Manipulating GAA thinking is easy once you can say ‘Yerrah’
After the game, I tweeted that Mayo had made a big statement with the manner of their performance, and that they were gone nowhere. I was referring to their sustained position as a top four championship team, in the past decade especially.
Obviously, for some that was just too much to handle… another blatant example of co- ordinated ‘cute Kerry hoorism’ came the cries. The ‘yerrah’ group were starting early, and so on, and so on.
Now if you look it up in the mythical urban dictionary (the one that only exists in the minds of truly paranoid individuals), you’d probably see it defined as a Kerry person or group of Kerry people, perpetrating a co-ordinated untruth for the general purpose of deliberately misleading the public for the benefit of their native county’s ambitions of winning Sam Maguire.
If you were to read on, it would surely explain that it is all part of a much broader, highly orchestrated campaign (similar to the secret realm of the illuminati), operating from under the shadows of the McGillicuddy Reeks to influence Gaelic football on a national scale. And I’m talking about the referees, their umpires, linesmen, the CCCC officials, the Hawkeye operator, even Kitty, the lady who makes the tea for the stewards in Croke Park… everybody and anybody is a target for the overpowering influence of the ‘Yerrahs’.
And I’m talking about the referees, their umpires, linesmen, the CCCC officials, the Hawkeye operator, even Kitty, the lady who makes the tea for the stewards in Croke Park… everybody and anybody is a target for the overpowering influence of the ‘Yerrahs’.
This collection of former footballers are reported to hold fortnightly meetings where the agenda is clearly laid out by the joint chiefs of staff; Pat and Darragh, for the purpose of immediate media manipulation. The story goes that the group have far-reaching tentacles in TV, radio and print media all over the country, and they have successfully steered the narrative of each of those media organisations, with the precision of a scalpel for Kerry’s advantage for many years.
One character uncovered the whole elaborate plot last week. He sent me a message telling me to cut the shite talk about Mayo, that all I was doing was “building them up to ensure Kerry couldn’t be caught”. He somehow figured out that the Yerrahs had even the capabilities to directly affect the outcome of championship games through the sending of even a single tweet.
Lord save us.
The level of paranoia always ratchets up a few notches when you get to mid-August. If Kerry people were being totally honest, most of us walked out of Croker after that first Mayo and Roscommon game half sniggering to ourselves at how comfortable Kerry would likely have it in the semi-final no matter which of team got through.
But seven days later, it was a completely different story.
In a dramatic change from what they showed in the previous run of games, Mayo played with an energy that we hadn’t seen as they staggered and stumbled their way through the qualifiers. Strategically, they pushed up in a full press on the opposition kick-outs and forced Roscommon into going long off the tee. Their platform for success came from their ability to
devour that primary ball like a bunch of piranha at feeding time. But it’s difficult to get much of a meaningful steer because of just how flat Roscommon were on the day.
Despite the inconsistency, Mayo have shown all year, they will arrive to Croke Park Sunday buoyed by the confidence that only comes from delivering the type of comprehensive performance they did last time out. Given their weekly turnaround during their trek through the qualifiers in the past number of weeks, the fortnight’s break will have felt like a holiday. Mentally recharged and refreshed as much as physically.
From Kerry’s perspective, despite cruising through their quarter-final match-up with Galway, it was a performance that posed as many questions as answers.
Galway created multiple gilt-edged goal chances by running, and not kicking the ball into the Kerry defence. And with Mayo’s athletic ability and pace around the field, they will surely look to carry hard all day and exploit that apparent recurring weakness in the Kerry rearguard.
Mayo will get scores against Kerry, but they’ll need goals to win the game. For all of their recent improvements, this is still a game all about which team can impose themselves on the other. Can David Moran be the games central figure in the middle of field? We know his partner Jack Barry has the running power, but this one will be his first huge test in terms of his discipline and concentration to stay with Lee Keegan’s surging runs forward. Despite Aidan O’Shea’s brilliant form, Lee Keegan is still the team’s beating heart, and when he plays well, others find it easier to follow. If Jack Barry can hold him to a score or two and not allow him to give energy to his team-mates by creating goal chances for others, he’ll have put in a serious shift for his side, but it’s a tough ask. A key match-up with a rookie tasked with negating the influence of the reigning footballer of the year.
Can Kerry defend the run without giving away soft frees and make a hero out of Cillian O’Connor’s free-taking? Can Kieran Donaghy exploit Donie Vaughan at the edge of the square? Can Harrison and Higgins curtail James O’Donoghue and Geaney?
This is a game littered with imponderables that we really won’t have answers to until late on Sunday evening.
Kerry have strolled into the semis without a glove being laid on them. Everybody likes to think we have a good idea, but we won’t know for sure until we see how they respond if and when Mayo really put it up to them.
At the risk of losing my ‘Yerrah group’ membership, I think this game will ultimately go one of two ways, both of which point toward a Kerry victory for me: Door 1, is a complete blowout where Mayo concede a few early goals and after battling manfully all year, they just may have nothing left to in the tank to fight on. Door 1 is unlikely.
Door 2 is where this game goes all the way late in the clock with the teams separated by only a score or two. In this instance, Kerry have reason to feel justifiably confident in a game decided in the last 5-10 minutes.
Kerry’s bench is vastly superior to Mayo’s in my opinion, and in final quarter of a close game, Eamonn Fitzmaurice can call on proven quality like Stephen O’Brien, Barry John Keane, Anthony Maher, Killian Young (if he doesn’t start), and Darran O’Sullivan. Not to mention younger guys Jack Savage, Sean O’Shea, Brian O’Beaglaoich and others to finish strong.
Most of those would probably be automatic starters with Mayo, but have had to grow comfortable in their roles as closers this season. And in the final analysis of this one, it may not be the obvious big-name players we’re talking about next Monday morning, instead, the decision-making and scoring ability of the Kerry substitutes could go a long way in the final quarter to dictating which county gets to enjoy and endure another crack at a final.
And this just in from the Yerrah group: No one to stop Aidan O’Shea, Kevin McLoughlin, or Cillian O’Connor. Mayo by 15.
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