| No September surprises |
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| Tuesday, 02 September 2008 15:40 | |
 It’s hard to believe it’s September, isn’t it? I have no idea what you are thinking as you read this but from my perspective time is flying by way too fast. It seems only yesterday we had New Year Celebrations and the day before that Christmas but that’s all nine and ten months ago. We now know the All Ireland Final pairings for later this month and I suppose if we were being honest, there really is no surprise in one way as Kilkenny and Kerry as anticipated bid for three in a row glory. The only question that really needed to be answered was who the opposition was going to be on the first and third Sunday of September? Waterford’s journey to the Final has been well documented and by all accounts there is a buzz and excitement on the Banks of the Suir not seen, heard or experienced for over 40 years. In contrast Tyrone are safely ensconced in their third Final in six years and for obvious reasons fulfil the logical approach that a good under-age structure ultimately brings. It is no fluke that the Minor Final on September 21st will also involve the same county as the structures put in place many years ago continue to bear fruit. As we all do in the dark winter nights, we pick out potential winners of Sam and while Kerry is an automatic “given” every year so too is Tyrone. At least they would be in the top five nominees thereby joining Dublin, Galway, Cork, Armagh and possibly Meath or Mayo depending on form. I saw Tyrone in the League and as always they produced a commendably high standard of performance but yet when it came to the Championship, they were far from world beaters. I commentated on their games against Westmeath in Omagh and Mayo in Croke Park and while they were clearly the better team on each occasion, they could easily have been beaten as well. Indiscipline cost Westmeath dearly as two players in the space of two minutes went for an early shower. The game was still in the balance when the Midlanders rush of blood essentially ended the contest while a few weeks later Mayo’s lack of self belief and guile on the ball ended their involvement in the competition. So why are Tyrone so good right now? There’s an old belief in the GAA world that’s apt and true. If you are winning Championship matches and playing poorly, then you are doing really well. There is that “potential” to come alive at the right time, to hit a rich vein of form and to have a management team so astute, it’s almost painful. Tyrone tick all the boxes in that last statement. Any manager or coach would love to be reaching a quarter-final or semi final playing below par but still winning. It’s the ideal way to get to a Final. Tyrone lit their own fire against Dublin and continued smoking a trail against Wexford last Sunday. As regular readers of this column can testify I am a huge fan of Mickey Harte. His calm pragmatic but incisive manner is much appreciated by all journalists and broadcasters as all around us change and changing attitudes seem to be the norm. I can still walk in to the Tyrone dressingroom, be warmly welcomed and be told frankly and honestly what’s happening with the team selection and why it’s happening. This season it has reached almost laughable proportions where one or two teams have either been deliberately given knowing that there would be change or changes. In one particular instance this summer I had to wait for the PRO of a County Board to phone me on my mobile after the teams had left the dressingroom and were doing their warm up’s on the pitch to tell me one essential but obvious change.Yet in all truthfulness I could have told that particular PRO what the change was as I had been told reliably earlier by another source but I needed the official confirmation. I really think this sort of behaviour is madness as I cannot see what advantage there is in playing “mind games”. Who are they playing mind games with anyway ? I don’t expect anyone to tell me the exact game plan but at least tell me and many others like me who is starting, who is injured and why Player A or B is not playing. In other words the correct starting 15. Mickey Harte just doen’t go there. Never has and never will. It’s not his style. I though Joe Brolly is his summation on the Sunday Game two days ago described the Final beautifully when he said “Kerry will have the better footballers in the All Ireland Final but Tyrone are playing the better football”. The media hype about this Final will be close to unprecedented. Kerry would already have their three-in-a row only for Tyrone’s victory in 2005. In fact they would be heading for a record equalling four-in-a-row. That’s a pretty big incentive for any Kerry man. There is still a soreness amongst our neighbours across the Shannon over the way that the Kingdom always seem to find Ulster teams difficult to put away especially Tyrone in that Final three years ago. Kerry now have a chance to right that perceived wrong but there is no guarantee that they can pull this one last challenge off. The Kerry lads just don’t like “blanket defences” or “swarming defenders” but their own game plan has changed down Kingdom way since 2005.Pat O’Shea genuinely has many aces in his pack this time. I expect a huge dependency on the long ball to Kieran Donaghy, the cute timing of Paul Galvin’s re-entry to the fold, to see Dara O’Se up his own standard of performance for one last time…..the more I write this the more I’m convincing myself that Kerry will not be beaten. But their form or more precisely their form over 70 minutes is worrying. Cork should have been put away twice without much sweat lost but leaking goals is not normal practice for our neighbours. Tyrone have a game plan and a workrate that’s quite difficult to overcome. Their backs like Ryan Mc Menamin, Davy Harte and Philip Jordan are masters at going forward but equally have levels of fitness that means they can track back almost effortlessly. The long high but precisely directed ball from a half back or midfield position in a counter-attack move is the only way to combat that game plan. Only there can Kerry truly expose Tyrone. Who will win? I’ll give my final thoughts in a few weeks time but right now I have a slight but very hesitant inkling towards Kerry. I just feel they have too much to lose, too many options in their artillery and I can’t see Kerry falling to the same tactics that cost them dearly just three years ago. I have some close Kerry friends and to be honest, you don’t fool Kerry people more than once! |