David Clifford. Michael Murphy. We should save ourselves a lot of bother and toss the ball in between these pair for a bit of 1 v 1.
In the year where football has found itself again, we have ended up with the perfect final between the traditionalists and the disrupters or, in McGuinness parlance, the outsiders.
Analysis of any game comes down to weighing the respective strengths and weaknesses of the teams involved.
How well the strengths can be countered or the weaknesses exploited by the respective teams and vice versa. A team with a dodgy aerial record in the full back line will have to find answers if the opposition have a Kieran Donaghy-esque full forward.
Of course it's not exactly a science. The variances of human performance are such that even Mr Clifford can have games where it just doesn’t run for him. It’s possibly blasphemy at this stage, but, while his performances this summer may have suggested otherwise, the Fossa man remains human.
Looking at an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses is of course a potential trap. In endlessly studying hours of opposition tape it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that if your own team doesn’t produce its best, the likelihood of winning is reduced dramatically.
Jim McGuinness and Jack O’Connor are too experienced to fall for this. They will primarily focus on playing to their absolute best with slight tweaks and chosen man-to-man matchups the only nod to their opponents.
Donegal will have noted that Kerry won their quarter and semi-finals in quite opposite ways.
Against Armagh, Kerry famously bossed midfield and scored very heavily off it – fast attacks against an unset defence in those 15 mins of the second half that effectively launched their bid for Sam.
In the semi-final they lost midfield quite heavily but killed Tyrone on turnover ball which allowed the Kingdom their plan A of long ball quick attacks.
Yet Donegal are probably the best team to both achieve dominance on kickouts and refuse to give it away. Remember, so much chat is about how to stop Clifford. Well, the oldest adage in the book is to stop him getting the ball.
If Kerry are kept to a 40% kickout total, as they were against Tyrone, and if Donegal can manage to retain possession, finish attacks and put it on Shane Ryan’s tee again, then the game takes a massive swing to the Tír Chonnail men.
That requires Donegal to simply do what they do really well: boss the middle third and keep the ball in hand.
Kerry will know that their greatest strength is their main men up front. If they can earn even close to a 50:50 share of ball they have the highest grade of weaponry on the field.
They will have seen Donegal playing the zonal defence from early season and sticking with it the whole way through. There is no reason to expect a change as given David Clifford’s form and Kerry’s penchant for goals, keeping additional men well inside the arc is a definite appropriate starting point.
They will, however, have noted how much pressure Donegal can exert around the ball if it dares to break the arc, swarming round like wasps round honey.
But right there, they will also see their opportunity.
When Donegal go for their very hard press on the ball, fast movement can exploit space on the other side.
For the natural footballers of Kerry, this will suit them to a tee. It is certainly difficult to do well but lower ranked teams have been able to create holes against Donegal with this exact formula. They just couldn’t close the deal as they didn’t have the finishing or staying power.
The Kingdom would fancy themselves to have both and, best of all, it's playing football the way they wish to do.
Watch the All-Ireland SFC final between Donegal and Kerry on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, with live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/mLwm2VRSxA
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) July 25, 2025
So both teams' natural game appears to fit the task at hand. The attritional nature of Donegal's quick-through-the-hands running game presents the biggest unknown.
Is that energy sustainable in Corke Park of all pitches over 70 plus minutes?
They are amazing in the speed with which they can both compress a defence and then shift to open men.
It will break occasionally but more often than not it has stood up.
In those glimpses of daylight, Kerry will need to inflict maximum damage and also stick with Donegal right down to the wire.
There is no doubt they could, I just fancy Donegal’s odds better.
Then there is the motivation factor. Many will say what additional motivation can there possibly be than the chance to lift Sam? Both teams will have that.
But is there an additional edge? Does either team have it? Or do you need it? Many sports psychologists will say not. For whatever reason, I believe in our game it still counts massively.
Kerry have risen to take down both Armagh and Tyrone in very personal victories where there was definite additional skin in the game for the Kingdom.
I don’t see much of an angle they have against Donegal other than simply going and finishing the job.
Donegal and Jim McGuinness on the other hand lost the 2014 All-Ireland final to Kerry. That hurt will still be there.
The comments by both Paul Galvin and Colm Cooper in the aftermath weren’t anything too eye-catching at the time but framed against the here and now, suggest a Kerry superiority complex over Donegal.
These were brought to light by Cahair O’Kane in the Irish News a few weeks ago but I guarantee you McGuinness was already aware of them from back then. His comments regarding a rite of passage for Kerry players to win All-Irelands were hinting at the same message.
Donegal have played Louth, Monaghan and Meath in their last three games. With all due respect, all those games were winnable from Donegal’s perspective and didn’t require a massive motivational edge.
With that, they have scope to tap into a very special energy to take on and take down the might of the Kingdom.
Kerry on the other hand, have already tapped into that energy to bounce back from their Meath defeat with ruthless wins over Armagh and Tyrone and have quietened down a lot of noise back home. Now they must rise themselves again.
Can they do that? Yes, they can. Will they? I’m not so sure.
Too many things for me fall in Donegal’s favour. But then of course there is David Clifford!
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Donegal v Kerry, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
