All-Ireland contenders move into position for battle ahead

The mutinies in all provinces were quashed in the sunshine yesterday. Ulster champions Donegal played sensational football for 20 minutes, which was enough to leave Armagh’s hopes in ruins.

Down in Thurles, Michael Quinlivan took just three minutes to goal against the All-Ireland champions but the Kerry men simply rolled their sleeves up and found yet another new way to assert the old order. Tipperary must wait another year if all their brilliant underage promise is to yield a Munster senior title. Cork took care of business against Clare to ensure yet another instalment of the Old Firm derby in Munster.

Mayo football people headed to Salthill for what was a madcap contest between the big two in the west. Galway managed two goals as well as conceding a calamitous gift of a goal just after half time but, for all their effort, the Mayo men remain on course for a fifth provincial title on the trot.

Wicklow threatened a minor revolt when they visited Navan to face Meath but again there was to be no reversal of the old order. The dominant teams march on. The qualifier pool is becoming crowded and dangerous water in which to swim now.

Speculation

It seemed a foolish notion by three o’clock but perhaps the biggest speculation revolved around the rare visit of Donegal to Armagh city. Photographs of the years when the Orchard County won Ulster titles for fun decorate the function room in the Athletics Grounds and hopes were high that yesterday would spark a revival.

Instead, they met Michael Murphy at his most imperious and Donegal at their most efficient. Patrick McBrearty obliterated Armagh’s full-back line in 20 minutes. Donegal raced into a 1-9 to 0-2 by half-time and were happy to take whatever came their way afterwards. It was a formidable show and when it was over, the score read 2-11 to 0-8.

“I wouldn’t say the full first half,” Karl Lacey corrected when he was invited to praise his team’s opening act as the sun beat down across Ulster. “Maybe 15 or 20 minutes were good.”

Donegal’s forbidding authority and control was the overall theme of the game, with the magnificent distance place kicking of Murphy giving the crowd something to admire long after the heat had left the contest. The speed with which Donegal won it was what made it so ruthless: they held a fire sale of Armagh’s ambitions and then went home.

“They are distractions and we don’t look into those,” Lacey said about all the permutations before the match.

“We just look at what Rory [Gallagher] is coaching us on the training ground and on our strengths and weaknesses. We are not going to be too bothered by anyone else. We feel that if we get our A game right we can compete with anyone in the country.”

Wicklow’s manager Johnny McGee felt much the same way. The Garden County have not beaten Meath in the championship since 1957 but delivered 3-12 in Navan on what was a nerve-wracking afternoon for the Royals.

“We came up here firmly believing we would beat Meath even though everybody wrote us off,” McGee said.

“It was pretty awful stuff in relation to how we were put down from all angles. There are 30-odd guys in there who have bought into something we wanted. I thought it was disgraceful how we were put down coming up here.”

Meath secured their passage into the semi-final against neighbours Westmeath and did nothing to suggest anything other than further Dublin dominance in Leinster.

There were no shocks for Kerry on their first championship outing. The All-Ireland champions took a while to shake off the cobwebs before dealing with Tipperary’s challenge on a final score of 2-14 to 2-8.

Colm Cooper was back in green and gold and all was right with the world.

Disappointing “Did we get going at all?” grinned Eamon Fitzmaurice when it was put to him that it had taken a while. “Ah, it did, yeah. It was a strange performance, there were patches of frustrating stuff and a lot of good stuff as well, particularly in the second half.

“We got six or seven points ahead at one stage but we got very sloppy in possession after that, which was disappointing. We almost invited Tipperary back into the game – Brendan Kealy had to make a great save. I think they had 10 wides in the second half. So we certainly didn’t make it easy on ourselves.”

In Galway, it was still warm enough for a dip in Blackrock by the time that Mayo had deepened their credentials as a gnarly, unmovable football team.

Kevin Walsh’s Galway team threw everything at them but Mayo stayed calm and on track to complete a five-year sweep of Connacht.

No change in any of the electorates, then, as the heavyweight counties begin to make their move.