Connacht football up with the best warns O'Driscoll

A DEFINING feature of the build up to Sunday's All Ireland senior football semi final is the unprecedented support for the respective provincial champions throughout both Munster and Connacht.

Provincial allegiance has never been seen to be so strong. Fans from the west and the south are closing ranks behind the largely young and aspiring Mayo and Kerry teams which are preparing to do battle at Croke Park.

Players from Cork and Galway, the beaten finalists in both provinces, were yesterday either warning their new provincial champions of the dangers ahead or offering advice.

Cork's John O'Driscoll, the unluckiest player of this year's campaign he suffered an Achilles tendon injury in the replay of the Munster semifinal against Clare - warns Kerry to keep in mind the fact that the last manager to plot a shock defeat for their county in a Munster final will be in the opposition dug out on Sunday.

The finger in Munster still points accusingly at John Maughan for blue printing Clare's historic win over Kerry in the 1992 Munster final.

Galway's top scorer, Niall Finnegan, has first hand experience of what it is like for a young player going into a match of the magnitude of Sunday's game for the first time.

He advises the young players in the Mayo team: "Don't look up at the crowd. Forget about where you are. Concentrate on your football and your will to win will assuredly help you attain full potential.

O'Driscoll's championship dream in the Cork jersey ended just five minutes into the replayed semi final in Pairc Ui Chaoimh when he was seen crumbling to the ground in distress with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

He has only returned to work last week, with the injury still encased in plaster. He hopes to be back training and playing for Cork for the second half of the National League after Christmas.

He watched the Munster final from the stand and feels that while Cork played poorly Kerry's fitness showed in the end. "They are young and eager and Billy O'Shea and his Laune Rangers champion clubmates are an example to the test of the team of what can be achieved.

He suggests that it is a young and comparatively inexperienced Kerry side that is likely to discover the rapidly unfolding reality about Connacht football. "Connacht football has improved and is now not far off the pace," he asserts.

O'Driscoll can visualise Mayo's John Casey and Kerry's Dara O Se playing the most important individual roles.

As a midfielder O Se can only hope that the right sort of game is played to allow him curtail the flow of ball towards target man Casey. "I would even go far as to say that the outcome of the match could well depend on the respective displays by these two players," says O'Driscoll.

Mayo's experienced midfield pair of Pat Fallon and Liam McHale attracts O'Driscoll's attention. "McHale is a very clever player, a talented distributor of the ball, something, no doubt, he has developed as a top international basketball player. He rarely, gives away possession and his experience must be a huge asset to a coming side.

He agrees that Galway were unlucky to lose out in last year's semi final against a Tyrone team now favourites to win the title.

O'Driscoll listens to suggestions that this could be the beginning of another lengthy reign for Kerry in Munster and then retorts humorously: "No, we will be only giving them one year. I am not hanging my boots up just yet."

Niall Finnegan, whose dreams of reaching Croke Park for a second successive year were dashed by Mayo, reckons that the most important factor will be how the players who are playing in Croke Park for the first time react to the big occasion.

He suggests that the key players will be Kerry's Maurice Fitzgerald and Dara & Cinneide and McHale and Casey for Mayo.

"Casey is an excellent forward. He had been hampered by injury all year but he came through against us in great style. He inflicted a lot of damage on us."

He says of Mayo: "They have a very strong defence. I would say it is their strong point really. If they can hold out against the Kerry forwards and their midfield win out I think they would have a very good chance of reaching the final."

He describes as a "fair assessment" O'Driscoll's assertion about the improving Standards of Connacht football. "I agree, we are not far off the pace. We got a good look at ourselves in Croke Park last year. We thought we should have won that game. I think that the Mayo team who go out there this year have absolutely nothing to fear from Kerry. Mayo were unfortunate to be on the wrong end of a few scorelines in the early 90s but I think this is a different, more resilient, team and I fully expect them to win the next day."

"Both are young teams and they should be very hungry. It will be very competitive and close."

O'Driscoll also feels that it will be close. "Don't rule out a draw," he says.