‘JUST when I thought I was out, they pull me back in’ – Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III. Sometimes it can feel that way with Gaelic football and the All-Ireland senior championship.
Having endured much negativity about the state of our game, particularly in the high stakes inter-county world, four teams come along and decide they’ll do more than park their buses in Croke Park and have a real go at each other instead.
Sixty-six scores across 160-odd minutes of football is nothing to be sniffed at, some of which were of the highest calibre, while the outcome was in doubt to the very end in both games. The only real disappointment is that Donegal swapped their shooting boots for clown shoes in the closing 20 minutes of the second semi-final, thus depriving us of the climax to the weekend that what preceded it deserved.
On Saturday, Armagh brought all the colour and noise to Croke Park as the Kerry supporters stayed at home. The cost of going to Dublin, the poor entertainment fare of the quarter-final against Derry and an expectation that they could hold their powder for an All-Ireland final all played a part in the paltry Kerry crowd in attendance. I would venture the latter was the deciding factor for many, and complacency was apparent across the county bounds. A test was expected, but one that Kerry would be able to see off in the end. This was a Division 1 team and perennial All-Ireland contenders against an Armagh side who had just been promoted from Division 2 and hadn’t made an All-Ireland final in more than two decades.
The first half of the game was decent if unspectacular, with Kerry seeming to keep the Armagh men at arm’s length without ever hitting full throttle. The big three were busy but by no means causing havoc and Armagh would eventually get to grips with the main Kerry threats with David Clifford, in particular, conspicuous by his absence as the game wore on. The Fossa footballer looks like a man who could do with putting the boots into the press for a couple of months as soon as the club season ends for him this year, whenever that might be.
Kerry will look back at the third quarter as to when the opportunity to win this game with something to spare was missed. Two clear goal chances went abegging due to poor decision making and poor finishing before Paul Murphy palmed home after an off-target David Cliiford effort for a point was kept in play. Countless times before we’ve seen Kerry push on in these moments and put the boot into their opponents, however a poor misjudgement of a high ball by goalkeeper Shane Ryan allowed the excellent Barry McCambridge to find the net.
It was then that the large Armagh crowd made their presence felt and the men in black and orange on the field grew taller and stronger with their backing. Rian O’Neill, Adrian Forker, Stefan Cambell, Rory Grugan, Jarley Óg Burns and the reappearing Conor Turbitt all made vital contributions at different times as Kerry struggled. Cillian Burke aside, Kerry got little impact from their subs bench. The game ended in a welter of excitement and Rian O’Neill provided the play of the weekend with his overhead catch in his own square making the game safe for the Orchard County. Armagh progressed to an opportunity to secure only their second-ever All-Ireland title, and like the rest of us sat back on Sunday to see who would join them
In my book, the best football of the whole weekend was played by Donegal in the first 45/50 minutes of Sunday’s semi-final. Micheal Langan, Oisin Gallen, Paddy McBrearty, Shane O’Donnell, Ciaran Thompson and Caolan McGonagle scored points to drool over, as Galway did their utmost to hang on to their coattails.
Galway’s big guns weren’t quite firing at the other end, Shane Walsh getting only one from play and Damien Comer failing to score under close attention from Brendan McCole, and that they retired level at the break was largely due to a completely fortuitous Paul Conroy goal. If there was a major negative on a good weekend for the game, it was that only three goals were scored, and all came about due to poorly executed attempts for points. Kerry created the best openings of the four teams from constructive football moves, and as previously noted, their failure to convert those is the main reason they are out of the championship.
The second half was tit for tat and the sides were level with 20 minutes to go when the Donegal performance almost inexplicably fell off a cliff. Having been so clinical and accurate up to this point, both in this game and the previous games against Clare and Louth, when the need was greatest there was no precision to their shooting. The withdrawal of Jason McKee and a visibly unhappy McBrearty looked questionable at the time, and the lack of impact from the Donegal replacements bore this out. This was something the two defeated teams in green and gold had in common last weekend.
Galway didn’t produce anything spectacular in the latter stages to see this game out, rather it was built on the performance of their defence. Considering Sean Kelly didn’t play at all and the lack of scoring impact from Walsh and Comer, this win was a considerable achievement for Pádraic Joyce and co. The final will now see two legends of the game in Joyce and Kieran McGeeney go head to head, with the interesting sub-plot of a master versus apprentice coaching match-up also, as former Kerry and Cork coach Cian O’Neill pits his wits against the rising star of the coaching world, his former player Kieran Donaghy. The sideline battle will nearly be as interesting as the game itself.
The All-Ireland hurling and football finals will now both be contested by teams who have not won a title in at least a decade, and both games should be carnivals of colour, excitement, tension and hopefully everything else we love from our sports. The football final on Sunday week will be the first time since our big day in 2010 that none of Kerry, Dublin or Mayo will be involved. Dublin and Kerry have secured ten of the last 11 titles – unfortunately for Mayo the outlier to that statistic is Tyrone and not the westerners – so the prospect of new champions is absolutely welcome for the game of Gaelic football.
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I can’t let the moment pass without a quick look ahead to the big one this weekend, as the Cork hurlers look to bring Liam MacCarthy Cup home for the first time in far too long. Happily, I have secured my ticket for the occasion and I’m looking forward to making the journey this weekend. Training commitments in the past and holidays meant I didn’t attend the games in 2013 or 2021, so it will be my first time seeing Cork in an All-Ireland final since September 2010. Let’s hope for a similar occasion and a similar result. Corcaigh abú.
