What has Paul Geaney done wrong?
The World Athletics Championship perfectly marketed the 100m final as exactly this – a race between drugs cheat Justin Gatlin and the fastest man on the planet, Usain St. Leo Bolt.
All the form was with Gatlin who was unbeaten in 26 races over 100m and 200m while Bolt lurched from one injury crisis to the next.
But when it mattered most in Beijing yesterday, Bolt stormed home to win by a fraction of a second as Gatlin stumbled awkwardly, losing form and speed under the pressure.
Athletics isn’t the only sport where kids can sleep well at night knowing that all is well with the world.
Tyrone, playing the villains, were overcome by the, apparently, more attractive aristocrats and saviours of Gaelic games, Kerry.
The kick passing, the movement and the silky skills drew plenty of acclaim and adoration from the Croke Park crowd.
“Delighted to see Tyrone beaten”, said a ‘Southern’ friend in a text.
Actually this context is not true. Kerry, for the most part, mirrored Tyrone yesterday. They were disjointed in defence, extremely bland in midfield, and for long periods rudderless in attack.
Ill-discipline by Marc Ó Sé robbed them of a general and organiser in defence. They were ripped open for multiple goal chances and worryingly never seemed to rectify this porous nature at the back.
Anthony Maher and David Moran, colossal men who so often control games, were anonymous aerially and from open play.
This was all the more concerning as Maher was effectively a free man because his opponent, Colm Cavanagh, acted as a sweeper. And that magical full forward line scored a measly two points from play.
Tyrone lost this match in the first four minutes of the second half. More accurately Niall Morgan lost this game during that period with a sequence of extremely poor choices from kick-outs which gifted Kerry three scores.
But Morgan shouldn’t be the only one to shoulder blame. After all Seán Cavanagh and Mattie Donnelly were largely absent by their high standards. And what a day to go missing.
However there are two main talking points arising from this match. The first is ‘what has Paul Geaney done wrong?’ Eamonn Fitzmaurice is rightly applauded for making difficult calls and getting these correct. But in playing Kieran Donaghy his attack is significantly slowed, it lacks movement, penetration and structure.
Not all of this is Donaghy’s fault. The supporting cast gamble for balls that bounce off him, he’s the fulcrum from which they swivel but more often than not this is an old road too well-trodden.
Geaney is much more elusive, mobile and frankly dangerous. The variation with these players may confuse lower rank teams but against Dublin or Mayo you run the risk of wasting 35 minutes of attacking play by playing Donaghy.
Take a moment to think back over the career of Kieran Donaghy. When he came to the fore he was unmarkable. Then defences adjusted to his style and his star faded. After a period in the wilderness while defences grew accustomed to life post Donaghy he was sprung off the bench as a last dying hope against Mayo only to change the game, rescue his career and win an All-Ireland.
What’s different now is that teams know how to play against Kieran and in Kerry they aren’t really losing their captain by not playing him, are they?
The second talking point was the performance of the referee Maurice Deegan.
In what was always going to be a difficult game played under difficult weather conditions he made the right decision most of the time and I’m not sure if another referee would have fared any better. However the black card to Ronan McNamee on 53 minutes was wrong and the trip by Shane Enright soon after Marc Ó Sé’s dismissal for the same went unpunished. Both were in his field of vision and both unforgivable.
All water under the bridge, but if Kerry want to be the team to get back-to-back titles they will have to significantly improve.
Fitzmaurice and his team know this so all eyes will now turn to the Dublin-Mayo semi-final. That game could now turn into a winner takes all.
On yesterday’s evidence it will be hard to argue against that.
Something in me isn’t giving this Kerry team much credit for what they have done. I’ll think about why another day. I don’t have to like them of course but surely I’m not alone.
I wear my Ulster hat as I say the best team won yesterday but this season may yet see the panto favourites, Mayo, come good.
If only fairytales did come true.
