O'Sullivan in race to face old rivals

GAELIC GAMES ALL-IRELAND SFCHE EFFECTIVELY turned the game during his 25-minute cameo against Westmeath and the pressure is now on Darran O'Sullivan to be fully fit for Kerry's qualifier showdown against Tyrone.

It’s certainly the headline game of the third round, not just because of their burning rivalry over the last decade: both Kerry and Tyrone have a similarly successful record in the qualifiers, although Kerry boast the best of the lot – a 100 per cent unbeaten run since the backdoor format was introduced – and also boast home advantage for this one.

What is less certain is the role O’Sullivan can play. Dogged by a hamstring injury in recent weeks, he was called off the bench at half-time in Sunday’s sluggish win over Westmeath, if only because, in the words of manager Jack O’Connor, it looked as if Kerry were “going out of the championship”.

O’Sullivan replaced Donnchadh Walsh, and had little time to settle into the game before Westmeath pulled further ahead, 1-9 to 1-3: then, after a dubious free went in favour of Kerry, Colm Cooper set up O’Sullivan for one of his scorching runs at goal, which he promptly finished by rifling the ball to the Westmeath net.

Minutes later O’Sullivan also set up a point for Paul Galvin, and although it was close until the end, O’Connor called him ashore again, on 60 minutes .

“Well, he was tightening up again, so we decided to take him out, in case he did too much damage,” explained O’Connor. “He [Darran] said he felt it tightening up again, and it’s not cured, 100 per cent. But it looked like we were going out of the championship, so we had to throw him in.

“And he did enough for us, when he was on, to bring us back into the game. And we’re thankful for that.”

With that in mind, Kerry will be carefully nursing O’Sullivan in training this week, as they prepare to welcome Tyrone to Killarney on Saturday evening. Although that’s not the only worry for O’Connor: he admitted too that “form can sometimes be just around the corner” but didn’t hide his concerns about Kerry’s inability to click, especially up front.

The sight of Tyrone entering Killarney might help focus their minds, but already the comparison with 2009 is being made, where Kerry huffed and puffed through the qualifiers, but the sight of old rivals Dublin, in the quarter-finals, bought out the best in them.

Aidan O’Mahony, however, says Kerry are taking each game, and season, on its own merits – and that any comparisons with 2009 are certainly premature.

“People are entitled to their opinions,” he says. “We’re just a closed camp ourselves, have been training hard the last couple of weeks.

“Westmeath were a massive test, and I don’t think had been beaten in Mullingar in the last two years, so getting into the qualifiers, that’s the type of test you need. And the big thing for us was a win, whether it was by one point or 10 points, so yeah, just happy with the win.”

Kerry will have taken a few lessons out of Sunday’s narrow win – not least the fact they can’t afford to fall six points down against a team like Tyrone: “The big thing is momentum, and the team gelling,” says O’Mahony.

Tyrone have twice beaten Kerry in All-Ireland finals in the last decade, in 2005 and 2008, and also took their scalp in the infamous semi-final in 2003. As for their qualifier record, Kerry have now won all nine, while Tyrone have now won 15 and lost only two.

Elsewhere, Tipperary host Antrim (with the winners going on to meet the losers of the Ulster final between Donegal and Down), Kildare play Limerick (with beaten Connacht finalists Sligo awaiting in the next round), and Leitrim host Laois (with the winners going onto face the losers of next Sunday’s Leinster final between Dublin and Meath).

Each of the round four winners then progress to play the four provincial football champions in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, set for the weekend of August 4th/5th/6th, and the only stipulation being there can be no repeat of the provincial final pairings, but otherwise it is an open draw – which means that counties which met in the earlier rounds of the provincial championship can indeed meet again.

Kildare have been forced to surrender their home advantage for this Saturday’s third-round qualifier against Limerick due to “health and safety” issues resulting in the decreased capacity for St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge.

Kildare officials were reluctant to accept the decision of the GAA’s CCCC, but in the end were faced with no option but to agree to play it in Portlaoise, with a 7pm start.