Allianz Division One Football League final: Kerry v Mayo (Sunday, 4pm, Croke Park, live on TG4)
THERE’S an argument that both Kerry and Mayo would have preferred this to have been Dublin than each other, but this has been a peculiar campaign.
The Dubs have been noticeably off-colour and are thus absent from the decider for the first time in seven years. Kerry’s win over them in Tralee bore more weight at the time than perhaps it does now, given their subsequent struggles.
But then when you’re matching them to the All-Ireland champions, Mayo were railroaded in Croke Park and recovered to then go and win in Kerry.
The formlines, thus, are only drawn in pencil. Yet there is a feeling that, regardless of what Dublin have done or failed to do, this has been a great spring for these two in particular.
James Horan has spent four seasons watching on from the comfort of the Sky Sports booth, and clearly his analysis didn’t miss the issues with Mayo.
Going right back almost the start of his reign, any fool could have named their starting 15 on almost any given week. Certainly 14 of them. Part of that was the high-performance of the starting players but there was an easily detectable lack of depth.
You only have to go to their biggest days. Alan Freeman in 2012, then Enda Varley and Jason Doherty (for the last two minutes) in 2013 were their only attacking subs in those two finals.
In 2016, they brought Alan Dillon and Evan Regan both on and took them both off again, and all four changes were in the final 20 minutes.
2017 was most telling. Conor Loftus got the final seven minutes but in terms of a potential game-changer, that was it. Dublin, meanwhile, brought on Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan, Kevin McManamon, Paul Flynn, Cormac Costello and Niall Scully.
In one sense it’s been a pleasing spring and yet in another, it’s suggested that there will still be a lightness in terms of out-and-out scoring options (although Cillian O’Connor is still to come back in).
Conor Diskin and Brian Reape have had a decent bit of opportunity. They’ve done ok but Diskin hasn’t scored in one full and two-half games, while Reape’s return has been 1-2.
What they’ve uncovered are more of the same type of player. Matthew Ruane’s shown well around the middle (another area that injuries to Tom Parsons and Seamus O’Shea have left them bare in), while Fionn McDonagh and the marginally-more-established Fergal Boland have had good days.
Only Aidan O’Shea and Jason Doherty have clocked all 490 minutes in the league, and defensively they’ve consistently shaken it up. Whether that’s a plus or a minus, it’s hard to know at this stage.
It was Stephen Coen that they asked to do the job on Tommy Walsh in Tralee, and he did it well, but there still is not that reliability about the space in front of their own goal.
Coen is likely to given the same task again, and it’s a different Kerry forward line you expect on the whole. If Paul Geaney is fit and with David Clifford getting 65 minutes under him last week, there’s a greater menace about them inside.
Brendan Harrison has done well on Geaney in the past, but he might have to switch across to Clifford and leave the Dingle man to Chris Barrett. Keith Higgins is expected to line out in the half-back line as a result of all that.
Last weekend saw Tomás Ó Sé launch an impassioned defence of Kerry’s back line after RTÉ columnist Aidan O’Rourke criticised their workrate and willingness to do the dirty work. Ó Sé pointed out that they’ve conceded 35 points fewer in this league campaign than in last year’s, and 28 fewer than the regulation campaign in 2017, when they won the title.
They have been vastly improved in that regard, but that’s not to say perfect. Peter Keane’s given his faith to Jack Sherwood in the number three jersey although Peter Crowley’s been the go-to man-marker.
Tadhg Morley manned the square in the game between these two a few weeks ago and their team selection will tell a lot about just how much faith exists in Sherwood.
Mark Griffin’s been shipped out and employed as more of a midfield enforcer, a role that seems to be suiting him grand. Tom O’Sullivan’s had an excellent spring and Paul Murphy has looked sprightly at the heart too.
Crucially, they seem to have found some answers to their quandaries in the half-forward division. And of it all, that’s perhaps what to look most closely at this weekend.
That is where they’ve fallen down against Mayo of late, most notably in the two All-Ireland semi-final games in 2017.
When Kerry retreated in the replay to try and shut down Andy Moran, they hadn’t the legs to get up in support and kept no presence for the kicking game that they love. Mayo won it handy.
The Kingdom’s new number 11 has everything. Sean O’Shea has hit 1-50 in the league, peppering the sublime with enough of the ordinary to convince that he’s no show pony. This boy’s real.
Lee Keegan will give him all he wants, in the likelihood that he is handed the job that was given to Michael Plunkett in the horrendous conditions of St Patrick’s weekend.
Kerry’s feeling that they’ve something to prove against Mayo was only heightened that night. For players that are no strangers to Croke Park, this feels like their first test there together.
Mayo, contrary to a belief founded on All-Ireland finals alone, have a good record at headquarters. What they don’t have is medals.
They’re due some. Kerry will have to get in line.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Kerry: S Ryan; P Crowley, J Sherwood, B Ó Beaglaoich; T Morley, P Murphy, T O’Sullivan; J Barry, M Griffin; D Moynihan, S O’Shea, S O’Brien; D Clifford, T Walsh, P Geaney
Mayo: R Hennelly; C Barrett, S Coen, B Harrison; K Higgins, L Keegan, P Durcan; A O’Shea, D Vaughan; M Ruane, D O’Connor, F McDonagh; K McLoughlin, A Moran, J Doherty
