Start of the Super 8s
are capable of coping with and prevailing.
Next up the following weekend will be Monaghan in Clones and while they weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders against Laois in Navan last weekend, maybe, they were holding something in reserve, or indeed, feeling the exertions of their recent road trips in the qualifiers.
It’s difficult to determine therefore what the real level of their capability is at the moment, but if they can reproduce the form which they displayed in their first win over Tyrone in the Ulster Championship then they are going to be difficult opposition.
Kildare have really turned their season around in pretty spectacular style, but they could be coming to Killarney in round three with nothing to play for. Equally of course they could well be in contention for a top four spot and while they might be ranked fourth in this particular group with a home game in Newbridge against Galway they cannot in any way be ruled out of the equation.
So, while many might see Kerry as the overwhelming favourites to progress they are meeting a much better quality of opposition than they faced in Munster and will be tested a lot more severely.
They should be good enough to progress to the next stage and they will learn an awful lot more about the strength of their squad than they did throughout the provincial campaign, but if they were to lose to Galway the landscape will have changed completely in terms of the ultimate placings in the group.
On the other side of the draw Dublin with those two games in Croke Park will be strongly fancied, doubly so, given that Donegal will be without their stand-out performer Paddy McBrearty.
The Ulster champions have been extremely impressive this season and their high octane running game will test all of the other three teams. Indeed, the game between themselves and Tyrone in round three in Ballybofey might well decide who will finish as runners up.
Tyrone haven’t exactly been overly impressive on route, especially in their games against both Meath and Cavan, and, the result against Cork can hardly be taken as an indication of their capability.
Still, their defensive organisation, their physicality in the tackle and their effective counter attacking style makes them pretty difficult to break down, and their clash with Dublin in Omagh, will be a measure of their ranking in the competition.
Roscommon pushed Galway all the way in the Connacht final so a repeat of that particular performance will mean that they are going to have a big say in the final standings in this particular group.
Armagh provided them with a stern challenge in Portlaoise last weekend, this being an Armagh team who were well beaten by Fermanagh in Ulster and who looked like making their exit from the championship against Clare in the Athletic grounds.
Roscommon did kick some magnificent scores in last weekend’s game, which was extremely open and entertaining, but one wonders if the way they set up will present the opposition in the group time and space in which to capitalise.
All things considered there’s an intriguing aspect to these new style of play off games even if they may not yield the anticipated gate receipts, due in part to next Sunday’s World Cup final and the possibility that some of the round three games might become meaningless.
On the laws of averages you are going to have, one or two, surprising results, but if forced to make a prediction at the outset the semi-final pairings could well end up as Dublin v Galway and Kerry v Tyrone.
However, the World Cup hasn’t exactly followed the path of both rankings and predictions so we could well see a novel semi final pairing when the penultimate stage of the championship is played out on the weekend of August 11 and 12.
Kildare have really turned their season around in spectacular style, but could come to Killarney with nothing to play for