Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Tyrone’s appetite, spirit, and resolve still remain Kerry’s kryptonite
Picture: Daire
So the famous Tyrone ambush is alive and well.
The initial set of traps were set in Killarney in the league game in mid June. On the podcast in the lead in to the Ulster final, I mentioned that Tyrone had trained the morning of the game doing both a gym session and going for a run in Killarney National Park. It was greeted with a mixture of scorn and apathy. Here again was the Kerry mafia trying to play it cute, when in actual fact all I was doing was pointing out what happened. I didn’t mention that the players also had a few beers together over the course of their two-night stay.
It was clear that Brian Dooher and Fergal Logan viewed the weekend as a team-building exercise, with a match thrown in, rather than the other way round. This may not be as surprising as one might first think. It is their first year in charge and with all of the restrictions around training teams at the moment, it is hard to build the most important ingredient of all: team spirit.
And it was that team spirit which Saturday’s victory in Croke Park was built on. I am sure they thought they would be more competitive than they were in the match, they didn’t plan on conceding six goals or losing by 16 points.
Their focus for that weekend wasn’t on football though, and intentionally or otherwise any future clash with the men in green and gold would mean they were massive underdogs, a position they love and thrive in.
Any conspiracy theories around the Covid situation are completely irrelevant and of no interest to me. Kerry would have prepared for the best version of Tyrone and that is certainly what they got. When thinking about the game last week we all understood that the Ulster champions would need for the match to be a slugfest rather than a shootout to succeed. From the off they made sure that they set the terms of engagement. Their hunger and intensity in the tackle was impressive.
Even in the third quarter, which Kerry won by five points to two, the game was still being played on Tyrone’s terms. It was aggressive, high octane stuff with mistakes aplenty. It was a million miles away from the possession borefest that football can be sometimes and more significantly it was a very different game to what Kerry had encountered previously in the Munster championship.
Turnovers were the chief source of scores for both teams but Tyrone’s incredible workrate is borne out in the numbers. They scored a staggering 2-9 of their 3-14 total from turnovers. They turned Kerry over 35 times in the course of the contest. 30 of those turnovers came in Kerry’s attacking third. This was caused by a mixture of Tyrone’s heroic defending and Kerry’s insistence on running down cul de sacs into trouble and without support. This aspect of their game management will be something that will bother them long into the future.
There was an absence of width and Tyrone were ready for the support players buzzing around the Kerry player in possession, which has heretofore been effective. The players will have to take responsibility for this as well as the concession of three goals. Own it, learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. To win an All-Ireland, I feel this collective accountability is essential. It is no longer good enough to hide behind management in defeat.
Kerry were very reliant on David Clifford to get the scores and he obliged with eight points and was fouled for three further frees. His loss for extra-time in a game that they lost by a point was obviously significant.
David Moran’s absence for extra-time was also telling as his leadership, covering, and aerial ability was missed. While Kerry will focus on their deficiencies, I applaud some of the Tyrone defending. Combined Peter Harte’s block, Michael O’Neill’s hit and dispossession, Kieran McGeary’s nonstop dynamism, Conor Meyler’s tagging of Paudie Clifford, and Pádraig Hampsey’s leadership clearly illustrated a team that were willing to stop at nothing to win.
This obstinacy was clear when for 20 minutes of the second half they were down to 14 men as Niall Sludden and Darren McCurry picked up black cards. It is fairly damning for Kerry that Tyrone beat them 1-2 to 0-4 during those two 10-minute stretches. Their warrior defending was augmented by swift counterattacking and Cathal McShane’s introduction was pivotal as he scored 1-3. Kerry only got one point from their bench, a late Diarmuid O’Connor score that brought them back to one point again.
Whatever way you shake it, Kerry came out on the wrong side of it on Saturday evening.
Yes, the likes of David Clifford went straight into the senior ranks and missed the U20s but there should still have been enough talent to at least make off a final, which hasn’t happened. I feel it is not enough to just develop players at this stage, it has to be about winning together and coming through to the senior squad ready to go with a confidence and attitude that winning breeds.
The Kerry teams that won six All-Irelands from 1997 to 2009 were backboned by three All-Ireland U21-winning teams. This year’s finalists won All-Ireland U21 titles in 2015 (Tyrone) and 2016 (Mayo), with many current protagonists involved. Dublin had four All-Ireland U21 teams feeding into their decade of dominance. It is something I am sure Declan O’Sullivan will be looking to redress in 2022.
For Tyrone, they can now look forward to an All-Ireland final in a fortnight.
It is an incredible achievement for Brian Dooher and Fergal Logan in their first year. At the final whistle, it was the first glimpse we got of the real Dooher, the Dooher I knew as a player, as he became animated in victory. Underestimate him and them at your peril. Their stance and successful manoeuvring of the Covid issue will endear them further to their players and they will be hard stopped. While Old Moore’s Almanac did predict Mayo would win Sam Maguire in 2021, I can’t imagine there are two many people that predicted a Mayo and Tyrone final. It is an opportunity that both teams will feel they have to convert as they know Kerry, Dublin, and everyone else will be back in 2022. I have said it more than once in the past, All-Irelands are incredibly hard won and when the opportunity presents itself it is critical to seize the day.
