FOOTBALL has been much-derided of late, with a lot of us losing faith in the modern game, but last weekend’s action proved we still have a game that can be loved and cherished.
Before a ball was thrown in last Saturday, there were strong favourites in all four games, but the nature in which the games were played and how all the teams performed gives me great hope for the remainder of the season. As we enter August and get towards the business end of the All-Ireland SFC, the cream is rising to the top. Just like a good pint of Guinness, it has taken a while, but the stout is beginning to taste a bit better.
Having started with 33 teams, we are now down to six and all of the heavy-hitters are still there. Following their heart-breaking injury-time loss to Tyrone in the ‘who blinks first’ contest that was the Ulster final, Donegal were expected to cut loose against a Cork team that has struggled to create an identity in recent years.
However, Rory Gallagher’s men were pushed right to the wire. For long periods, Cork dominated Donegal, but the leadership of the magnificent Paddy McBrearty, Ryan McHugh and Eoin McHugh kept their team in the game and, ultimately, in the Championship for another week.
Defensively, Donegal struggled throughout and that will be a major worry. When in recent seasons have we seen a Donegal defence cut open on so many occasions as we did last Saturday? The secret is out. If you run at them with purpose and intelligence, pockets of space will open up. If you have players who can score from distance, you simply shoot from further out.
Dublin have the players to do this and the task for Donegal in their quarter-final this weekend seems almost insurmountable. And make no mistake, Dublin will be up for this. It’s the first time the two counties have met in the heat of Championship football since Donegal’s famous, and somewhat unexpected, victory in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final.
That result still hurts the Dubs, no matter what soundbites they trot out for the media this week. Playing it cool will be Jim Gavin’s mantra because revenge is a dish best served cold. Donegal knocked them off their rhythm in 2014, but don’t expect Dublin to be so naïve again.
And what of Mayo? Never has a team knocked on the door for so long without reward. This is the sixth season on the bounce they have still been in the mix come August. Can they overcome Tyrone and reach the last-four again? Prior to last Saturday’s win over Westmeath, I would have been confident they would run Mickey Harte’s men close, but there was little evidence of much improvement and I now can’t see anything other than a Tyrone win.
Mayo have added a much more expansive kicking game to their armoury this term and they open teams up with one good kick-pass more than ever before. The reintroduction of Andy Moran at full-forward has added a new dimension to their play because, if the ball in is good, it will stick.
You would think Moran’s renaissance would be the final piece in the jigsaw, yet Mayo’s inability to truly put Westmeath away until injury-time provides more questions than answers. Where is the belief? Where is the ruthlessness we have grown accustomed to?
Mayo seem to be a team weighed down by their own expectations. In their last two games, they have had serious wobbles. It took considerable confidence in themselves for the players to initiate the exit of their management team at the end of last season, but I’m not seeing that belief being transferred onto the playing field.
At the peak of their powers, Mayo would have been more than a match for this current Tyrone side and they may still rediscover the purpose and belief of times gone by, but it’s almost impossible to turn it on at a moment’s notice. The intensity, aggression and pace Tyrone will bring on Saturday will be unlike anything Mayo have met in 2016 so far and, unless the Connacht men improve dramatically, the Red Hands will march on to the semi-finals.
The last time these teams met in Croke Park, it was a clash of an older Tyrone team in transition and a brash, hungry outfit in Mayo. The tables have really turned now. The excess baggage Mayo are carrying needs to be cast aside, otherwise the game will be up for the Westerners.
Kerry dispatched Clare last Sunday with the professionalism of serious All-Ireland contenders. The huge psychological advantage of 35 All-Ireland wins facing none was always going to be a major hurdle which, unfortunately, Colm Collins' men were unable to clear.
The Banner county can be proud of what they have brought to the Qualifier route, however, playing with pace, aggression and no little amount of skill. Being born in a ‘lesser’ county doesn’t make you any less of a footballer and Clare’s march through the Qualifiers has brought that fact back to our attention.
As for where Kerry are in their quest for another Sam Maguire win, the simple answer is they are only two more wins away. However, the fact their path of Clare, Tipperary and Clare again is undoubtedly the easiest route to an All-Ireland semi-final in living memory might just leave them a little undercooked and susceptible come semi-final day against either Dublin or Donegal.
Only time will tell whether Eamonn Fitzmaurice can work his magic and guide them through to another All-Ireland final. With the players at his disposal, a lack of ability will never lead to Kerry’s undoing, but other teams have had a much tougher path to the latter stages and will have had to dig deep into their reserves to get there, so overcoming these obstacles will give them strength. How the Kerry management team prepare their players over the next number of weeks is a matter of great intrigue.
Yet, for all of the high-scoring and fine attacking play from the other three games, the story of the weekend was, undoubtedly, Tipperary’s victory over Galway. Liam Kearns’ side put in a fine display of incisive forward play and stunning scoring. It is amazing to think the team that started last Sunday was missing 11 players from the side that succumbed to Tyrone so meekly in their final outing last summer.
What a transformation it has been. What’s their secret? It’s very simple - they aren’t carrying around any preconceived ideas of how they should play and they aren’t trying to be something they’re not. There is no sure path to success for the traditionally weaker counties, but there is a sure path to failure and that’s trying to play like everyone else.
Gaelic football’s biggest problem is the utilisation of tactics that are foreign to players. It is all about defensive football for defensive football’s sake. Maybe the biggest positive to come out of last weekend’s action is the manner in which Tipperary played. They went out to win rather than to contain and a heavily-fancied Galway side wilted when faced with their directness and physicality.
Galway’s provincial success had made them complacent and, with one eye on an All-Ireland semi-final, they capitulated when Tipp hit them with haymakers from the off. They were aggressive, energetic, skilful, attack-minded and ruthless. As Mike Tyson’s famous trainer Cus D’Amato said: “Never let where you came from determine where you’re going.”
Tipperary’s performances are the embodiment of this. If I could have one wish for the inter-county game, it would be that counties should all try to be ‘more like Tipp’. So while the Championship road has been dark for long stretches and, at times, we have all questioned the path down which our beloved game is going, the action at Croke Park last weekend provided us with more than a little hope.
I was excited by the four games, yet waiting for the two quarter-finals coming up this Saturday is like waiting for Christmas day. And they, no doubt, will show us all we can still have a little faith in football.
