Something for everyone as qualifiers get real
Would, as we somewhat dreaded, Kildare, Kerry and Tyrone all be kept apart, and thus invariably progress to the All-Ireland quarter-final weekend, the odd scare withstanding? Or would we get what we all hoped for: that two of them would be paired off next weekend?
As it turned out, everyone got what they wanted.
Fitzgerald Stadium and the town of Killarney, having gone the summer without a Cork-Kerry game for only the second time in seven years.
Jack O’Connor and his team would prefer to get busy living or get busy dying, one way or the other and be done with it.
Tyrone, knowing any year they’ve won the All-Ireland they’ve beaten Kerry, and that Kerry can’t ever be more vulnerable than they are now.
And not least, the qualifiers themselves. The format has provided us with plenty of things in recent years: romance, shocks, scares, not least the weekend only past, but one thing it had sorely missed for far too long was a serious heavyweight contest in the early rounds.
The first few years of the back door such face-offs were the norm.
In 2001 we had Galway and Armagh with Michael Donnellan’s block and Paul Clancy’s winning point.
In 2003 there was Armagh-Dublin and Tommy Lyons cursing Stephen Cluxton for kicking out at Stevie McDonnell in front of 61,000 in Croker.
Then in 2004 we had Galway and Tyrone clashing in mid-July and Peter Canavan triumphantly pointing his finger in the air, having kicked a point with his first touch of a ball since he’d lifted Sam Maguire into the air the previous September. With that little flourish, he signalled the end of the John O’Mahony era and though we would never have known it at the time, Galway as a footballing force too; eight years on and they still await another qualifier win.
Since then though, sides fancied at the outset of the championship to win it all have avoided each other in the qualifiers. Dublin-Armagh in 2010 may have been a watershed game for Pat Gilroy’s side but the world hardly stopped to watch it. Kerry-Tyrone on Saturday is a return to the early qualifier tradition. Kerry might no longer appear to be Kerry while Tyrone aren’t quite back to being Tyrone but whoever wins is well capable of tripping up another All-Ireland contender or two.
Whatever about the end of an era, Saturday will certainly mark the end of a remarkable run. Not since 1999 have Kerry failed to reach an All Ireland quarter-final or semi-final, a streak in the history of Gaelic Games only Brian Cody’s Kilkenny have eclipsed. Tyrone have reached the last eight every year since 2007, and only once under Mickey Harte have failed to reach at least that stage.
One streak that is likely to continue is Kildare’s constant presence in the last eight under Kieran McGeeney, an achievement those critics who often rhetorically ask what have Kildare ever won during his tenure should salute.
While there might have been too many people a while back there jumping on the bandwagon that Kildare were an undisputed top-four team, it became a bit too fashionable and unsavoury there in the aftermath of the Meath defeat to jump on McGeeney’s grave when his team appeared to have at least one foot in it.
What have Kildare won under him? They’ve won respect. They’ve won a lot more championship games than they did in the seven seasons prior to him taking up the job. And, above all, they’ve been relevant. The great Australian hockey coach Ric Charlesworth always claims that a coach’s challenge is that of maintaining prominence, that his team and programme is at least in the discussion, and McGeeney has achieved that with Kildare.
It might not have translated into silverware yet but then what silverware did Munster have to show for all their adventures between reaching the 2000 Heineken Cup final and then finally winning it in 2006?
There’s another parallel between the two teams. Just like Munster in those inbetween years, Kildare have always exited the championship dying with their boots on. It takes a serious side to lose as narrowly and as gallantly as they have every August the last four years.
Yes, they’ve had a bit of luck in getting the beaten and heartbroken Ulster finalists three of the past four years in the last 12 round, a bit of fortune nowhere nearly as well-documented as their misfortune with referee calls and square balls. But while they’ve yet to beat a serious team, no serious team has beaten them easily, while they’ve beaten many a team convincingly. Damien Cassidy’s Derry. Eamon O’Brien’s Meath. Justin McNulty’s Laois. And at the weekend, Seanie Johnson’s old team, Cavan, who were taken for 3-20. Only a serious team makes such teams look so putrid.
