There’s nothing new in gulf between top teams and the rest

AS the dust clears from the way the four top teams bulldozed their way to the All-Ireland semi-finals, Gaelic football is being told it needs to mind the gap that the gulf in class is worrying.

With the Super Eight concept coming into being next summer, that gulf is alarming but that it exists shouldn’t surprise anyone. It has always been like this. The top teams have always been so much better than the rest.

When I was a young child, it was like the race for Sam Maguire was solely between Kerry and Dublin. Between 1975 and 1986, Offaly were the only side other than those two counties which won the All-Ireland.

In the late 1980s, Meath and Cork were the only two teams capable of landing Sam. In the noughties, it was ourselves and Tyrone divided up most of the All-Irelands between us. The 1990s was the only decade when a number of teams had a genuine chance of claiming the biggest prize – borne out by the fact there were seven different winners.

What we are seeing now is nothing new. There has always been a gulf. What last weekend underlined is we are left with the four best football sides in the country. And with the exception of Donegal, the four most consistent teams of this decade.

This is the third summer of the past five that Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and Tyrone have comprised the semi-finalists. It is Dublin’s eighth straight season at this stage, Mayo’s seventh and the shame for them is they yet have to have the biggest prize to show for all their endeavours. Their consistency has been astonishing.

It’s better to have four teams that can win the All-Ireland, rather than two.

If I was ranking the four, I would still have Dublin as my number one. Even though Kerry defeated them in the League final, they are still the team to beat and it is still their AllIreland title to lose. Jim Gavin has an embarrassment of riches.

Nothing summed up this more than the way he sprang Michael Darragh Macauley and Paul Flynn into action last weekend, players who were written off for the year.

There didn’t look to be anything wrong with them against Monaghan. The energy levels were back to normal, tearing up the field, creating opportunities for others.

Gavin has huge options off the bench but where I think the Dublin manager has been clever is how he has paved the way for Diarmuid Connolly to come straight back into the team against Tyrone.

He played Eric Lowndes at wingforward against Monaghan, ostensibly to curb the threat of Karl O’Connell. But I believe Gavin did that with an eye to putting Connolly into the half-forward line against Tyrone.

He is preparing the ground to start Connolly. I know Bernard Brogan put up his hand again as a possible starter but Gavin puts fierce trust in his bench, that is a huge part of his game-plan and he now sees Bernard as someone to bring on.

Connolly possesses a skill level different to most other players. Why wouldn’t you bring a forward with those gifts into your team. And Gavin would prefer to start Connolly in a semi-final, rather than the final, should they get past Tyrone.

Dublin look strong in every sector. Mick Fitzsimons has been outstanding, and he is now Gavin’s go-to defender when he needs a manmarking job done. Philly McMahon and Johnny Cooper are playing well. Brian Fenton is back playing great football, after a dip in his high standards around the League final.

Ciaran Kilkenny is thriving on the 40, the best place for him. Dean Rock is the most consistent score-getter in the game and they have serious options off the bench in the likes of Brogan and Eoghan O’Gara.

Kerry are still No2, even though Eamonn Fitzmaurice won’t be too happy with many aspects of their performance against Galway, They looked tired and leggy but even allowing for that, Kieran Donaghy looked like he is flying and the winter playing basketball has clearly given him a new lease of life. He thrived on any diagonal ball that was hit into him in the quarter-final.

With an inside line of Donaghy, Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue, Kerry possess the best full-forward line in the country. On their day, these three are lethal – but we haven’t seen them gel together in one complete performance yet, save for the occasional glimpse against Cork in the Munster final.

There’s real depth to the Kerry squad now too, with Darran O’Sullivan and Barry John Keane champing at the bit to be included and three midfielders – Jack Barry, David Moran and Anthony Maher, vying for the two midfield berths.

They will hope that the perform- ance against Galway was just getting dirty diesel out of the tank.

After the National League campaign, I would never have believed that Tyrone would be my third ranked team. They were poor when they came down to Fitzgerald Stadium for the final League game.

However, they, more than any team this summer, have shown that League and Championship are two completely different beasts. They steamrolled a young and inexperienced Donegal side in Ulster and have used that as a springboard to play some of the most impressive football of the summer.

The likes of Tiernan McCann and Padraig Hamspey has been superb in their half-back line. Peter Harte is just a joy to watch, He is the sort of player that people come through the turnstiles to see. I love his composure on the ball. I don’t know where Colm Cavanagh gets his energy from, He has rightly been lauded as the best sweeper in the game but his role is not that of an out- and-out sweeper. He gets up the field too, and has an influence in attack as well as getting back and cutting out attacks. In Mattie Donnelly and Seán Cavanagh, Mickey Harte can count on experience and guile while Mark Bradley just looks a brilliant footballer. And they clearly have a deep squad now too, with David Mulgrew coming off the bench to kick 2-1 against Armagh. It is hard to credit that the speculation earlier this year was whether Harte would get another year as Tyrone boss. He should be allowed to stay in that job as long as he wants. He has painstakingly and