Kingdom unlikely to derail blue train
Rowe was unimpressed with Knapp’s bullish prediction.
“Willie, you’re the craziest man I ever heard of,” he replied.
Later that afternoon Willie Knapp rode Upset into the history books by beating the ‘unbeatable’ Man o’ War and thereby earning immortality in all subsequent lists of The Top Ten Sporting Upsets Of All Time.
Today, as Kerry prepare to meet Dublin in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final in Croke Park, the footballers of the Kingdom find themselves charged with the unusual task of pulling off an ‘upset’.
Now, we’re not for a moment suggesting that a Kerry victory would rank among the greatest sporting upsets of our time and, no doubt, the Dublin faithful have been shuddering at the thought of Kerry folk graciously resigning themselves to their new status as potential giant-killers against a county that has failed to beat them in over 30 years of championship football.
But talk to any Kerryman and he will ask the same bleak question – ‘Have we any chance at all?’
Only the trace of a twinkle in his eye suggests that he has not quite come to terms with the prospect of abandoning all hope.
However, any optimism that exists in Kerry is of the cautious variety. In recent weeks Kerry supporters have gone to the playing fields of Longford, Tralee and Tullamore in search of what economists call ‘green shoots’. Any objective assessment of their findings would point to a period of stagnation before the upturn.
Following a swashbuckling campaign in Leinster Dublin have earned their billing as favourites, whereas Kerry having emerged bruised and uncertain from an ill-starred qualifier campaign have earned their underdogs tag.
Those are the simple facts and they won’t be altered by any amount of expectant talk about the restorative power of the sight of the blue jersey or the elixir of Croke Park. Kerry will seek solace in intangibles as they face into today’s game but all known evidence places them in the unusual position of having to upset the form book to advance to the penultimate stage of the championship.
So, while you wouldn’t have to be as crazy as Willie Knapp to envisage Kerry reaching their tenth consecutive All Ireland semi-final this afternoon, a little of his healthy disdain for logic would help.
If you are a Kerry supporter you might for example choose to ignore the inconvenient truth that your team has struggled to overcome vastly inferior opposition (on paper at least) in the purgatorial backwaters of qualifier rounds 2, 3 and 4 these past three weeks. Arguments relating to the flinty and competitive nature of Longford, Sligo and Antrim are redundant when we recall how easily and perfunctorily the Antrim challenge was dismissed by Tyrone a few weeks back.
You may well choose not to acknowledge the alarming fact that Kerry are going into today’s game without a recognised free taker.
Granted, Colm Cooper will most probably provide stability from the right hand side but five different dead ball kickers against Antrim upset the Kerry rhythm and the value of a reliable free taker at this stage of the championship should never be underestimated. Indeed, if Limerick had a bit more conviction from frees last Saturday evening it would be the Shannonsiders and not Meath who would be facing Mayo in next weekend’s quarter final.
The fact that Dublin have only conceded five points from placed balls in the entire Leinster Championship (and none in their last outing against Kildare) points to a very disciplined unit but if Declan O’Sullivan runs at Bryan Cullen, Darren O’Sullivan takes on either David Henry or Paddy Andrews and Tommy Walsh gets a run on Denis Bastick, today could be just the day that the Dublin back-line start coughing up the handy ones.
Pat McEnaney doesn’t give out handy frees but if he does, Kerry will just hope that those frees all fall on the right hand side today.
The most challenging and arresting evidence for Kerry supporters coming out of Tullamore last Sunday is lack of real pace between the two 70-yard lines.
Darragh O Sé and Seamus Scanlon will be tested to the limit by Stephen Cluxton’s kickouts today and they will need constant support from both half lines. For O Sé and Scanlon to counteract the relentlessly hard running of Dublin players between number 5 and 12 they will have to employ all their experience and no small amount of clever positioning. The match ups in this area of the field will be critical.
All the signs, all the form and all the evidence points to a Dublin win but they too must have doubts. Their five-year dominance of Leinster has been devalued by their consistent failure beyond the province.
For all the talk about heavy artillery being brought to the field in the form of Whelan and Ryan, they don’t have a whole stockpile of scoring potential to bring off the bench if needed. Ten of the starting 15 were starters in last year’s disintegration at this stage of the championship. Of the remaining five all bar the retired Collie Moran are still involved. Pat Gilroy and Mickey Whelan have done a remarkable job instilling confidence where 12 months ago there was none but today’s game is still a major psychological rubicon to cross. The truth is that neither side has anything to swagger about in light of their last big day out in Croke Park.
Despite recent form, the mood amongst supporters in Kerry is cautiously and surprisingly upbeat. There is a sense in the county that some good players can’t be as bad as they were up to now and there is hope that some great players have one season defining performance in them. Given how they closed out the game in Tullamore, the talk all week has been of light at the end of the tunnel.
I just happen to think that light is the blue train coming down the tracks and with the pace and momentum it has, it’s going to be hard to stop. Sometimes, as happened in Saratoga 90 years ago this month, the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong but even the most romantic of Kerry supporters can’t continue to ignore compelling arguments. Dublin to win.
