line that left Monaghan wheezing in their dust. They are the right favourites for Sam Maguire.
Even so, there will always be people out there convinced that Donegal and McGuinness are up to something. That they aren’t to be trusted or that they’re dealing from the bottom of the deck somehow. It started in the league when they got a game against Kerry called off during Storm Éowyn. Never mind that the postponement meant they would have to play five matches on successive weekends, it still went down in some quarters as McGuinness pulling a fast one.
Maybe it’s as simple as the fact that Donegal have never been forgiven for changing the way football was played in the last decade. Or maybe it’s just that McGuinness fights Donegal’s corner and is unstinting and steadfast in doing so. Most likely, it’s a combination of the two, probably with an element of envy at how he has turned Donegal around in the two seasons since he came back for his second stint.
Because in case anyone has forgotten, Donegal lost eight of their 12 matches in 2023, the year before McGuinness took over. Saturday was his 32nd game since assuming the reins and they’ve only lost six times altogether in two seasons. They are gathering speed and may well have Caolan McGonagle back for the semi-final against Meath.
They’ve done all the right things. Maybe that’s what annoys people most of all. – Malachy Clerkin
Cherish the youth
As Dublin fell in a heap in Croke Park on Saturday they looked further away from winning an All-Ireland than any time since the “startled earwigs” quarter-final of 2009, when they lost to Kerry by 17 points. As things turned out, it only took Pat Gilroy two years to knock them into shape, but for the next Dublin manager to produce an All-Ireland winning team in that time frame would be a staggering achievement now.
“I know there’s challenges with underage in the county at the minute or over the last number of years,” said Dessie Farrell afterwards, “but there’s a great crop after coming in there and I’d be very optimistic for how they go about their business in the seasons ahead.”
While Dublin were dominating the senior championship, fending off accusations of “financial doping”, there was very little commentary about their performance at age-grade levels. Their last minor All-Ireland was 13 years ago, and that is also the last final they have contested. Their record at under 20/21 level is not as alarming, but it is still eight years since their last title; Tyrone, their conquerors on Saturday, have won three titles in that grade since then.
The last three age-grade titles that Dublin have won have all been delivered by Farrell: minor in 2012, and under-21 in 2014 and 2017.
Given the playing numbers at their disposal, this dearth of age-grade success must represent some kind of systems failure. Does it really matter in the long run if players of the required quality are still being produced? That is where the conveyor belt has stalled. In the final quarter against Tyrone, when Dublin were desperately looking for something, the search was led by familiar names: Con O’Callaghan, Ciarán Kilkenny, Brian Howard, and to a lesser extent the Small brothers.
It will be a different team again next year. John Small has already made one failed attempt to escape. Nobody ever knows about Stephen Cluxton, but the next manager might take the decision out of his hands. Kilkenny, Cormac Costello and Niall Scully are in their early 30s. Will all of them have the stomach for another campaign?
Will Dublin be favourites for next year’s Leinster title? Maybe by default. – Denis Walsh
Meath’s six appeal
Meath’s semi-final against Donegal is to be their ninth championship game of the campaign – the most the county will have played across a single summer since 1991.
Meath’s renaissance this year is in stark contrast to recent seasons. In 2024 Meath played five championship games, losing four and winning just one. They didn’t win a single championship game the previous year, spending the business end of the summer in the Tailteann Cup. In 2022 they managed just one championship win, the same in 2021. But so far in this campaign the Royals have played eight games – winning six, losing one and drawing one.
They didn’t even amass six championship wins on their way to claiming the All-Ireland title in 1996 or 1999, winning five matches in both of those campaigns. It was the same for their All-Ireland wins of 1987 and 1988, so this has been a summer of summers for Robbie Brennan’s team with six championship wins, beating Carlow, Offaly, Dublin, Cork, Kerry and Galway.
Even in 1991 when they played 10 championship games, including four matches against Dublin, Meath finished that campaign with just five wins.
They did chalk up six Tailteann Cup victories in 2023, but in terms of the top flight, the Royals have to go back to their breakthrough Sam Maguire-winning seasons of 1949 and 1954 to find a campaign in which they won six games. – Gordon Manning
Slippin’ & slidin’
A prediction. Someone will score a goal or miss a goal this coming weekend during the hurling semi-finals and one of the contributory factors will be the slippiness of the Croke Park pitch. It played like an ice rink over the weekend, with players in all matches feeling their heels going from under them at inopportune moments.
As the Galway backroom team stood gloomily munching on sandwiches under the Cusack Stand after losing to Meath, a brief inquiry as to what the story was with the pitch brought a frustrated response. Everybody was wearing cogs, they said. This wasn’t fancy lads wearing fancy boots. But the misty morning rain on Dublin’s northside had made it pot luck as to whether players could trust the ground under their feet.
In fairness, it was an equal opportunities destroyer. Meath goalkeeper Billy Hogan got struck down a few times, Galway’s Shane Walsh the same. Anyone stopping quickly or trying a jink or a turn inside invariably found themselves going alley-oop. It was sheer chance that there wasn’t a key slip that caused a game-defining score.
The weather forecast is for a heatwave during the week followed by rain on Saturday and Sunday. Don’t be surprised if it means Croke Park plays like a slip’n’slide next weekend. Defenders beware. – Malachy Clerkin
