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Kerry favourites to lift Sam Maguire
by Larry Cooney
 Kerry will start slight favourites to win their 33rd title in this year’s All-Ireland final. However, as as the Kingdom prepare for their clash with Mayo on September 26, they have learned they will have do without Dara Ó Sé. Kerry's star midfielder suffered a broken metatarsal bone in his right foot after 20 minutes of last Sunday’s semi-final and will be out of action for possibly two months.
The injury is another major setback for the An Ghaeltacht clubman who also had an ankle problem throughout last season. The news is also a major blow to Kerry boss Jack O’Connor as the odds appear to be stacked against star defender Seamus Moynihan winning his fitness battle ahead of the final.
However, while Kerry may not have too many midfield options ahead of All-Ireland final day, last Sunday’s game proved that the modern game is not necessarily all about high-fielding midfielders. Derry’s Fergal Doherty won more than his fair share of the high ball in last Sunday’s midfield exchanges but today’s contemporary style of football now appears to favour by-passing midfield in much of the open play.
Similarly Mayo were also outplayed for long periods of the game in the midfield sector but when it came to the more direct style of play they were superior to Fermanagh and above all had more score-takers than the Ernemen. However, Mayo manager John Maughan will not have been too pleased about how easily they surrendered possession particularly in defence when on at least two occasions, poor passing resulted in loss of possession which led to Fermanagh points. Against predatory Kerry forwards like Colin Cooper and Declan O’Sullivan that could be very costly indeed for the Mayo men.
Certainly both teams will have much to ponder before they devise their respective All-Ireland final game-plans. Perhaps the one problem common to both managers before their eagerly-awaited encounter is how both teams can play consistently well for all or most of the seventy minutes on the big day itself.
Mayo’s form coming into the Fermanagh game had been particularly good and one only has to look at their displays against teams of the calibre of Galway and Tyrone to realise that this could be Mayo’s best chance of bridging that fifty-three wait for the Sam Maguire Cup. However, against an improving Fermanagh team, certain weaknesses began to appear in the Mayo team.
Complacency could have been a factor in the drawn semi-final game. However, in last Saturday’s replay, Mayo played with much more purpose from the opening exchanges.
Mayo have a very strong spine to their team from full-back David Heney right up the attack led by Kieran McDonald and Trevor Mortimer at full forward.
Heney and centre-back James Nallen will have the onerous task of marshalling the Mayo rearguard in attempting to stem the flow of Kerry attacks. So far in the championship, Kerry have adopted a very successful passing system in their attack by seeking out Dara O’Cinneide, with Colin ‘Gooch’ Cooper and Declan O’Sullivan in the corners rather than ball carrying from midfield or the half-forward line and are unlikely to change these tactics for the final.
Cooper has certainly been one of their key figures in this year’s championship campaign and the fact that players of the calibre of Mike Frank Russell couldn’t even make the semi-final line-up is some indication of the competition for team places in Kerry’s top 20.
Eoin Brosnan is unlikely to be retained at midfield where he deputised so effectively for Dara Ó Sé during his enforced departure through injury in the semi-final and more likely to start on the ’40 in one of the duels of the final against James Nallen.
On paper, Kerry do appear to have more attacking options than Mayo who rely on the Mortimer bothers (Trevor and Conor), Kieran McDonald and the frees of Aidan Dillon for the majority of their scores.
Until last Sunday’s semi-final display, Kerry’s defence had come in for considerable criticism. However, Mayo’s attack will give the Kerry rearguard a much sterner test than a very poor Derry team that only had two real potent forwards in Enda Muldoon and Paddy Bradley.
The duel of Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Mayo’s Kieran McDonald will also be crucial in determining the destination of this year’s All-Ireland title. Since his return to the team, McDonald has given the Mayo attack a real look of stability and he also has the ability to take some inspirational and crucial scores just as he did against Fermanagh. If Ronan McGarrity and perhaps Austin O’Malley in midfield along with McDonald can provide effective service to the Mortimers then Mayo could be heading for an All-Ireland title for the first time since 1951.
However, Mayo will have to return to the kind of form that saw them eliminate Tyrone at the quarter-final stage if they are to have any serious chance against Jack O’Connor’s Kerry team. Four years is along time since Kerry won the Sam Maguire Cup and, as former manager Paidi Ó Sé learned to his cost last year, second best is just not good enough for the Kingdom.
It should be an interestingly close final and certainly much closer than when the two sides met in 1997. Mayo will definitely enjoy the majority of neutral support for this final but will that be sufficient enough for the Green and Red on the day? My heart says Mayo but my head opts for a Kerry team just peaking at the right time to lift the Sam Maguire Cup.
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