Former footballer of the year Marc Ó Sé believes his native Kerry will beat Donegal by the minimum on Sunday.
Speaking at an AIB event ahead of the weekend’s All-Ireland Senior Football Final, Ó Sé says the counties’ contrasting styles of will make for an exciting game, but reckoned Kerry would prevail if they can compete on Donegal’s kickouts.
“I think if we can curb the influence of Shaun Patton, I would just expect us to get over the line by a point or two. I think everything has to go right, and to be confident I think we’re going to have to make sure we really go after Shaun Patton.
“I think if we can tie down Shaun Patton and Michael Langan, I just see Kerry just pipping it by a point.”
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The three-time All Star says Donegal’s running game and team play will be pitted against Kerry’s star quality, with David Clifford at the forefront.
“The big difference is that Donegal can get scores from anywhere. Kerry are really focusing on Clifford and Seánie [O’Shea].
“Kerry need to focus on runners, we’ve seen it all year from Donegal, the way their backs can get down the field. Just look at the Mayo game, look at Ciarán Moore, that lung-bursting run where he got down the field and got that great score.”
But Ó Sé is keen to point out that neither style is necessarily superior. “Don’t think I’m the cute Kerry hoor who’s trying to play Kerry down and Donegal up. My point is that Kerry are focused on maybe two or three players who get the scores, Donegal have that balance all over the field.”
He adds his brother Darragh may have tried to get a reaction from the Kerry dressingroom earlier this season, writing in his Irish Times column that “most people think there’s an air of inevitability about what comes next. We’ll beat Cavan on Saturday and then Armagh will put an end to it the following weekend.”
[ Darragh Ó Sé: The margins are tight but Kerry have one thing that Donegal don’tOpens in new window ]
“Darragh told me actually he was just trying to get the Kerry team going”, the younger Ó Sé says. “He got exactly what he wanted. It’s been excellent the way the mood has shifted down here. It’s gone from, ‘Jeez, we’re in the doldrums’ to ‘we’re going to win Sam Maguire.’”
In the only previous final between the sides in 2014, Kerry defeated Donegal in a low-scoring 2-9 to 0-12 decider that saw Jim McGuinness’ first reign as Donegal manager come to an end.
Ó Sé lined out at corner back for Kerry on that occasion, having had a rough day when the sides met in the 2012 quarter-final.
“The big thing in 2014 was that we got matchups bang on, we learned a lot from 2012. I think (Colm) McFadden caught me for three or four that day (in 2012) and it was like trying to keep the tide out.
“In ’14 we certainly learned. We felt we didn’t want to be as exposed as we were in 2012, so we made a conscious decision we weren’t going to get sucked up the field. Aidan O’Mahony did a fine job on Michael Murphy.”
In the end, many big games come down to a little bit of luck, he says, as was the case in 2014 when Kieran Donaghy intercepted a kickout for Kerry’s winning goal.
“We did really work hard with our build-up, with our analysis, with our preparation for that game, but I always say you have to have the rub of the green in certain games.”
