The two most successful counties in the history of Gaelic Football and the two best teams in the country right now go head to head on Sunday, but who’s going to come out on top?
Conán Doherty says: DUBLIN
‘There’s no logical reason that would suggest Dublin could be stopped. There’s no scientific reason either.’
We asked the question way back at the start of the summer if Dublin could be denied reclaiming the All-Ireland championship. That’s what was concluded.
The theory was that Dublin would win it this year because they didn’t win it last year. Simple.
The deadliest team are the hungriest team. That’s a frightening combination that makes for doomed reading for anyone stupid enough to stand in the way.
And, in the build-up to Sunday’s decider, you’re left wondering just how on earth they can be stopped. How is it possible? What do you do right now if you’re Éamonn Fitzmaurice?
I was speaking to a Kerry man last week and he boasted, ‘Ah, now, Fitzmaurice will have them set up. We’ll have the men to mark them and they’ll be told who’s picking up Andrews and Kilkenny and Paul Flynn. Dublin won’t get it easy.’
He didn’t even mention Diarmuid Connolly. Or Bernard bloody Brogan.
No-one’s saying that the Dubs won’t find it tough. But if some Kerry people genuinely think that they win this game in individual battles, they’re deluded. Those days are gone. No-one in the land has the artillery to go man-for-man with Dublin and come out alive.
And this naive notion that this player will mark him and Crowley will hit him a shoulder and all the rest is just bonkers. If that’s how you’re trying to stop Jim Gavin’s attack, you’d nearly be better off trying to send back the tide with a bucket.
Kerry will win the midfield battle – from their own kickouts. Dublin will win possession from theirs. Then it’s just a question of who will score more with 50 per cent of the ball.
A sweeper doesn’t work. Philly McMahon’s 1-2 against Mayo showed that that logic was one of the foolest notions yet.
Half forwards working hard will only be punished with the McCaffrey, O’Sullivan, McCarthy trio that could win the game for you themselves if you wanted them to. It genuinely seems as if Fitzmaurice is damned if he does or doesn’t heading in to Croker.
Because the only way that it seems possible for Kerry to edge out Dublin is to shut them down. Completely.
Batten down the hatches, make it a dog fight, bring the sort of numbers back that even Pat Spillane himself would be crying about but, Jesus, they’d need to hope that that method has improved vastly from when they tried it against Cork and the Rebels still managed to run right through the middle of them.
Kerry are the best side that could face Dublin.
They have a fine team, arguably the best subs in the land, a smart coach and they do not fear coming to Croke Park – they enjoy it.
But, coming in to this decider, it’s hard to see what they can do to stop the capital outfit.
Take them on man-for-man and they’ll be crucified at the back. Half-heartedly offer more cover to their defence and they’ll soon learn that Dublin have 15 ballers – not just two or three.
This is a different prospect entirely to planning for Mayo or Donegal. To planning for O’Connor and O’Shea or for Murphy and McFadden. This is a continuous tidal wave that needs to be kept at bay.
Closing up shop seems their best – it seems their only – option but it also see,s their least likely strategy. And, heck, even if they did it, I don’t even know if they have what it takes to actually shut them out.
I’m glad it’s not me.
Because Dublin won’t be stopped. They can’t be.
Conor Heneghan from JOE.ie says: KERRY
Having argued on these pages that Kerry would win their semi-final and Dublin would lose theirs, I wouldn’t have much credibility if I didn’t make a case for the Kingdom this weekend.
And while Dublin were deserving winners and I still have my Mayo hat on, I still maintain that the Dubs were beatable in both of those games and that they will fall to Kerry’s sword on Sunday.
There seems to be a consensus, with good reason, that Dublin will be all the better for the massive tests posed to them by Mayo in two titanic encounters at Croke Park.
Not surprisingly, Eamonn Fitzmaurice has raised that very point in the lead-up to the final.
To be fair to the Kerry boss, it was based on Kerry benefitting from the exact same experience against the same team last year rather than the typical Kerry cute hoorism which is more evident in All-Ireland Final week than at any other time of the year.
There is a lot of substance to the theory. Dublin hadn’t been given any sort of a test in the run-up to the semi-final and in the second game in particular, they showed character in spades to romp home so convincingly when in a losing position midway through the second half.
That’ll stand to them, of course it will.
Dublin, however, were in that losing position for a reason and that was with Mayo pursuing a strategy that has been the source of bewilderment amongst many pundits since.
You would think there would be no way, for example, that Kerry will concede the Dublin kickout as readily as Mayo did.
If Kieran Donaghy does play full-forward, you would think that he would be supplied with better ball than Aidan O’Shea was.
And, tellingly, Eamonn Fitzmaurice is unlikely to leave such a chasm between the midfield and full-forward line.
Instead, you can see him leaving at least one if not a couple of link men to ensure that David Moran and Anthony Maher have more options than pumping it long inside, well able though they are to do that accurately and effectively.
Despite Mayo’s relatively high score in both games, can any Dublin defender say they were tested in the manner in which a James O’Donoghue or a Paul Geaney is likely to on Sunday?
I’m not so sure and with Cian O’Sullivan’s potential absence forcing a reshuffle in the Dublin rearguard, that could be crucial.
That’s not to say that Kerry themselves are perfect, far from it.
If Tyrone were as clinical in front of goals as Dublin are, then they wouldn’t be in the final.
If they leave themselves exposed to anywhere near the same degree again, they can kiss a second All-Ireland in two years goodbye.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s greatest strength as a manager so far has been his ability to adapt to the circumstances confronting him and if I was a Kerry fan, I’d have faith in him having a plan to mind the house and limit, if not completely nullify, Dublin’s goal threat.
With that in mind, I’m not expecting a classic on Sunday and if a classic doesn’t materialise, I would be more confident of a Kerry rather than a Dublin victory.
It’s not really the Kerry way, but Kerry fans didn’t give a toss when they won last year and they won’t give a toss if they win ugly again this weekend.
Dublin are a phenomenal team, they have momentum and as Mayo discovered in the last 15 minutes of the replay, when they can generate that momentum within a game they’re nigh on impossible to stop.
Kerry will not only have to deal with the threat posed by Jim Gavin’s starting XV, but with players of the calibre of Brogan, McManamon and maybe even McCauley coming from the bench.
But I still fancy them.
It’s Kerry. It’s All-Ireland Final Sunday. Winning is what they do.
