THE MIDDLE THIRD:IN THE run up to any All-Ireland final, this week is the one that matters most. This is when the game plans are thrashed out in training and if any player on the periphery of the team is going to make a run at getting into the first 15, this is the week to do it. There's no point being a training ground hero next week when lads are minding themselves for the final. Now's the time.
I always felt that once the hurling final was done and dusted, we were down to business. Dublin won’t have been able to get any serious work done in the week after their semi-final because they had to give their bodies time to recover. There was also the possible distraction of Diarmuid Connolly’s suspension to worry about, but now that it’s settled and he’s available to play, they can knuckle down and get on with it. I’m delighted he won’t miss the final – he didn’t deserve to miss it over something as trivial as that.
I’m no hurling expert and would never claim to be, but even just as an interested spectator there was so much to take out of that final on Sunday.
Fellas playing in the football final will often be able to find something in the hurling final to help them out a fortnight later. The two sports might be totally different but the occasion is more or less the same. You’re able to see what works and what doesn’t, you’re able to take a bit of inspiration from the way fellas do things.
Take a Kerry player watching Kilkenny last Sunday for instance. The age-profile of a lot of those Kilkenny players would be broadly similar to a good few of the Kerry lads. Yet you had Noel Hickey keeping his man scoreless from play, you had Eddie Brennan making that run for the goal, you had Henry Shefflin keeping everything ticking over – all against younger players. I’m not saying Kerry players need to be reminded they’re not done yet but it doesn’t hurt anyone to see again what’s possible at the highest level on the biggest day.
The gallery players on both sides had to take something away from the game.
They must have. If you’re a Bernard Brogan or a Colm Cooper and you see Tommy Walsh and Pádraic Maher performing like they did when the gun was put to their head, then you have to feel that responsibility a bit more. You have to be thinking, “Well this is what the top guys do – they produce the goods when it’s needed from them”. And straight away, you’re making sure you get yourself into that mindset. Produce the goods. Be the man who performs.
The other parallel to be drawn is the hunger. Looked at from one angle, this football final looks a bit like last year’s hurling final. Tipperary came into that match with pure hunger because only a handful of them knew what it was like to have an All-Ireland medal at home. None of these Dublin players know that feeling. Don’t underestimate that as a factor.
If Dublin proved one thing in the semi-final, it’s that they’re hungry for an All-Ireland. They’re coming into the final exactly how Pat Gilroy would want, because all the talk in the week after their match was about Donegal.
Poor Jimmy McGuinness took the whole brunt of the week and Dublin got off scot free. The whole thing turned in to a bit of a witch-hunt and the part Dublin played in making it such a terrible game was ignored in most quarters.
But in all the analysis, what I thought was lost a bit was the fact Dublin were prepared to do anything to get to an All-Ireland final. They already knew what it was like to play in a classic semi-final and they weren’t keen on getting a reminder just 12 months on from the Cork defeat.
So they fought and scrapped and found a way through. Hunger was the over-riding emotion they showed and that will be a big worry for Jack O’Connor.
This week is where the two managers do their work. They’re thinking about nothing else in the world this week. They’ve watched the DVDs, identified their key players and decided what their focus is going to be.
The general style of play won’t change a whole pile but there will be tweaks made and little changes of emphasis.
Kerry will want to find a way of getting Kieran Donaghy more involved, for example. They haven’t been able to get it right in any of their games yet – personally, I think it’s because the ball just hasn’t been going into him quickly enough.
This is where a guy like Donie Buckley comes into his own for Kerry. Donie is a brilliant coach. He thinks deeply about the game and always comes up with a new plan or angle in the drills he puts together. He travels the country looking at games and in the off-season he goes to different parts of the world looking at training methods from different teams in all sorts of sports. Australia, America, wherever – Donie will go and pick up something to use when he comes back home. He’ll be a huge asset this week, tailoring training to how Jack O’Connor wants to play the final.
Ideally, the teams will have a couple of good, full-speed training matches played this week. These games will go for about 40 minutes and there’ll be no holding back. If you’re going to make your play to get into the team for Sunday week, you bring your best stuff to these games. Generally you’ll be playing on the same guy you’ve been playing on for most of the year so if you clean him out or do something out of the ordinary, everybody will notice.
I remember in 1997, Billy O’Shea was absolutely flying in the training games in the run-up to the All-Ireland. He was making something out of every ball he got and it stood out so much that he couldn’t be left out of the final.
By the end, he was going so well that I’m convinced he started slowing down coming out to the ball because he didn’t want to make Mike Hassett – his marker and a clubmate of his – look bad.
Picking the team will be one headache for the two managers. Another will be dealing with the press. The Kerry lads are used to doing All-Ireland final press stuff but it’s a whole new level for Gilroy’s players. Even though they had a press day last Friday, a few of them will still find numbers they don’t recognise flashing on their phones with fellas looking for interviews.
Trying to be polite while also trying to tell a reporter to go and jump is a tricky balance to find, I can tell you.
I hated doing interviews when I was a player. Some fellas can do them and let them pass over their heads without a second thought. I wasn’t one of those players. The way I looked at it, doing an interview was of no benefit to me. I took a very cold view of it, a very selfish view. It just didn’t suit me to do them.
What would I say if I was doing an interview this week? Well, I’d talk about Dublin. I’d tell any man, woman or child from Dublin who was going to read the interview that Dublin are a super team. I’d compliment them up to the high heavens, tell them what they want to hear. My opposition in midfield? Serious players, great players. I’ll do well to get a touch of the ball.
You do these things because you have to, not because you want to. I sometimes read interviews with players who are very honest and revealing and I wonder why they’re doing it. Plenty of them go on to have great games as well afterwards and good luck to them, they’re fit to handle it. I wasn’t.
I was never fully honest in interviews. I never lied but I never told the world my innermost thoughts either. Why would I? In the end, it’s all about keeping an edge for yourself. These games are so tight and teams are so evenly matched when you get to the final. Every little thing you can keep for yourself matters.
If I was going into a final and I saw a lovely two-page splash with a nice big picture of a player I was going to be marking or who was going to be in my general neck of the woods, I’d be delighted. I would make damn sure to get over and say hello good and early in the game. Never waste a good opportunity to heighten the pressure a player might already be feeling. Let him know that he’s strayed from the pack now, that he’s made himself fair game. Test him out to see how clear his head is. Maybe there’s not a bother on him at all and he’s not affected in the slightest, more luck to him. But you never know what can be playing on a fella’s mind, especially one who’s going into his first final.
As a player, you have to take care of yourself and your body this week. Don’t do anything stupid. If you’re going to pick up an injury, make sure you pick it up in training. Don’t do like I did before an All-Ireland Under-21 final one year and go over on your ankle while messing about with your cousin in the back garden.
There’s nothing worse than being an injured player hanging around the panel this week. You don’t want to go up near training, even though the management and all the players tell you they want you there. The reality is that an injured player is no use to anyone. Any time the rest of the squad spend trying to make you feel better is time they’re not spending on their own game.
In 2004, I had a broken leg for the final and the build-up to it was a desperate experience. I had played all year, right up to the semi-final but even so, it was impossible feel a part of the final. I was on crutches and I couldn’t even carry my own bag. I wanted to stay out of the way. The last thing I wanted was fellas coming over and patting me on the back and trying to sympathise. I couldn’t stand lads stopping to talk and saying hard luck because I just felt I was taking from the whole team by even being there.
The last thing a team needs now is a drain on its energy or a distraction from the job they have to do on Sunday week.
This is the week to get things right and to build confidence so that you’re going into All-Ireland final week on a high. Anything that takes away from that goal has to be avoided at all costs.
