Sunday, September 20
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final
Dublin v Kerry, Croke Park, 3.30pm (Live on RTÉ, Sky Sports and GAAGO)
This is the defining rivalry of Gaelic football and possibly, of Irish sport as a whole.
Between them, Kerry and Dublin have won 61 of the 127 All-Irelands ever contested, and in 83 All-Ireland senior finals, at least one of the two counties have been involved. They are way out in front on the roll of honour, Kerry with 37 titles, Dublin with 24.
Pure numbers doesn’t tell the whole story. Dublin v Kerry seems to distill the essense of Gaelic football itself. The glamour of their meetings in the 1970s crystallised the sport in the television age, and the natural binary of the two – city v country – ensured a natural and enduring rivalry.
It goes back a long way, all the way to the 1892 final, and Sunday is the 13th All-Ireland senior final meeting of Dublin and Kerry. Their other final meetings were in 1904, 1923, 1924, 1955, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1985 and 2011.
Dublin v Kerry
Last 5 Championship Meetings
2013: Dublin 3-18 Kerry 3-11
2011: Dublin 1-12 Kerry 1-11
2009: Kerry 1-24 Dublin 1-7
2007: Kerry 1-15 Dublin 0-16
2004: Kerry 1-15 Dublin 1-8
Some of those finals are among the most iconic games in GAA history, not to mention other non-final championship meetings of the two, such as the 1977 and 2013 All-Ireland semi-finals and the quarter-final games of 2001.
In 1955, a stylish Dublin side led by Kevin Heffernan were widely expected to defeat Kerry in the final and end a 21-year wait for a championship win against them. The Kingdom’s eventual victory cast a long shadow on Dublin GAA and Heffernan was driven to avenge it for the rest of his life.
When an extremely young Kerry team beat Heffernan’s All-Ireland champions in the 1975 final, it was the start of the golden age of the rivalry. Dublin and Kerry met in three of the next four finals, as well as two more in 1984 and 1985, and the legacy of that period endures to this day in terms of the excitement that builds around meetings of the two.
Dublin’s cinematically dramatic 2011 final victory breathed life into the rivalry for the modern age and their 2013 All-Ireland semi-final, heralded as one of the games of the decade, confirmed that the greatest rivalry of them all was back to its best. Ahead of this Sunday’s final, there is a real sense that the best two teams in the country are in the final.
So, the more things change the more they say the same. Yet, there is something different this time. Despite the vitality of the rivalry over the decades, Dublin’s overall strength has been slightly exaggerated by the amount of titles they won in the early years of the GAA. Dublin have won won just 10 All-Irelands since 1923, compared to 32 from Kerry.
That’s been reflected in the ebb and flow of their meetings. Before the 2011 final, Dublin had beaten Kerry just twice in the championship since 1934. So that’s what’s different this time – following their wins in 2011 and 2013, on Sunday, Dublin are trying to win a third championship game in a row against Kerry for the first time in their history.
That would be a significant historical breakthrough for Dublin. “Since the 1950s, we’ve only beaten Kerry four times in championship,” said Jim Gavin ahead of the final. “We don’t have that great a tradition of beating them when you think about it. They are All-Ireland champions and the expectation is that they’ll do the back-to-back.”
The intent of Gavin’s words is obvious, but trying to play down the strength of Dublin’s prospects is a futile exercise. Since the 2010 championship, Dublin have lost just two championship matches and there has been a real sense of mission about Gavin’s side since last year’s shock semi-final defeat to Donegal.
Dublin were widely criticised for their supposedly cavalier approach in that game and they have been notably more defensive this season, a process that started during the league with the deployment of more auxilliaries at the back and which has continued during the championship, with Cian O’Sullivan generally operating as the shield between the full-back line and the half-back line.
“They’re protecting their own goals a lot better, protecting their own half of the pitch a bit better,” said Éamonn Fitzmaurice ahead of the final. “Cian O’Sullivan had done a lot of very good work for them this year in that regard,” he said. “But I don’t think too many teams play with six up on them either which will ask questions of them as well and be interesting.
“The last day as well Denis Bastick while he was on the pitch was defensively-minded. He was in the middle of the field but was conscious of his defensive duties. When you don’t win a game you learn valuable lessons. They learned some harsh lessons against Donegal last year and they’ve brought it forward again this year, while at the same time are still maintaining that fantastic game they have where they can put up huge scores.”
Dublin, as expected, rompted through the Leinster Championship, winning the title for the 10th season in 11 with big wins over Longford (4-25 to 0-10), Kildare (5-18 to 0-14) and Westmeath (2-13 to 0-6). A somewhat surreal atmosphere masked the dominance of their All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Fermanagh (2-23 to 2-15) and it’s only from the two games against Mayo that an informative picture of Dublin is available.
In the drawn game, Dublin did plenty well, particularly in terms of being clinical from open play, but there were also serious question marks – ill discipline, poor free-taking and the manner in which they faded out in the last 10 minutes. When they trailed by four with 15 minutes to go in the replay, the knives were being sharpened.
Dublin’s turbo charge in those closing 15 minutes changed everything. Fuelled by the energy and class of substitutes Michael Darragh Macauley, Michael Fitzsimons, Alan Brogan and Kevin McManamon, Dublin blew Mayo away and won by seven. It’s something this team have done before – “getting a run” on a team and turning a large deficit into a large lead in the space of a few minutes.
Dublin’s notably improved discipline and the composure of their closing 15 minutes – they scarcely made an error in that period – underlined the scale of the challenge facing Kerry on Sunday.
When Dublin get moving, no-one can realistically expect to stop them. Their collective ability to rack up huge tallies during one of their blitzkriegs is unrivalled and in particular, the energy they seem to all feed off when they hit the net is something which has won many, many games for them in the past.
All the obvious names are part of the attacking equation, but what makes Dublin particularly devastating is the manner in which they can carry the ball from a short Cluxton kick-out all the way up the field in a matter of seconds. Philly McMahon (with 1-2 against Mayo), Jack McCaffrey and James McCarthy are all enjoying outstanding seasons in their dual roles as defenders and as ball carriers.
When Dublin don’t manage to get the blitzkrieg going, something which is entirely possible against a team as tactically refined as Kerry, they are still capable of clinical score execution. In both games against Mayo, there were many times when oxygen was limited and yet Dublin always were able to pick holes – Paddy Andrews, Bernard Brogan and Ciarán Kilkenny in particular showing an outstanding ability to pick off scores from the tightest of spots.
In the build-up to an All-Ireland final, hardly anything slips out of either camp so it’s impossible to be definitive about injuries. However, serious doubt surrounds Cian O’Sullivan on Sunday due to a hamstring injury. If he does miss out, it will present a problem for Gavin.
Dublin are expected to name their team on Friday, and if O’Sullivan does miss out, Jonny Cooper is likely to move into number six with Fitzsimons a possible replacement in the corner. While Dublin have the personnel to come in, they don’t have anyone who fills the sweeper/anchor role as well as O’Sullivan.
While Dublin’s explosiveness is formidable, if any man can make a plan, it’s Fitzmaurice. His flexibility saw him come up with the perfect gameplan to thwart Donegal in last year’s final and the Finuge man is bound by no theory of the heart or mind; he will pick the team and play the game that he feels gives Kerry the best chance of victory.
He has made three changes to the side that defeated Tyrone in the semi-final, Aidan O’Mahony and Fionn Fitzgerald coming into the defence in place of Marc Ó Sé and Paul Murphy and Paul Geaney starting ahead of captain Kieran Donaghy. While too much is probably being made of the starting line-ups, given the absolutely vital role both benchs will play, Fitzmaurice’s selection once again displays his Cody-like willingness to pick each team on fresh merits.
Since 1990, retaining the All-Ireland senior football title has proved a brutal challenge. Only Kerry (2006 and 2007) have survived the many extra challenges put on the obstacle course for defending champions.
At last year’s victory banquet, televised live on RTÉ, Fitzmaurice was unusually steely in the manner in which he outlined his determination to retain the title in 2015. Clearly, he made it a priority as soon as the 2014 celebrations ended.
Kerry stuttered, as most champions do, in the first half of the year. They had an indifferent league, were poor in their opening round Munster win over Tipperary and were almost beaten by Cork in Killarney in the Munster final, needing a last gasp point from Fionn Fitzgerald to bail them out.
Despite their lethargy in those early weeks and months, Kerry survived and they have been a totally different force since grinding down Cork in the Munster final replay (1-11 to 1-6), a match played in miserable conditions. They utterly blew Kildare away in a surreal quarter-final (7-16 to 0-10) and like Dublin, it was in their semi-final victory (over Tyrone) that we first could truly appraise them.
Tyrone gave them an almighty examination and when Mark Bradley pointed to level the sides up with 10 minutes to go, Kerry were seriously on the rack. The manner in which they closed out victory was similar to the class and composure showed by Dublin in their semi-final win. Kerry hit four points without reply and kept Tyrone scoreless in the last 10 minutes – the ruthless streak of champions.
There are countless tactical questions ahead of Sunday. The buzzword at the moment is ‘pushing up’ and it will be interesting to see how Kerry approach the area of Dublin kickouts. Mayo more or less allowed Cluxton to kick to his corner backs in both games, and Dublin won 18 of their 19 kick-outs in the replay as a result.
The obvious aerial superiority of Kerry’s midfield pairing of David Moran and Anthony Maher over any Dublin combination means Gavin will be eager to avoid Cluxton being forced to pump long. Dublin obviously have the bodies to compete in that zone, but it would undoubtedly disrupt their rhythm if Cluxton’s short kicks were challenged.
Yet as Fitzmaurice explained, it’s not a simple decision of simply ‘pushing up’.
“Mayo did, bar when they were chasing it in the drawn game, they did give them that kick-out when they wanted to take it,” he said. “They seemed to be taking it if you give it to them, they’ll take it and build from the back,” he said.
“With the players they have like Philly McMahon coming up from corner-back and keeping going the whole way up the field, not just against Mayo but a lot of games, they’re quite comfortable bringing it up the field. Their attitude seems to be that if you want to give us the kickout, we’ll take it and guarantee ourselves possession.
“He seems to be going shorter this year but that’s the beauty of what he can do from their point of view. He can surprise you, he can go long, he can go really long or he can place it into those pockets like he has done for years. It’s something we have to be ready for and conscious of.”
Another big area of consideration is how both sides use their benches. Both sides have ludicrous depths of talent in reserve, and repeatedly this season, their substitutes have made game-changing interventions at big moments.
If the game is close in the second half, it will be intriguing to see how the substitutes can tilt the balance. The Kerry bench is laden with names who can make a profound impact and the Dublin bench will be no different.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Dublin-Kerry is that there is no side that either side wants to beat more. Dublin’s GAA identity has been defined for a century by their ability, or not, to beat Kerry while Kerry, the great masters of the game, value All-Irelands won against Dublin more than against anyone else.
The late Páidí Ó Sé once told his nephew Marc that he “got a great buzz out of Dublin” and Kerry get a buzz like no other out of beating Dublin. For Dublin, the feeling is perhaps even stronger – a legacy of that stunning 1955 defeat and the enduring sense that no matter how cute a Dublin team is, a Kerry team generally can find the necessary inches.
Kerry are bidding for their 38th All-Ireland senior title on Sunday, Dublin for their 25th.
DUBLIN: TBC
KERRY: Brendan Kealy; Fionn Fitzgerald, Aidan O’Mahony, Shane Enright; Jonathan Lyne, Peter Crowley, Killian Young; Anthony Maher, David Moran; Stephen O’Brien, Johnny Buckley, Donnchadh Walsh; Colm Cooper, Paul Geaney, James O’Donoghue.
Preview: Arthur Sullivan