GAA/Football: Seán Moranreviews a year when one man played a pivotal role in a fairytale Kingdom comeback
With such a restricted field, it's surprising how reliably football has managed to create new stories every year. Once again the All-Ireland was pretty obviously between Armagh, Kerry and Tyrone when the championship started back in May but once again there were enough twists and turns in the road to create genuine doubt over which of the three would end up with Sam Maguire on the team bus in late September.
Kerry became champions and beneficiaries of the championship's biggest and most spectacular makeover.
A League that had seen Jack O'Connor's team curiously combine ultimate success with hopeless dependence on the exploits of Colm Cooper dissolved into an early summer during which even Cooper lost form.
The consequence was ruthless exposure by a much-improved Cork team whose work-rate and tight marking defence compensated for a less than full-bore attack. A draw in Killarney was followed by the champions' downfall a week later in Cork, a disintegration that was symbolised by the jeering of captain Declan O'Sullivan, at odds with his form and tactical direction, as he was being replaced.
Manager Jack O'Connor made the strategic switch that revitalised Kerry. Kieran Donaghy, a graduate from the reality-television programme Underdogs who had been making a solid contribution as Darragh Ó Sé's partner at centrefield, moved to full forward where he had impressed during the previous year's county championship.
Donaghy became the tale of the summer. His background story was promising. Aside from reality TV, he had been a basketballer before concentrating on football. Only 23, he conveyed a sense of wonder and enjoyment at his metamorphosis into the Footballer of the Year.
Some quibbled with the accolade on the grounds that he had been a flash fire rather than a constant burn but Donaghy's move to the edge of the square transformed Kerry, the championship and football itself.
For the first time since the days of Eoin Liston, All-Ireland champions had an aerially dominant full forward. Donaghy's basketball repertoire of nimble feet and quick hands constituted a nightmare proposition for full backs.
In the four championship matches before the switch Kerry scored no goals; in the four after the switch they scored 11. Of that total Donaghy had six assists and scored two. And what a pair of goals.
Kerry's quarter-final win over Armagh was the match of the year. Distorted by the eight-point final winning margin, this was a seismic contest that tilted one way and then the other before Jack O'Connor's team cut loose in the closing minutes. But the iconic moment was Donaghy's goal: catching high over Francie Bellew, wriggling in on goal and finishing cleanly.
In the final, another high catch and crashing shot in the ninth minute was Kerry's second goal and Mayo's worst fears made flesh, the moment when they knew they couldn't cope.
The fact that Kerry accumulated another All-Ireland had a wider significance. It meant that for the first time the title had been won in successive years by counties emerging from the qualifier route. This once more underlines how effective the system is as an insurance policy for the best teams.
Defeat for such sides is such a radicalising process that a strong panel with good management can jolt itself back into contention. It is one of the underlying difficulties for Armagh that their truly amazing strike-rate in Ulster is arguably militating against their All-Ireland prospects. Since the qualifiers began, the county has only taken the outside track twice, on both occasions losing to eventual champions Galway (2001) and Tyrone (2003).
In all of the other years they haven't been able to afford a defeat - unlike those teams beaten in their provincial campaigns.
Tyrone had another difficult second year. When defending their first All-Ireland in 2004, the county was bereft by the death of captain Cormac McAnallen.
Having lost to Mayo in that year's semi-final manager Mickey Harte admitted a sense of relief that the year could be put behind them.
Tyrone were again charged with the now perennially doomed task of defending the Sam Maguire and burdened by an insupportable injury list. Harte's attitude was again one of relieved resignation after a drenching afternoon in Portlaoise when a hard-running Laois side brought down the curtain on their season.
The year had started with a couple of notable occurrences. Armagh and Tyrone drew 19,361 to Casement Park in the brittle sunshine of a January afternoon for a McKenna Cup semi-final. Apart from this striking demonstration of the pair's drawing power and the effects of cabin fever on the football follower (NFL attendances weren't near this sort of figure) there was one marker on display as Joe Kernan played Kieran McGeeney at centrefield, from where he would play an effective role during the county's historic third successive Ulster title.
Just a week later Tyrone were in the middle of less positive news. The 'other' aspects of the NFL opener against Dublin have occupied the preponderance of the coverage but in football terms this match was also significant. In the aftermath Dublin took mute satisfaction from having 'stood up' to Tyrone and dealt with the physical challenge on their way to an encouraging away win against the All-Ireland champions.
Ultimately though, the team's obsessive physicality appeared to come at the cost of the sort of skills platform necessary to compete at the top. In the championship Dublin were athletic, well-conditioned and steam-rolled a path through their pretty modest fixtures list. It didn't help the team and its management that their first test (outside of an unexpectedly vigorous challenge from Longford) came in an All-Ireland semi-final against a well-practised Mayo team.
Under pressure from the Mayo comeback, Dublin couldn't match their opponents' wit and improvisation to see out the match, the claims of which to classic status were undermined by what was to come. Otherwise it wasn't a bad year out west. Roscommon minors beat Kerry after a replay to win the minor All-Ireland for the first time in 55 years whereas Mayo finally landed one of the big inter-county prizes, as their resourceful under-21s defeated Cork. Salthill-Knocknacarra maintained Connacht's recent grip on the club championship (having waited until 1998 for a first title, the province has won five of the last nine All-Irelands). In the final they defeated Belfast club St Gall's, who just ran out of road in pursuit of the match. Finally it was another poor year for international rules, which now stands suspended pending a lot of serious thinking.
Kerry's Path to the Title
Munster Quarter-final
May 21st Kerry 0-16 Waterford 0-8 ... Fitzgerald Stadium
Munster Semi-final
June 11th Kerry 0-17 Tipperary 1-5 ... Fitzgerald Stadium
Munster Final
July 9th Kerry 0-10 Cork 0-10 ... Fitzgerald Stadium
Munster Final Replay
July 16th Kerry 0-9 Cork 1-12 ... Páirc Uí Chaoimh
All-Ireland Qualifier - Round Four
July 29th Kerry 4-11 Longford 1-11 ... Fitzgerald Stadium
All-Ireland Quarter-final
August 5th Kerry 3-15 Armagh 1-13 ... Croke Park
All-Ireland Semi-final
August 20th Kerry 0-16 Cork 0-10 ... Croke Park
All-Ireland Final
September 17th Kerry 4-15 Mayo 3-5 ... Croke Park
