Oisín McConville: Tyrone can take you to an oxygen debt you’ve never been to
Kerry manager Peter Keane shakes hands with his players after the defeat. Picture: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
Traditionally, when you ever thought about match-ups it was from a defensive perspective when player X would take, or try to, take player Y out of the game. For example, Ronan McNamee on David Clifford, you’d think the Tyrone full-back’s remit would be a simplistic one, a one-liner instructing him to snuff the type of persistent danger the Kerry captain is known for. Same with Pádraig Hampsey on Seán O’Shea or Conor Meyler tracking Paudie Clifford, who left very little of an impression on the game as a whole.
Tyrone on Saturday at Croke Park did that but in a way where they imposed their own game on the Munster champions. All three of their full-back line - McNamee, Hampsey and Michael McKernan - got up for points in the first half with their direct opponents trailing in their wake. Kerry’s players were struggling to impose their own game and were taken out of their comfort zone by being forced to play on the back foot.
When Tyrone can leave their stamp on a match they are very comfortable and even though they were only a point up at the break, you could see they were forcing Kerry to play on their terms.
Tyrone were up against it for spells in the Ulster championship, two down with Donegal’s Michael Murphy placing the ball on the penalty spot in the semi-final and having to deal with Monaghan throwing the kitchen sink at them in Croke Park in the final. But they came through.
In Munster, although Kerry struggled for a spell against Cork, they didn’t have to deal with that sort of intensity and as a consequence looked underprepared. They were outfought and they were outthought.
Maybe the jerseys worn these days aren’t what they were either. Tyrone made them fight for absolutely everything and on occasion it looked as though Kerry just weren’t up for that. To say that they didn’t want it as much as Tyrone may be some notion from a bygone era but that’s the impression I got. Tyrone can take you to an oxygen debt you’ve never been to and you must be prepared to match them on that.
There was a school of thought that Kerry would just roll into Croke Park and do their thing, knock over more points than Tyrone could manage and then all the talk would be about Mayo.
Tyrone know every trick in the book and I’ve a begrudging admiration for them in the way they do things. When they were down to 14 on two separate occasions, with the black-cardings of Niall Sudden and then Darren McCurry, they slowed the game down, saw players getting treatment and the numerical disadvantage was never really that apparent watching on.
Kerry were reliant on two forwards throughout the bulk of the contest and when you saw David Clifford almost take to the field at the start of extra-time you could see their desperation. Tyrone, on the other hand, despite a difficult third quarter still clung in there for dear life, still had Cathal McShane and Darragh Canavan to spring from the bench, with both playing a part in the goal that swung the game back in their favour.
A malfunctioning kick-out will be a cause for concern, with Tyrone only winning five from 12 of Niall Morgan’s long ones, compared to Kerry who were 100% of Shane Ryan’s. Tyrone’s most prolific forward Darren McCurry was kept to two points from play - four overall - over the course of normal and extra-time. The two black cards Tyrone picked up, too. Cathal McShane still not featuring for 70 minutes.
Ordinarily, those numbers do not provide you with a foundation to win a game of football at this level. They do, though, show what Tyrone had to do to win the match in the manner in which they did. Questions remain over their midfield pairing of Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick, who put in a shift. The siege mentality with the covid issues worked for them, although Mayo will be a different challenge altogether.
James Horan’s team are comfortable playing helter-skelter football and when Monaghan did that to Tyrone in the Ulster final Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan’s side looked as susceptible as at any stage in the championship this year. Tyrone are still only in their early days under their new management but have answered every question asked of them since the league hammering in Killarney.
Mayo are more used to Kerry getting put to the pin of their collar and they’re no shrinking violets. The final will be a real 50-50 game and that adds to the intrigue.
There’s a preoccupation and obsession with keep-ball possession and that wasn’t what football was ever intended to be. Gaelic football is an abrasive, intense and confrontational sport and for me, that makes for a more absorbing game. This year’s two semi-finals were the best in years and showed that.
Teams like Monaghan and Donegal for sure, maybe even Galway, Roscommon and Armagh might’ve been thinking at home on Saturday they’re not a million miles away from making an impression in the latter stages of the championship.
What Mayo and now Tyrone have done over the past few weeks has shown us the playing field is perhaps more level now than we might’ve thought - and that’s certainly not a bad thing.
