The background of this All-Ireland SFC semi-final provides for a much anticipated clash.
Tyrone, without doubt the team of the noughties, remain the one team Kerry have been unable to dominate.
A bit like Galway and Kerry in a different era, some counties just find certain opposition 15s to be the bogeymen.
Coincidentally, Tyrone nearly always struggle against Mayo but that’s a story that may or may not be told this season!
The men of Tyrone are marching south to face this challenge full on. They will give this game an almighty shot. After all the nonsense of Tiernan McCann and his dive, and the greater nonsense from the CCCC with the trumped up charge, Tyrone will approach Croke Park in a rage. And sure, that’s all fine and dandy but if you think Kerry will not match their fire with their own brand of fire, think again.
The bookmakers see this as an open and shut case. At 7/2, at the penultimate stage of the All-Ireland series, Tyrone are not fancied at all. But the bookmakers are wrong, I believe. Not on the fact that Kerry are favourites but the odds, perhaps based on the strange tale of seven goals in a quarter final, look wrong to me.Yes, Kerry are the more likely to win but I can make a strong case that Tyrone will make them earn that win. It is likely to be much closer than envisaged by most.
The team news is interesting: Justin McMahon is in for the brother Joe and that’s very much like for like. Justin’s experience and guile will be needed in and around the Tyrone goalmouth as Kerry have gone for Kieran Donaghy there and it’s hardly because they want to pump in low fast ball.
The big news is that Bryan Sheehan sits on the bench - that’s a big call. There will be frees but not too many in the scoring zone as Tyrone are excellent in this aspect of the game. However, Kerry pressure will lead to frees that must be scored and Sheehan is the best in Ireland at ensuring this. It appears he won’t start.
The other Kerry changes are much of a muchness and should be seamless enough, which is saying something when you consider one of those to drop down is Paul Geaney. That underlines the strength and quality of this Kerry panel.
So, it will be a game of cagey tactics with the early stages full of shaping, pushing and pulling (falling under a general category called ‘handbags’), plenty of digs and then a bit of football should break out. It will be a tough one to referee and many of the frees Maurice Deegan awards will be hotly contested. It will be spicy and it will be controversial.
The past week or so will have found both managers polishing their tactical master plan for Sunday’s game.
Systems will be explained once more and the work load divvied out; match-ups are agreed upon and the focus required for the various phases of the game gone over once more.
While each camp secretly schemes the downfall of their opponent, the truth is both know pretty well the tactics each will roll out. Tyrone are not conceding goals but, by the same token, and for closely related reasons, they are not scoring goals.
So, expect the usual two banks of four to set up in the defence with the extra Tyrone men at the back morphing into a sweeper most times. They will feast on turnover ball, transition at speed from that turnover into attack and the higher up the field they get that turnover, the better from their perspective.
Tyrone will want to make the middle-four a battle between at least a middle-eight as they will be worried by Kerry’s vastly superior fetching ability here. Of course if you don’t kick the ball out to that area, it’s pretty hard to catch high ball there. A no-brainer for Tyrone then.
Kerry are in charge of their kickouts and should be able to dictate their direction but their goalkeeper is not at the level of a Cluxton in this regard, so things will tighten.
While Kerry have a new regard for the help and assurance a sweeper provides, they are more comforted by the all-round improvement in their defence.
The midfield speaks for itself - they are the best pairing in the country. I am more interested in the answer to this question: will Kerry push up on the Tyrone kickout? I believe they will. Check out the way they took on the Dublin kickout and Stephen Cluxton a few years back; it will take a lot of energy but again, their comfort blanket is provided by the quality of player they can call from the bench to replace tired chasers.
Who will win then? September is not far away and this is ‘Kerry Time’, that part of the sporting year when they tend to show up at HQ, focused, prepared and ready for whatever is placed before them. I have no doubt Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his backroom team will have Kerry ‘spot-on’ and primed for a big display.
For sure, Tyrone are not without hope and the great football mind of Mickey Harte will provide much of that hope. He has planned Kerry’s downfall previously and will attempt to pull it off again. He too can call on some super players but will all that be enough? I think not.
Ultimately, I am going for a Kerry win by perhaps three to five points. I reach that conclusion because of the overall quality of the Kerry team but am mindful that, previously, many have viewed matters that way only for Tyrone to win those big championship games against the Kingdom.
This time Kerry will prevail.
