THE MIDDLE THIRD:If I were a Dublin player all the talk of progress this year wouldn't satisfy me. And if they are happy with that talk, after turning their season around, they are in trouble, writes DARRAGH Ó SÉ
WE HAVE to start with Sunday. The occasion first. I was up on Saturday night. I love it when Dublin are going well. Even the taxi drivers were out wearing their Dublin jerseys. You wouldn’t get a Kerry supporter in his 50s or 60s into a Kerry jersey for work. Not at gunpoint. The Dubs are all supporters though. Just don’t peel away the first couple of layers with them. They all have opinions but they don’t all know a whole pile about the team! You know where you stand pretty quick when you start asking what club this fella or that fella plays for. Good fun.
The minor game added to Kerry’s sum of depression this year. Tyrone have some fine footballers coming through. Looking down the line you’d be worried. As for Dublin and Cork, great atmosphere. Great crowd. All set up for a big one. I was just so disappointed with the way Dublin finished out the game when it was there for them.
On Monday Dublin should have been waking up and preparing for an All-Ireland final. That would have truly kick-started football in Dublin. Now they are 13 months away from anything substantial. Who will get injured? Who will improve? Will Bernard Brogan be as good again? Too many variables. They should have been there this year.
This is a lovely time of the year to be training. The evenings are getting shorter and the schools are opening and the smoke from the chimneys is coming in over the ground while you work. You know in your heart and soul you are training for an All-Ireland final.
That’s what it is about.
If I was a Dublin player it wouldn’t satisfy me, all this talk of progress this year. And if they are happy with that talk, after turning their season around, they are in trouble.
Dublin should have won that game by four or five points. Poor decision-making cost them. Not on the line. On the pitch. Blame lies with the players and some daft, daft decisions. When the fat was in the fire on Sunday, Dublin were very poor. Fitness wasn’t an issue. Pat Gilroy had done everything possible in getting them out over the line. The idea of running the ball out and letting Dublin get back in numbers was suicide from Cork’s point of view. Dublin just had to nail it down.
What pulled Conor Counihan and Cork through in the end was that the players had that bit of calmness and composure on the ball late in the game. Dublin didn’t. Cork got their penalty and Donnacha O’Connor took it well. Dublin got the next two points and should have calmed themselves and closed it out but Bernard Brogan, Denis Bastick, Ger Brennan, Ross McConnell and others all made horrendous mistakes when the game was there to be closed down.
You don’t want to be too critical of Ross McConnell because he will be very disappointed in himself. To have conceded even just the penalty would have been disastrous from a guy who was playing so well. He just didn’t have to do it. He wasn’t playing badly. He wasn’t frustrated. He just committed the foul and gave the penalty away and it got worse after that.
It was hugely disappointing for Ross but he wasn’t alone. Bernard Brogan had a wonderful game but – with the game in the balance – to go to his left leg on the end line kicking into the Hill 16 goal? Maurice Fitz on his best day ever wouldn’t try that.
Mentally the first thing that should go into a forward’s head is that this is a game-breaker. A Peter Canavan, a Stephen O’Neill, a Pádraig Joyce, a Colm Cooper, each one of them would do the same thing. They’d turn away from the pot, wheel it around and back into circulation and keep rotating possession until a better chance came or they forced a free. Bad decisions.
I mean Dennis Bastick coming in cold (and I don’t want to single him out) late in a game, a one-point game, in a really, really serious situation and he gets handed the ball for a free-kick 70 yards out? And he hoofs it out of his hands and out over the end line? That sort of situation arises in so many big games. You have to have your routine. You have to put that free down and then get it to a serious player who is on his game at the time (Bryan Cullen for instance). You get your good guys into the game when you use a chance like that properly.
When I was playing with Kerry, in those situations you looked up and you knew by eye contact what was to happen. With a Declan O’Sullivan or a Gooch that was all that was needed, to make simple eye contact and you knew then to put it into space for them. You give them every chance.
You’d often see a great player in that situation. Peter Canavan was excellent at this, they get out front and they actually slow down as they come into the ball and the defender, thinking he has a chance of getting the ball, overcommits himself and fouls. That cuteness was missing.
It’s done now and all they can do is learn but it was a very, very expensive lesson.
Cork? I think their name is on the cup. I imagine they don’t know themselves how they came out of Croke Park with a win. They’ll sit down this week and they will look at the video and they will be grateful that they have another chance to learn and improve. We spoke last week about midfield and how crucial it was for both teams. Dublin to be fair were on top there. Michael Dara Macauley and McConnell had very good games.
From a neutral point of view, it was disappointing though to watch Cork.
For a team with big bodies out around the middle, Cork had no confidence in their midfield, not in terms of kicking it out to them. They kept going short to the corner backs. I thought it was silly given the midfielders they have. When they put it out direct, especially in the couple of minutes before the penalty which came from a long ball out to Nicholas Murphy, they got the results. Tell-tale signs of a lack of confidence.
As the second half went on they tidied up their game a bit. Finally, when the game was almost beyond the point of rescue, they started to play well. It was as if they were saying: “Okay, let’s see where this takes us. Nothing to lose.”
Cork are there now. Into an All-Ireland final that they should win. Conor Counihan has brought Cork on a ton but if they had lost on Sunday we would be crucifying him this week. With the bodies they have I don’t think they are playing the brand of football which suits them. If they had come along this year for the first time and we had never seen them before they would be satisfactory.
But the football they played last year at times was some of the best we have seen in a long while. High fielding. Great scores. The way they started the All-Ireland final last year was incredible. There is huge talent there and they are stuttering, making questionable decisions. I would love to see them kicking the ball more. On Sunday their full-forward line were starved of possession. It took Cork forever to get the ball into them. It was all so slow and laborious.
For Kildare and Down the lesson is that it is about cool heads. I think Kildare have an edge there. They do what we said last week, they rotate the ball to the right guy in the right position.
A big factor for both of them are the loss of their midfielders. Ambrose Rodgers has been having a great season for Down. Dermot Earley will be a huge loss for Kildare.
I can see it being a cracking game. The dry ball had a huge bearing on the game on Sunday and I would hope we will get the same on Sunday. If we do it should suit Kildare’s game a little more. The way Croke Park plays in the wet and with a wet ball it will suit Down more but not enough. I’ve looked at it over and over and can’t see how Down can win. I see Kildare having a more comfortable win than Cork’s.
Every footballer on the Down and the Kildare panels would have been watching last Sunday and eyeing it up. When I was playing I always watched the hurling even. You get a good idea of the occasion and the colour, just letting it absorb into your mind. I always preferred playing in the second semi-final. It meant less time to the final and a chance to view the mistakes the teams made in the first semi-final. It is a big advantage if you use it rightly.
Kieran McGeeney won’t be a guy for belting the table and making big speeches. He will lay it on the line. He will be very ruthless. This is it. We come out of here beaten and we have nothing at all. If we lose we have nothing. If that’s what ye want, well and good.
Down will talk about tradition and their right to be here. Going into Sunday I just think deep down Kildare have more under their belt.
In the end there will be talk that this year’s All-Ireland will be a handy one for a top-three team to take. Cork won’t see it that way because it has been a long, long march for them and in my experience there is nothing won handily once you get to the Sundays in September.
