AS THE DIVISION 1 and 2 Allianz League finalists gear up for Sunday, it has a feel of a Croke Park audition for the leading four contenders to take Kerry’s Sam Maguire crown.

So which of the four is best positioned to do so off the back of fruitful League campaigns?

Mayo’s spread

Fermanagh and Louth have been the two teams to most outperform pre-league expectations but in the top tier, Mayo have also exceeded many spring forecasts.

In James Horan’s four-year tenure, they were All-Ireland runners-up twice and their league record read: champions, relegated, promoted, runners-up.

So even with a change of management, it shouldn’t be the greatest shock that Mayo remain the most enduring contenders of all. The campaigns of old have been built on solid defensive foundations but floundered on a lack of scoring forwards.

The new hope of a Tommy Conroy-Ryan O’Donoghue axis to support Cillian O’Connor was wrecked by injury last year but that trio have been back playing together this term (although O’Connor has been out with a short-term knee injury).

Aidan O’Shea has been rejuvenated by his stationing at full-forward. Evan Treacy / INPHO Evan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

They haven’t been over-reliant on any of that trio either with their exciting brand of football. James Carr has built on his happy knack of scoring wonder-goals, as Sunday’s opposition Galway have already experienced.

And most notably, Aidan O’Shea has been rejuvenated by his stationing at full-forward. From there, he provides a focal point for the Mayo attack, a distributor for other forwards to play off, and a leader in pressing opposition defenders for advanced turnovers.

That pressure has been the hallmark of Mayo for the past decade although their defensive press was threatened at the start of the year by the losses of Lee Keegan to retirement and Oisín Mullin to Aussie Rules.

Any such worries have been answered by the development of young full-back-line options Enda Hession, David McBrien, Jack Coyne, and teenager Sam Callinan.

Diarmuid O’Connor has excelled in a defensive midfield role, well balanced out by Matthew Ruane scooting forward to score in six League games.

Kevin McStay has been a breath of fresh air in his first year as manager but the question will be can Mayo maintain this pace across the summer or will other teams catch up with their early momentum?

Dependable Derry

Of all four finalists on Sunday, Derry have been cultivating that momentum most of all.

They’ve raced through the Dr McKenna Cup and Division 2 unbeaten in 11 games, although Rory Gallagher was left frustrated by a last-minute goal conceded in drawing away to Cork.

The Derry boss was understanding, though, of that blip given they took the week off before that dead-rubber contest. Gallagher, like some of his players, only flew back into the country from holidays that weekend.

He has kept a tight-knit squad of just 29, more than half a dozen smaller than many counties, with only three new faces introduced since last year.  

Their run to the 2022 All-Ireland semi-final was achieved with an unchanged 15 all summer and changes have been restricted to a minimum this spring too.

Not that they haven’t found more reserves from their 2020 All-Ireland minor champions. Eoin McEvoy has been excellent at full-back and Lachlan Murray is progressing nicely at corner-forward.

Their game plan is well drilled but fundamentally based around the full team retreating into defence before hitting on the counter.

Niall Toner has chipped in with 3-10. Lorcan Doherty / INPHO Lorcan Doherty / INPHO / INPHO

In slower attacks, they also work off of overloads, flooding the opposition 21 with bodies and breaking from there.

Their ability to spread scores beyond Shane McGuigan remains the biggest barrier to progressing onto an All-Ireland final, although Niall Toner has chipped in with 3-10 so far.

Their miserly 3-60 conceded in seven matches was, by a distance, the most frugal across all four divisions. (Only Westmeath and Galway also conceded a total less than 90 points).

Gallagher knows he will learn more from these Dublin tussles than all other Division 2 games combined.

For all the momentum gained from their Celtic Park comeback against the Dubs, Dessie Farrell’s side should’ve seen that one out when Ciarán Kilkenny had the chance to go for the jugular. Derry will want to prove their superiority on Sunday.

Dublin’s number one?

Speaking of the Dubs, Stephen Cluxton’s return adds unexpected intrigue after a flat promotion run.

Farrell’s clubman David O’Hanlon has impressed between the sticks, his last-gasp save against Cork keeping their promotion campaign on track and his kick-outs offering a pinpoint platform to build attacks.

Cluxton, now 41, has already experienced his first start since the 2020 All-Ireland final in a challenge match against Meath, and one wonders if he’s being lined up for the number one jersey or whether it could ever be so simple as offering backup amid an injury crisis, as Farrell intimated.

Would the GAA’s greatest goalkeeper be content to come back for a seat on the bench?

David O’Hanlon has impressed between the sticks for Dublin. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

It has raised some questions about Dublin’s need for leadership, too, after some ropey one-point victories against Division 2 strugglers Kildare and Clare.

Their game plan has appeared too ponderous, failing to provide the type of quick supply that could best unlock the full potential of Con O’Callaghan.

Still, Con could have made all the difference in the Dublin-Kerry semi-final last year were he available and he remains part of a team filled with multiple All-Ireland winners.

The biggest question, it seems, is whether they can find a method to unleash the best from those players.

With Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, and Clucko back, and seven weeks in hand before their season really gets going, you’d be brave to back against them.

Galway gains

And then there was Galway, All-Ireland runners-up and now on the cusp of a first Division 1 title since 1981.

Pádraic Joyce’s side needs to find those four points they fell short of Kerry last July and they’ve certainly shown signs of progress while waiting for much of the spring on Shane Walsh and Damien Comer to return.

Joyce himself experienced three League final losses as a player, something much of this Galway squad went through in the 2018 final against Dublin.

A win over their western rivals would therefore be a marker of progress along the road they need to travel.

Their six-point defeat of Monaghan has been their only game settled by more than one score, with two further draws on their record. Their only loss was a squeaker of a one-point defeat to Roscommon.

Matthew Tierney (3-14) has taken his influence to a new level. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Still, the manner in which they closed out the league by beating Kerry to the final was impressive, with a young team including eight of their 2020 All-Ireland U20 champions.

It may have relied on a fluky goal but there was no fluke in how they restricted Kerry, with Seán Kelly holding David Clifford scoreless from play.

Even without defensive lynchpins Liam Silke (working abroad) and Kieran Molloy (injury), the Tribesmen have conceded just 3-72 in their seven games.

Ian Burke and Peter Cooke have added more competition for places and squad depth, while Matthew Tierney (3-14) has taken his influence to a new level.

It’s all trending in the right direction out west. With more questions over Dublin, at least for now, and at the risk of forgetting Tyrone in the long grass, the Galwegians have every right to consider themselves Kerry’s closest challengers.

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