Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dublin will miss star Connolly
DIARMUID CONNOLLY could be missed for the first time this year in Sunday’s All-ireland final, says Joe Kernan.
Connolly withdrew from the Dublin panel during this year’s League campaign and subsequently spent the summer in Boston, starring for the Donegal team as they won the local championship last weekend.
So far Dublin have coped just fine without the richly talented 31-year-old, who came off the bench in last year’s final win over Mayo to telling effect.
Kernan said: “I actually think Diarmuid Connolly could be missed on this day. He was the one man who came on this last three or four years and made a difference.
“There is nobody of his calibre going to come off the bench that’s going to take up two or three men to mark him. So he could be missed on Sunday.
“But the other players who have come on are athletic scorers – Costello, Mcmanamon – I don’t think he’s as good as he was but I still think if it’s one v one there is no better man to skin somebody and put it away.
“Have Tyrone a chance? Yes. Can Tyrone put them under enough pressure that Dublin can’t play their game? I think they can.
“If they don’t get off to a bad start, they can make it interesting. Then if it gets interesting we’ll see who breaks, who gets the score to turn the game or who gets the block on to save the game.
“I’m hoping from a neutral point of view that it goes down to the wire because that makes it interesting. And some of the games haven’t been interesting this year.”