WELL, I’M JUST glad I don’t go to the bookies too often.
I think I’ve gotten every big prediction wrong this year and so it was yesterday.
I suppose I hinted last week that I thought it might turn into a bit of a chess match and that’s what we got between two very tactical sides.
It reminded me a lot of the 2011 semi-final when Dublin played the same type of game as Donegal. I suppose a lot of the criticism at the time was directed at Donegal but that’s usually because we tend to be much more critical of losers and talk about all the great things the winners do.
Cruelly for Donegal, the game was decided by a mistake from Paul Durcan and if you gave him a another 100 kick outs he wouldn’t do the same again but, in general, it just wasn’t the greatest spectacle ever.
Looking for positives, and you have to I suppose, we did witness one of the great tactical battles between two managers who put a huge amount of thought into their game plans and that made it an interesting game at least.
As an onlooker, you knew exactly what Donegal would bring but I thought they were flat yesterday which is quite unlike them. Even when they did force a turnover, they didn’t attack with the same gusto or at the same tempo as they did against Dublin. That played into Kerry’s hands.
For the winners. If they’d gone out and played free-flowing and attractive football, they’d probably have lost so you can’t blame them for cutting their cloth to measure. Thinking about it, they’re one of the few teams in the country capable of adopting their game in so many ways and changing their game-plan completely from game to game but that’s always been the case when them.
Before Mick O’Dwyer came in, Kerry were known as a kick and catch team and they enjoyed a lot of success with that. But when Micko took over, they became a team that ran at the opposition and had even more success after that.
Even in more recent times, after being bullied and out-muscled by Tyrone and other Ulster teams, Kerry went away and came back bigger and stronger and we saw the benefit of that yesterday, there was no way they were going to be out-fought by Donegal.
As I said Friday, I really thought Donegal’s experience of winning an All-Ireland just two years ago would have stood to them, that it would have helped them over the line but, in a way, I think Kerry benefited from the fact that some of their lads went into yesterday’s game with no pressure on them.
At the start of the year, nobody outside of Munster would have heard of a lot of those lads like Paul Murphy or Peter Crowley so they’d nothing to lose and showed they have that natural ability to go out and just express themselves.
Yet there were times yesterday, when Donegal bounced back after the second Kerry goal, that you thought they would just have too much about them and find a way to win. In tight games, players like Michael Murphy or either of the McGees usually do the business for Donegal and secure narrow the win but it just didn’t happen this time.
So Kerry deserve huge credit for their mental strength. It’s hard to put your finger on where it came from with such a relatively inexperienced group of players but I suppose they’re just made of different stuff down there.
Whereas in Kildare a young lad will tell you he dreams of playing for the county, in Kerry they dream of winning All-Irelands with the county. You can’t train that mindset into lads.
Star
I have to mention Kieran Donaghy and the impact he’s had on Kerry’s year. He probably won’t earn an All-Star – and I don’t think he should because you have to take the year as a whole – but they would not be All-Ireland champions without his contribution.
He gave them the spark to get over the line against Mayo and was a key cog in the machine yesterday so he’ll probably be having a word in Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s ear today and letting him know just what Kerry could achieve if he plays all year in 2015.
And speaking of the Kerry manager, I must commend the job he has done this year.
Kerry lost huge, iconic, figures before the start of this season, lads that will be remembered in 100 years. Not just players but legends of the game and to replace them the way he has is incredible.
If you look at the way he has managed Declan O’Sullivan – twice All-Ireland winning captain – this season and how O’Sullivan has accepted his role as a panel member and the respect he clearly has for his boss, that’s just brilliant coaching. It proves he has buy-in from the players and that they realise he knows exactly what he’s doing.
I’m sure talk in a lot of offices and workplaces today will be about the All-Stars and who will be player of the year but for me it has to be James O’Donoghue.
I know there’ll be an awful lot of hands up, lads like Paul Flynn, Cillian O’Connor, Michael Murphy and Diarmuid Connolly have all had cracking summers but it has to be James for me.
While there was very little expectation around Kerry in general, there was a lot of pressure on him personally as Kerry’s main scoring threat and he delivered brilliantly. A lot of people will look at the goal he scored against Mayo to earn the replay but for me his performance against Cork sets him apart from the other contenders.
His ten points, eight from play, reminded me of Frank McGuigan’s against Armagh in the Ulster final in 1984. People are still raving about that performance to this day and I think the same will go for O’Donoghue’s against Cork in the Munster final.
Looking back on the year in general, I do wonder if people are right and is it time for us to take a look at the provincial championships.
Don’t get me wrong, my most treasured possession is my Leinster winners medal and for a lot of teams winning a provincial title might be as good as it gets, but you have to look at how many sides can realistically win the All-Ireland and if it’s less than a three or four, then something has to be looked at.
Not a great match but well done Kerry. They did the necessary.
Thank god the Mcguiness/Harte brand of puke football lost yesterday. It’s killing the game as a spectacle.
It was replaced by the most cynical brand of the game carried out by Kerry. 10 fouls to 1 in Kerry’s favour in the first half. Kerry were the offenders yesterday and made the game the worst final in living memory
The reason Donegal’s ‘style’ is so destructive is that opponents feel they have to match it in order to beat it, creating the kind of awful spectacle we saw yesterday. The Dublin game showed that playing good football against Donegal’s ‘system’ is at best risky. Kerry did the right thing, including playing keep ball in the final stages, notwithstanding the crazy goal chace they allowed Donegal to get in the final moments.
A well deserved win and everyone who likes to watch the game should be relieved the team trying to play a bit of football came through in the end.
So we praise kerry for playing negative football like ulster teams have been accused and lambasted for in years gone by but we dont praise donegal for their ‘system’ which completely hammered dublin.. or the way tyrone played in years gone by beating this wonderful majestic kerry team in all ireland semi amd finals! Funny that eh..
You seem to be suggesting there’s some kind of hypocrisy at play, but none is evident, maybe you could outline it?
Some football actually broke out in the semi-final. Dublin trashed Donegal in the first 20 minutes and Donegal had to come out and play. When they did that, Dublin looked very exposed. Dublin made Donegal’s wrecking tactics look okay because, unlike Kerry, Dublin responded by playing football. Because Kerry matched Donegal’s tactics yesteray, it was particularly dour. The common denominator in all this is Donegal. You take Donegal out and you have great football. Kerry v Mayo = too brilliant games, Dublin v Kerry last year = one of the best games every played in Croker.
Hypocrisy among the southern media/supporters regarding puke/horrible football eminating from the north and nowhere else? Never… theres never been negative tactics used by southern teams unless they were made to do it by the dirty northerners if you believe what you read or hear
You appear to have a persecution complex.
What do you dispute in what I’ve written above? Are you suggesting these wrecking tactics don’t orginiate in Ulster?
Look, teams can play however they like within the rules, but let’s not pretend it is anything to watch for spectators. It’s negative, ugly, and boring to watch. Is it not?
I was at the dublin v kerry game last summer. An awesome display of football. Yesterday made me want to cry. The better the mcguinness and hartes of this world are no longer involved the better
Wrecking tactics? Never heard of these… i remember tyrone v meath quite a few years back when we were absolutely beaten and battered off the ball at every opportunity and there wasnt the cry of ‘horrible tactics’ etc, the cry was we need to man up and become more physical and in your face.. tyrone learned from games like those and changed their game! Peter canavan, geard cavlan and eoin mulligan, true wrecking defensive legends!
I see you’re studiously avoiding the central question! :)
No question that Canavan, Mulligan et al. are absolute legends of the game. Nobody’s disputing that. During the latter period of Tyrone’s successful run they were playing fantastic football, scoring some ridiclous scores, and entertaining many a crowd.
Yesterday, Donegal socred 2 points from play in the first half, and tried their dammdest to stop a game of football breaking out. This is a whole other plantet in terms of negativity. Is it not?
2 points from play and a handful from frees.. id put that down to good defending surely? You’re doing a disservice to kerrys defence there. . Wasnt a great game but not every single game is going to be free flowing and scoring is it..
Meath have a tradition of negativity, but in a different way
Were you watching the same game Petr, kerry continually fouled during the game. They have two wing forwards who can’t/ don’t want to play the game. O’brien should have been sent off in first 20 minutes
I note that Pat Spillane warmly embraced “puke football” when delivered by his native county!
Fighting puke with puke out of necessity.
There was no puke football against Cork or Mayo!
Watching Donegal is like watching sh*t on a stick.
No puke football needed against Mayo..they play football the way it should be played..like Dublin really..just unlucky this year, let down by the most incompetent ref that ever has been.
Mayo do play good football but they can’t blame to ref. No more excuese from Mayo, they need to stand up and win.
Nor against dublin
Totally agree with Petr. Mayo are a great team and the two tough tests they gave Kerry may well have made the difference in the final, but don’t stoop to blaming the ref – it does Mayo a disservice.
Agreed. The likes of Killian O’Connor will ensure Mayo win it before very long.
Did you watch the Cork game? Maybe it didn’t look like puke because Cork were too naive to put men behind the ball but Kerry had only 2 men in the Cork half for the majority of that match – O’Donoghue and Geaney. Everyone else stayed back. If you were at the game it was very obvious.
Painful to watch..but hopefully the hurling replay will erase the memory…
Just witnessed two special buses drive by in Denny Street Tralee. That says it all. Well done boys! Ciarraí Abú!
A sad day for GAA yesterday. Gamesmanship,unsporting behaviour from Kerry
players and supporters, off the ball tactics,particularly against Murphy.
Kerry were one dimensional. Their ” system” was to hoof it into Donaghy.
This must be the poorest team to win Sam in twenty years !
I’ll give you 2/10 for that one Michael
Well done Kerry on winning both senior and minor titles.A great honour for the Dr Crokes club to captain Kerry.The last Dr Crokes player to captain Kerry was the famous Dick Fitzgerald a hundred years ago.Well done to all involved.
Bloody hell, I’m sick of the puritanical, hypocritical bulls**t that people have been spouting the last 2 days about so called puke football. The fact is, any team plays to its strenghts, doing otherwise is the definition of stupidity. Tyrone’s success in the 00s was based on a defensive style as they lacked the attacking options enjoyed by the likes of Kerry (Canavan et al aside), but had numerous abrasive defenders. In fact, it’s often forgotten that Kerry adopted similar tactics during Tyrone’s dominant period which bore some fruit.
McGuiness, like him or loathe him, took a team of largely average players and brought them an all ireland and another final appearance, display clear progression from all out defence to a counter attacking side. It’s also convenient to ignore the fact that Donegal had the highest scoring average of the 2012 championship, somewhere in the region of 18 points per match, put up 15 scores in the Ulster final this year and put 3-14 on the unbackable favourite in the semi.
Fact is that every team plays to win, Kerry yesterday were evidence of that, good value for the win most definitely but proof positive that negative tactics are far from the sole preserve of Northern teams.
Kerry had to play negative to counter Donegal. When they play the likes of Mayo or Dublin it’s actually worth watching, which is handy for those who watch the game.
So Kerry had to play a defensive style but you’d much rather prefer if Donegal played a style that would get them hockied? Sunday wasn’t the first time Kerry have employed the blanket defence when it suited them.
The fact is that regardless of system, a game is only boring when teams neglect to score or try and score, and at the lower levels every year produces matches where both sides try not to lose. Someone the understands the game would realise that every match isn’t Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, the Dublin vs Kerry semi last year, while very entertaining was a clash of 2 teams not bothering to defend.
The system employed by McGuiness while predicated on defence and work rate, generates excitement too with the quick turn from defence to attack and counter attacking from the half back line.
Hey Kerry footballers make sure you keep Sam clean down in the bog of Kerry !!!!!!!!!
We bulk buy the Mr Sheen down here boy!
Very nice keep it clean for the dubs next year
To Any of the Kerry supporters on their way home there is club football championship on in Kilkenny this evening if ye wanna see a decent game played as the good lord intended
I wouldn’t call the most popular tourist destination and home of tourism a ‘bog’…not from kerry myself but I’m sure if u were to kerry you’d realise
Not one player there yesterday would lace Johnny Doyles boots. That Kerry tramp that kicked away the ball at the end shouldn’t be let onto a football pitch again.
They wouldn’t have to, johnny would be doing it for them.
What was the foul count again ?
Add the incentive to the attacking team . Make goals 5 points or have certain lines which only 1 or 2 forwards can go back past . Teams wont change unless their odds of winning will increase
We’ll said Michael Eden, Kerry are dirty winners