Mayo finally have a multi-faceted attack

If the cat was ever really in the bag when it comes to Aidan O’Shea, it’s a riotously free feline now. The notion that he’d someday make a fine full-forward was always there in the background but you could understand why Mayo felt they had other more pressing uses to put him to. That’s in the past though. With him at 14, Mayo have what they never were able to claim before, however hard they tried - they have a multi-faceted attack.

Over the coming weeks before the quarter-final, you suspect that Cillian O’Connor will be quietly smiling to himself at all the attention that comes O’Shea’s way. It is true that nobody else in the Mayo team - and very few in the country - could have done to Sligo what O’Shea did on Sunday. It is no less true that the best forward in Mayo is still O’Connor.

They used to say that sometimes when you’re watching Paul Daniels, you really should be keeping an eye on Debbie Magee. As Mayo left O’Shea on the pitch against Sligo despite the game being long over and nobody being more deserving of a curtain-call substitution, the thought occurred that they were playing the long game.

Every joule of energy opposing teams put into analysing O'Shea is one less they're spending on O'Connor. No harm to let O'Shea Sasquatch away to his heart's content and convince the world that this is what Mayo are about now. The suspicion still has to be that Mayo's September ambitions will hang heavier on O'Connor's shoulders. MC

Bet against Tyrone at your peril - Monaghan, they are coming for you

As Monaghan folk danced into Sunday night it must have dawned on them who was coming from the shadows.

Always Tyrone. Unless Sligo find a way past Mickey Harte’s men over the August bank holiday weekend, the Ulster champions will meet the usual suspects, fortified by a panel swelling with confidence, youth and proven pedigree.

Conor McManus looks an even sharper footballer than the man who forced the invention of the black card when Seán Cavanagh dragged him aground at the canal End of Croke Park in 2013 but Cavanagh and Joe McMahon (Colm Cavanagh too) remain from those mighty All-Ireland winning sides.

But this is a new Tyrone team. Everything flows through Peter Harte, a regal footballer in the Brian Dooher mould. Conor Meyler is the latest of last May’s under-21 All-Ireland winners to be handed a championship debut. Mark Bradley, Rory Brennan and Cathal McShane are already there.

Seeing these sinewy young Red Hand men exchange jerseys with the Tipperary footballers they had just devoured in Thurles on Saturday felt like a big leap in their evolution. Winning in Semple stadium matters. Just as ending Meath’s summer in Omagh did.

They are coming for Monaghan. Sligo then Monaghan with Kerry in an All-Ireland semi-final. Bet against them at your peril.

“There is nothing guaranteed in life, or sport, but I do believe we are on an upward curve,” said Harte.

“If we can play to our top level I wouldn’t be particularly scared of anybody. But if we can’t I wouldn’t think anybody would be scared of us either.”

And what of Tipperary’s demise (the hurling county that promised so much in football this summer yet failed to deliver)?

“I’ve no doubt the breakthrough will come,” was Peter Creedon’s parting words before the school principal returns to life as a underage coach of his daughters Thurles Sarsfields teams. “It’s about hard work, there is no formula for it, hunger is a great sauce.

"Football is football like hurling is hurling. It's about the people involved and challenging yourself to be the best you can be. While I enjoyed the inter-county scene I'd have no issues with being a hurler in the ditch, is that what we say? Even on the ditch we are a hurler." GC

Kerry look considerably more like the All-Ireland champions

Between the fading light and monsoon rain there wasn’t much of a view left from the press box by close of business in Killarney on Saturday evening. It didn’t matter. By then, we’d seen all there was to see.

The Munster football title was staying where it was, and for good reason. Cork came to Killarney, for the second time in 13 days, still trying to beat Kerry here for the first time in 20 years. After the shake, rattle and roll of the first day there was only going to be one winner this time.

At least it felt that way for the last 25 minutes, as Cork were held - or rather reduced - to over-ambitious or over-shot passes in search of a score. It never came, and as Kerry applied one wet blanket after another onto the fire Cork had lit here 13 days previously.

Then, in perhaps the most symbolic score of the day, James O’Donoghue fired over Kerry’s closing point. The footballer of the year, a shadow of himself in recent games, was suddenly illuminated in the near darkness.

So, and in equally bright contrast to the drawn game, Kerry look considerably more like the All-Ireland champions they are: ruthlessly tidy in defence, brilliantly energetic at midfield, loose electricity in attack. That Colm Copper was only on the field for those last 25 minutes was telling, because even if he only touched the ball a handful of times - setting up Paul Geaney’s pivotal goal in the process - his presence could ultimately make the between Kerry defending that title or not.

In the meantime Eamonn Fitzmaurice must be licking his lips: not only is the Gooch coming back to his best, but David Moran, Anthony Maher, Paul Murphy, Shane Enright, Aidan O’Mahony, Donnchadh Walsh, and yes O’Donoghue look poised to unleash their best form in Croke Park in a fortnight, and it’s impossible to imagine Westmeath or Fermanagh stopping them on Sunday week. Kieran Donaghy made way for the Gooch here, but his game is made for Croke Park too. Then there’s Paul Geaney back in form, Bryan Sheehan, etc.

For Cork, the consequences of losing couldn't be more immediate. Only six days to prepare for Kildare, Eoin Cadogan still nursing a hamstring injury, Alan O'Connor running out of a little steam, and knocked confidence throughout the team, we may not have seen the last of them in Killarney on Saturday night, but unlike Kerry, there is no guarantee we will see them again in Croke Park before the summer is out. IO