Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
Who can stop Dessie’s sky Blue juggernaut?
ENTERING 2024, only one county can really afford to ask themselves the burning question in Gaelic football.
That county is Kerry and the question is: ‘How do we take down Dublin?’ Or perhaps more pertinently, how do you live with Dublin in the final 10 minutes, when the game really begins?
You might well be level with Dublin, as Kerry were entering stoppage time in the All-ireland final, or two behind as Monaghan were on 68 minutes in the semi-final.
That’s an achievement in itself, but all that does is earn you a ticket to the most gruelling mental and physical examination in the game.
There is a world of difference between putting yourself in a position to beat Dublin and actually beating them. Kerry’s two points to Dublin’s seven in the final 26 minutes of this year’s Allireland final bore echoes of the 2011 All-ireland final, the 2013 and 2016 semis and the drawn 2019 decider.
Dirty
Dublin are experts in those two dirty words that people don’t like, ‘game management’.
Kerry know they’ll be in an All-ireland quarter-final, as they’ve been every year since the back door opened. Dublin are the same.
All of the others are all capable of finding themselves in a desperate scrap for their lives that they may not win.
Then they arrive at Croke Park in a bit of a heap, to face a Kerry or a Dublin.
Take Galway, who were level with Kerry in the 68th minute of the 2022 All-ireland final.
They didn’t make the quarter-finals in 2023. Down starting defenders Liam Silke and Kieran Molloy, with Damien Comer struggling with injury and captain Sean Kelly playing with a knock, they bowed out against Mayo.
They weren’t strong enough to absorb all those blows.
Mayo were duly thumped by Dublin at Croke Park a week later in the quarter-finals.
It was one game too many for them in a short time and showed how significant is the extra week’s rest — and one less game — garnered by topping the group.
Talk of Mayo competing well with Dublin for a half is bunkum.
The measure of competing with
Dublin is how many minutes are left on the clock when the game is still alive.
We keep hearing there is nothing coming in Dublin but there are plenty of players in the capital that would grace most sides in the country.
There wasn’t much word of
Colm Basquel last January,inevitable in record and he landed an All Star.
Every other county would happily start
Lorcan O’dell.
Jack Mccaffrey may be in a position to start in 2024.
They don’t have the attacking riches of old, but what Dublin have — up front and elsewhere — is still better than everyone else.
And we’re still waiting for those signs of decline we’re told are nine-time All-ireland winners James Mccarthy, Michael Fitzsimons and Stephen Cluxton.
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This time last year many people were tipping Galway to kick on.
Now that mantle falls to Derry and the appointment of Mickey Harte — a proven winner — only adds to the intrigue.
Unlike Kerry, Derry don’t lack scorers from defence, with Conor Mccluskey, Conor Doherty, Gareth Mckinless and Padraig Mcgrogan all goal threats — and well able to hit points.
It’s the likes of scoring support for Shane Mcguigan up front, bar Paul Cassidy, that has proved their undoing.
If they could develop or unearth one more scoring forward who can do his defensive duties, they’d go very close.
Derry are either incredibly well prepared or have been very fortunate, but they’ve had very few injuries to their pool of 17 or 18 players that always play.
This lack of depth was exposed in the All-ireland semi-final, when Mcgrogan went off early on.
Can Harte and Gavin Devlin continue to implement what Rory Gallagher did with Derry and innovate themselves to find those extra few percentages.
ry still the best bet take down the dubs
Scope
Two Derry men — Ethan Doherty and Eoin Mcevoy — were nominated for Young Player of the Year so there is scope for further improvement there.
Glen’s Emmett Bradley is back, but Doherty, Conor Glass and Ciaran Mcfaul will have to be carefully handled, with the Derry champions running through a long winter again.
Plenty will back Jim Mcguinness’ Donegal to pip Derry in the opening round in Ulster, but whosoever loses here, it isn’t the disaster it used to be.
Already, Mcguinness has Shane O’donnell and Peadar Mogan back playing, with Ryan Mchugh, who got married recently, also returning and Michael Langan is fit again.
Oisin Gallen, on an injury-free run, is really exciting Donegal people.
Donegal have plenty of players and crucially one of the best kicking goalkeepers in the country in Shaun Patton. Mcguinness can work with that.
Elsewhere, Mayo look in a state of flux. They were flying in last year’s league, but bar the Kerry game in Killarney struggled to sustain it.
Kevin Mcstay should be in a stronger position a year on but it still feels like if you blot out Ryan O’donoghue and you’ll probably beat them.
And what roles will Aidan O’shea and Cillian O’connor play next year?
And what of last year’s All-ireland semi-finalists, Monaghan?
Conor Mcmanus’ recent appearance at a launch of next year’s new county jersey says he will be involved again.
The game-breaker against Armagh in the All-ireland quarter-final he looked the most likely to fire the shots that could take Dublin out.
Their other top players last year were Karl O’connell, Darren Hughes and Conor Mccarthy. Mccarthy is 28. The others are in their mid-30s, but if the Dublin lads can power on, why can’t they go for another year?
As for the others, will Tyrone’s twoyear sabbatical from the top table end? Can Armagh, Cork or Roscommon kick on?
You suspect that bar a Tyrone side with Cathal Mcshane back at his best in tandem with the Canavan boys, the others won’t have the firepower to compete at the business end of the Championship.
It’s Dublin’s to lose again, once they keep Cluxton, Mccarthy, Fitzsimons, Mannion and Mccaffrey on board.
Two or three injuries to front liners and the field is evened.
The word on the ground is Ciaran Kilkenny, now 30, is busting a gut after being benched for some big games last year.
Apparently, Con O’callaghan had a quiet year, despite finishing as the Championship’s fifth top scorer with 2-28, the highest player in the charts who didn’t hit frees.
He might feel he has a point to prove too.
It’s hard to see past the muscle memory of Farrell’s unflappable men when it comes to the crunch. 2024 will be 2010 all over again, dominated by talk of ‘the drive for five.’
Limerick will hear about it everywhere they go from now until July, assuming they get there.
Back in 2010, Brian Cody’s great Kilkenny team fell at the final hurdle to a goal-hungry Tipperary, who slotted four majors in an unforgettable decider, with Lar Corbett plundering a magical hat-trick.
And you’d imagine it will take a plethora of goals to derail John Kiely’s green and white juggernaut.
Limerick though, will know that, and they’ll hardly allow it to happen.
Their biggest challenge will be getting out of Munster, where the high intensity games come thick and fast.
Different
A one-point win in their final provincial group game back in May saw them take second spot and send Cork packing.
Had the Rebels nipped it by a point, Limerick were gone and there would have been no historic Munster five-ina-row - the county’s first — or All-ireland four-in-a-row.
But it was a different story after they escaped the bearpit, as they proved with utterly convincing nine-point wins over both Galway and Kilkenny in the Allireland semi-final and final respectively.
The fact Galway and Kilkenny don’t have to go through the same level of do-or-die wars and have a big Leinster final against each other to test themselves should leave them ideally placed for the All-ireland series.
But, that’s hardly how it worked out.
If Limerick are edged out in Munster in 2024, it would be typical of Kilkenny to storm through and take full advantage to land a first All-ireland title since 2015.
Twice they’ve proved too strong for Clare at Croke Park in All-ireland semi-finals, so they’re not far away, as Derek Lyng gears up for his second season in charge.
Burden
One more heavy scorer from play to take the burden off Eoin Cody could see them go very close.
Limerick may well have Sean Finn back over the coming months. Even without Finn, Cian Lynch not firing on all cylinders until the All-ireland final and Declan Hannon missing for the All-ireland series, they still got the job done.
Cathal O’neill is the real deal. If Adam English is too, they’re bang in business again.
Limerick are operating at such a high level that all they need is one or two players pushing on every year — even as impact subs — and they have the perfect environment to produce them in. Their players just know exactly what to do in every phase of the game. Ballygunner look the most similar outfit at club level to Limerick. St Thomas showed the template of manic, crazy, sustained physicality on and off the ball to shake them out of their system.
The problem is, Limerick love that stuff and can mix it physically and work-rate wise with anyone.
It would have been fascinating to see how
Cork would have done if they’d got to the Allireland series, and it’s difficult to judge them on Munster.
But there is a calm assurance and confidence about Pat Ryan that appears to be transferring across to the Cork players.
Mettle
In Ciaran Joyce they have a serious number six. Rob and Eoin Downey grew last year, and along with Brian Roche they look to have the mettle to mix it with Limerick and the likes.
Robbie O’flynn was a big loss last summer too.
With four All-ireland Under-21/20 finals on the trot — and two wins — they look best placed to take it to Limerick, but Munster could very easily be their undoing.
Galway are struggling up front, Waterford have lost so many big games in Munster and Clare, while competing hard with Limerick, have another level to find if they’re to win a fifth Allireland in their history.
With less playing numbers, strength in depth is more of an issue with Clare and Waterford than the others.
And with Munster so gruelling now, it hasn’t got any easier for them.
Tipp should be in a better place in year two under Liam Cahill, and will surely time their run better after collapsing at the end of the 2023 Championship.
But, it is Limerick’s to lose, with Cork,
Kilkenny and Tipperary the most likely to deny them as they chase the five-in-a-row and their place as the top dogs in the history of the game.