It was a milestone weekend in the football championship. Dublin’s fall was the major outcome and it will have a major impact on what’s left of the All-Ireland.
There was also a connection between the quality, or lack of it, in the quarter-finals and the mindset of the remaining teams.
Kerry were so cautious it almost came back to bite them. They need to rip it up a bit and play their own game. Obviously they’ll be delighted they won but it was a desperate match to watch and all the more disappointing because the teams had played a completely different brand of football a year ago.
I can understand Derry lacking confidence given their championship form but it was very surprising to see Kerry go along with it and slow everything down as they got snarled up in a suffocating defence.
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They were in real difficulty up front. Paul Geaney tried in the first half to come for ball and to keep moving the blanket around but he and Seán O’Shea were extremely quiet and although David Clifford got his mark and was making his runs you could see him getting rattled and distracted.
It was 0-10 to 0-9 after 61 minutes and it was the introduction of Cillian Burke that gave Kerry a decisive edge. He actually started sprinting around the pitch, whereas until then they had been trying intricately to break down Derry through lateral passing and looking for gaps.
It turned out to be a feature of the weekend. Johnny Maher, Cillian McDaid, Stefan Campbell, Peadar Mogan, Ryan McHugh as well as Burke were so noticeable in games played at pedestrian pace because they show urgency and go forward every time they get the ball.
Strangely, it looked to me as if Kerry wanted to play the game at a slow pace. Tom O’Sullivan didn’t burst forward that much at all. It looked deliberate but was also potentially risky and, if that’s the plan for the semi-final, they’ll need to be careful.
Armagh won’t fall away in the last 10 minutes, which has been their strongest period in a number of games.
I’m not expecting Kerry to adopt a reckless, swashbuckling style of play – just a rebalancing away from 90 per cent caution and possession play towards a little more adventure, which better suits the team’s strengths.
It’s also worth looking at how accustomed – and I know this from bitter experience as a player – we had become to Dublin ticking every box necessary for winning an All-Ireland. I spoke at half-time in Saturday’s match about what Galway would need to do to win the match.
You have to be really good on your own kick-outs and really aggressive on Cluxton’s. You need to have physical man markers all over the place and most importantly, and which other teams tend to forget, you have to go toe-to-toe with them and attack with real energy.
That’s a lot of boxes to tick but Galway managed it in the second half. I’m not even sure if you can do it for a full, 70 minutes. Galway were quite passive defensively in the first half and facing Cluxton’s kick-outs and depended on Shane Walsh’s brilliance to keep them in touch.
Which brings me to my point that it’s very hard to hang your hat on any of the four semi-finalists for the very reason that they’re all trying to cope with one weakness or the other and cover up their flaws.
You could see Derry playing ultra-defensively to avoid getting caught at the back. Kerry are trying to find support for the Cliffords and Seán O’Shea and it’s not happening to any massive extent. Armagh are really strong defensively but have they the forwards and will they take off the shackles to find out?
Donegal going forward have been brilliant but opponents are getting big scores against them. Do they have enough man markers to take care of Robert Finnerty, Damien Comer and Walsh?
Galway put their eggs in the one basket and it largely worked out for them. They got their best 15 on the pitch but the vulnerability is being able to keep them fit and there for long enough. Seán Kelly, their captain, lasted 20 minutes.
Galway showed how you can change your performance mid-game. They played very reserved football in the first half and just about stayed with Dublin but in the second half they put the foot down, pressing aggressively on Cluxton and using possession to go forward for the jugular and not to dither, passing the ball around.
I was expecting that from Kerry at some point on Sunday. There was some suggestion that’s what they did in the last 10 minutes but I’d argue it was Derry hitting a wall rather their opponents picking up pace.
John Maher and Cillian McDaid put on some performance in the second half. There are players easier on the eye than Maher and technically more cultured footballers but in terms of throwing yourself into a match and getting the maximum out of it, he’s been tremendous.
The role he played in restricting Fenton and tracking him hard around the pitch was magnificent.
McDaid was Man of the Match after kicking three key second-half points but his form in the first half taking a number of Connor Gleeson’s kick-outs was for me equally impressive. He senses big moments in games and rises to them.
In other words, exactly the sort of player a team needs going into an All-Ireland semi-final.
