Every Dublin and Kerry fan will be focused on just one man and his kicking tee.
Stephen Cluxton is on course to be the greatest goalkeeper the GAA may ever have seen, and this Sunday his legend may even grow further if he can captain Dublin to another All-Ireland title against Kerry in Croke Park.
Our sports psychology consultant Emmett Hughes has been assessing Cluxton and the respective mangers ahead of Sunday’s showdown.
I think it’s very interesting to look at the profile and approach of both managers on Sunday and see how similar they both are.
What we know of Eamonn Fitzmaurice is that his preparation is meticulous, he’s very thorough, and I think Jim Gavin shares a huge amount of that too. Both managers’ personalities are reflected in their teams and that makes for a fascinating final on Sunday.
Both men are unconcerned who they are playing, they both value discipline hugely and the occasion or the external stuff never bothers either man.
In any media interviews they may appear quiet characters, and even on the sideline they don’t lose their cool, but if there is a day that might see a crack in the facade then it might just be Sunday if a decision goes against them or their team is going badly.
Gavin was cranky after the league loss to Kerry in the springtime and it was the first day that you could see there was something under his skin.
They are the signs I’ll be looking for to try get an insight into see how both are coping with the game.
From a psychological perspective, if you negate the opposition strength you are going a fair bit of the distance to upsetting their confidence.
That’s when you see the weird stuff. That’s when you hear players saying afterwards that they didn’t really know what was happening and a lot of this is because it is an entirely new scenario that you have no confidence in, or you have lost confidence in something that had worked so well for you.
For boxers it may be their favourite jab not landing as powerfully as it should and when your confidence in that is taken away for you that’s when you’re in a totally new scenario.
Mayo’s resurgence in the drawn semi final was a good example of how Stephen Cluxton’s and Dublin’s performance dropped alarmingly and it was a bit of a collapse mentally. Mayo fed on the uncertainty but I’d expect Cluxton and the Dublin team to have full faith in what the keeper is doing this weekend, no matter how much Kerry may push up.
Everyone talks about his kick-outs but I’ve not seen anyone discuss how important his team-mates are to that strategy. Cluxton could be the best place-kicker in the GAA, but it is vital that his team-mates, and the players out the field make themselves available and that takes a huge amount of practice, and confidence, in the Dublin captain.
Cluxton is the thermostat for this Dublin side. He sets the pace, he sets the tempo and his kick-outs breed confidence through the whole Dublin team. It is always good to have a reliable data or evidence to base your confidence on and 18 out of 19 kick-outs won against Mayo shows how important he is to Dublin.
Jim Gavin’s side have a number of tactics and plans but it all comes down to Cluxton and to be fair they have developed that style more than anyone else.
When the pressure comes on and players may have moments of doubt, his kick-outs are almost like a comfort blanket and a key aspect of play to get them through the tough point that comes in any game.
That will happen on Sunday if Kerry break up play or disrupt a few of his restarts and the pressure will be on his next kick-out to see how it has affected him or if it has disrupted his confidence.
What Dublin will have worked on is how the team could retain confidence in the process, in the player, and his ability to get over any mistake and go again.
The semi-final win for Dublin means they have answered most of the big questions asked about them all year. We mentioned before the replay that Mayo appeared to have the momentum but they dealt with all the external stuff so well.
They just went out and performed and that’s a big help to them on Sunday. They kept at Mayo, even when four points down, and they’ll draw massive confidence from that performance.
Their decision-making is probably what set them apart from the opening day against Mayo and even Cluxton showed much more confidence in his team, and they in him.
Day one they seemed to make the wrong decision in possession. In the replay, they cleared their minds and stuck to their instructions.
There is no question of which side is more motivated than the other. Any talk of Kerry going for two-in-a-row or Dublin trying to win three successive games over Kerry is missing the point for both teams.
Players are driven by winning and when you reach a final both teams will want to lift that trophy. The traditional idea of ‘hunger’ is parked when you get to a final. Both sides have shown the same desire to get here so it would make sense that both teams desire to win will be the same going into a final too.
Both teams want to achieve the best level of performance they can and stick to the process. If certain players need that extra motivation of two-in a-row or three successive wins, it is there.
But for my experience, it’s very rare the week of a final you need to remind a player or motivate him or her, let alone an All-Ireland decider.
