Buoyed up Galway to provide a real test for Kingdom
ALL IRELAND SFC QUARTER-FINAL
Kerry v Galway
Sunday, July 30 Croke Park, Dublin 2pm
WHENEVER these two meet there’s that frisson, that spark, that little something out of the norm.
Kerry and Galway are no ordinary foes. They’re the best of enemies. There’s a respect and a mutual admiration between the two. You might even call it a cultural affinity. It’s a west of Ireland thing we suppose. An Atlantic connection spanning a couple of hundred miles.
Galway are to Connacht as Kerry are to Munster. The big beasts. The ones everybody else loves to hate. The stylists and it’s there, perhaps more than anywhere else, that the cultural affinity finds its fullest expression.
‘Galway,’ a Kerry man is wont to say, ‘play football the right way.’
And they do. The result being that more often than not when the green and gold and maroon and white clash you’re in for a treat. In living memory we’ve had the twin finals of 2000 – classics both – the dance in the downpour in 2008 and even the 2014 quarter-final between the pair.
Naturally enough those games are remembered with greater fondness in the Kingdom than Galway and why wouldn’t they be? Kerry have generally held the upper hand. As a matter of fact Kerry haven’t lost to the Tribesmen in over fifty years – the 1965 All Ireland final, which Kerry lost 0-12 to 0-9.
That’s a hell of a long time for one county to wait to beat another.
Then again it’s not like they’ve met every other year. The defeats haven’t dimmed the rivalry or detracted from the glamour attached to the fixture either.
Galway and Kerry are box-office and Sunday will be no different, especially after Galway’s star turn against Donegal in last weekend’s qualifier in Markievicz Park. The Galway we saw – particularly in the first half – on Saturday evening is the type of Galway who could light up Croke Park as they have so often before.
That Galway is not the Galway we saw in the Division 2 final against Kildare in early April. That Galway was really rather defensive, in a stifling and not particularly entertaining contest with Kildare.
Needs must and all that. Galway was a county crying out for silverware (and, indeed, a win) at headquarters, nobody was much concerned with style. Nor were they when a defensive performance dumped Mayo from Connacht for the second year in succession.
Defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht final, however, seems to have forced a reappraisal. They were a nice bit more expansive against Donegal. Part of that was down to Donegal allowing them to be, but more of it had to have been a definite change of strategy.
Galway had the firepower to shoot down Donegal and that’s just what they did quickly and efficiently.
Such was
Galway’s weekend dominance that it made it hard to read much of anything at all into the second half, especially after Donegal were reduced to thirteen men.
Did Galway revert to a more defensive posture with Kerry on their mind? Or was it simply the case that Donegal left them with spare men to deploy in the defence after Michael Murphy and Mark Anthony McGinley picked up black cards?
Given that Galway will face Kerry this weekend, you’ve got to imagine they’ll err on the side of caution, dropping players back and looking to counter. In as much as they’ve employed a dedicated sweeper this year they’ve deployed Johnny Heaney (dropping back from wing-forward).
Then again last weekend showed how devastatingly effective Heaney can be in an offensive sense and, indeed, Galway as a whole. They’ve got the goods up front, no doubt about it.
We all know about Shane Walsh and Michael Daly, but their new look inside line of Sean Armstrong and Ian Burke (who made his debut at the weekend) proved hugely effective against Donegal. Add to the mix Damien Comer and Paul Conroy (who played midfield last weekend) and you begin to get an idea of what awaits Kerry.
There’s every chance Galway will cause all sorts of problems at the back if – and as ever it’s a big if – they get on the front foot. Galway’s midfield is formidable, especially with Fintan Ó Curraoin likely to return this weekend having missed the Donegal game through concussion.
Anthony Maher and David Moran will have a job on their hands to keep those two – or the pairing of Tomás Flynn and Paul Conroy which played at the weekend – in check. It’s possible even that Eamonn Fitzmaurice could opt to return Jack Barry to the side from the start for his energy and drive.
More likely would seem to be a decision to return Stephen O’Brien – who starred off the bench in both Ennis and Killarney – to the starting fifteen at the expense of Donnchadh Walsh, who was hauled at half-time in the Munster final. Killian Young, too, will be pushing hard for a place in the starting fifteen, but a place in the Kerry defence will be hard-earned.
As will a victory for Kerry this weekend. The bookies don’t agree – they have Kerry at 1/5 – but we’re of the view that Galway have the tools with which to hurt the Kingdom. That’s not to say we think they will win, but certainly they can.
The evidence of the Connacht final would seem to suggest otherwise, but Galway seemed to believe their own hype in the lead up to the match. They’re unlikely to be quite as blasé when faced with the prospect of this Kerry team in Croke Park.
Galway will be up for this. They should give Kerry a good hard game. Just what Kerry need when they most need it. A win after a battle this weekend could set Kerry up perfectly for a tilt at the title.
Verdict: Kerry