The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Steps to the Hogan Stand get a little more steep from here on
FOR several summers now it’s been widely accepted that the GAA Football Championship hasn’t and doesn’t come alive until the All-Ireland quarter-final weekends so it possibly comes as a pleasant surprise to most that the birth of the Championship would appear to be a little premature this year. It would be overstepping it to suggest it arrived last weekend with two one-sided, if somewhat enjoyable, provincial finals and two tense but underwhelming Qualifier matches. Nevertheless, this coming weekend could be the weekend the Championship bursts forth and grabs the attention of a public that has all too often had to endure, rather than enjoy, July.
It says much for next Saturday’s Round 4A Qualifiers matches that though just two fixtures occupy the football calendar this weekend, there’s a real air of anticipation about the meeting of Cork and Galway in the Gaelic Grounds, and Donegal and Galway in Sligo. And it’s not just because Kerry’s All-Ireland quarter-final opponent will come from that quartet.
In years past the meeting of Cork and Mayo in a knock-out fixture in July would be a thing to behold, but it says plenty about the demise of Cork football that most people are predicting a fairly comfortable win for Mayo, who once more are on the county’s inexorable march towards that elusive All-Ireland title. With the benefit of testing and character building Qualifier wins over Derry and Clare thus far, there’s a not unreasonable belief that Stephen Rochford’s team has rinsed that Connacht semi-final loss to Galway out of their system and are back on track for another assault on the business end of the Championship. And it’s not unreasonable to suggest that Cork won’t put up too many roadblocks in their way.
There remains a sense that this Cork team surely has one big performance in them this summer - and there may well be - but all logic suggests otherwise. From a mediocre League campaign in Division 2, there was nothing in the Rebels Munster Championship campaign to suggest any upward trajectory since then. Unconvincing wins over Waterford and Tipperary came home to roost with an 11-point socking by Kerry in the Munster final, and it’s difficult to see how Cork can have put together a performance in the meantime that can trouble a Mayo team building momentum nicely.
In Sligo, it’s a harder proposition to call a winner between Galway and Donegal, and that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of either team. After pulling off a second successive Connacht Championship sacking of their old rivals, Mayo, the Tribesmen capitulated against Roscommon in a Connacht Final they possibly believed they only had to turn up at to win. The 13-day turnaround between Salthill and Sligo will have helped Kevin Walsh to iron out a few kinks in his players’ psyche as much as anything else, and they shouldn’t have any issue in believing, with some degree of restraint, that they can beat Donegal.
A little like Mayo, Donegal have been picking a way through the Qualifier minefield since being stitched up by Tyrone in the Ulster championship, but they’ve been anything but convincing along the way. Ropey performances against Longford and then Meath didn’t shown Rory Kavanagh’s side up to be All-Ireland contenders, but then no team has to be in July.
The received wisdom suggests Mayo and Donegal will come through on Saturday, which will mean an open drawn between those two on one side and Kerry and Roscommon on the other for those first two All-Ireland quarter-finals at the end of the month. You’d imagine Kerry would want to avoid Mayo in that case. Of course, the Kingdom will probably still have to beat Aidan O’Shea and co. on they way to the All-Ireland final, but a quarter-final meeting could be the oil-slick Kerry slip up on. This Mayo team, even against the odds, always seem to have one big performance in them in Croke Park each year, and Kerry would hardly relish coming in cold after a month out of action and taking on a Mayo team that could in all probability be arriving in HQ on the sails on a hefty confidence-affirming win over Cork.
Better that Kerry get Donegal in that instance - a team, we’d suggest, isn’t at the level of Mayo - and come through a tough but winnable quarter-final that would set them up better for a crack off Mayo at the penultimate stage.
In the event that Galway turnover Donegal next Saturday, they will play Kerry on July 30 and as has been the case in recent meetings between the counties (this year’s All-Ireland U-21 semi-final aside) Kerry should have little bother in dispatching a Galway team that is improving but still nowhere near the level of being a Top 4 county.
Roscommon would be confident of giving Donegal a right good game in a quarter-final, and like Tipperary last year, it wouldn’t be beyond them to become the underdog story of the Championship and reach the semi-finals. Realistically, though, we’re looking at a Kerry v Mayo or a Kerry v Donegal semi-final.
On the other side of the draw, the Round 4B Qualifiers should see an impressive and improving Kildare team beat Armagh, while Monaghan should be capable of reversing their Ulster Championship defeat to Down and winning through. No matter who prevails in those two games, however, we’re still looking at a Dublin v Tyrone All-Ireland semi-final.
The smart money then, as it is now, is on another Kerry versus Dublin finale, but there’s a fair bit of leather to be kicked before that particular September Sunday. The rest of the Championship starts Saturday, when twelve becomes ten. Then, and only then, does the countdown begin in earnest for Kerry.