Putting the questions to bed

SO at least that's all sorted. Galway are out and meekly at that. Armagh are as vulnerable as we thought beneath the sheer Croke Park stands.

Sligo are as daft as a brush, but all the more endearing for it. And Kerry? Well, they’re yesterday’s Croke Park unpredictables.

Sure, there are sages at the shop this morning telling us they saw it coming. How the Kingdom were on a mission of atonement for Munster, and all that Páirc Uí Chaoimh stuff. How the ring road to the quarter finals had sharpened their competitive senses. How Galway would suffer for the lack of cut and thrust.

All right and reasonable.

But if it was all so goddamn obvious, why so many stunned expressions, protracted shoulder-shrugs and funereal silences as Kerry river-danced on Galway’s tattered All-Ireland crown in front of 59,252 people?

Truth is, few saw this coming from Kerry, least of all the thousands who remained at home in the south west. Sure, Galway never picked up the pace of the sweltering Dublin afternoon, but Páidí O’Sé’s men must have taken a deep gulp when Michael Donnellan responded to the Kingdom’s early temerity of two first-minute points with a slalom and finish to Declan O’Keeffe’s net.

We thought it was the opening haymaker of a heavyweight winner-takes-all. How wrong. Little more than an hour later, Kerry had run up 2-17 and taken a scythe to many of the issues buzzing about their camp. Was Moynihan’s best day behind him, had Mike McCarthy lost a yard of pace, is Colm Cooper the real deal, what has happened to Mike Frank Russell? And how would the O’Sé’s respond to the untimely and very public loss of their father. Oh, and don’t forget the last time they were in Croke Park.

Given such ammunition, the chattering classes in Tralee and Killarney were well entitled to fear that fate had dealt Kerry a losing hand when the quarter-final draw was made. However, when it comes to pulling down the shutters, circling the wagons and putting on blinkers, there is no football man in Ireland more focused than Páidí O’Sé. He has been a dynamic source of energy, a real leader. Little wonder that his nephews have ridden out the trauma with such determination. Darragh and Tomás O’Sé vied yesterday for the man-of-the-match laurels, Mark furthered his education with a steady showing in a full-back line that bent but never buckled in the face of an unrelenting bombardment.

Whatever psychological trauma the wreckages of Meath wrought on the senior members of the squad, the young guns are unburdened by such trivialities. Cooper, O’Sullivan and wing-back John Sheehan claimed 1-6 between them yesterday, answering another batch of inquisitors waiting in the long grass.

In the dressing room afterwards, Dara Ó Cinnéide told how he might be loathe to talk up an 18-year-old in different circumstances. But the maturity of Colm Cooper he spoke of was evident for all to see in yesterday’s quarter final. Now Thomas and the Doubters can believe. Gooch is for real.

However it was comforting to see that one thing remains predictable about Kerry. Those questioning the talents of Michael F Russell after his solitary off-day against Kildare must have expected yesterday’s response. The only thing unpredictable about the Laune Rangers man’s showing was that it finished on the bench.

Sligo and Armagh vied for the right to outdo Kerry’s showstoppers as the Westerners continue to provide the story of the season.

Twenty-five minutes gone against Tyrone, we were preparing their obitutaries. Great heart, but not enough on the biggest stage. And then, the Yeats county demanded a re-write.You’d think we would have learnt our lesson.

Yet with 12 minutes to go yesterday, after David Durkin seeing red, we dusted off the same eulogies.

Great heart, but not enough.

You condemn this team to the summer scrap-heap at your peril. Maybe, it’s time to accept Sligo have enough to compete on the biggest stage. It is not just about heart and spirit, although Croke Park won’t see bigger hearts than what beated from the chests of those 14 Sligo players in the final stages of that game.

Even at the lowest ebb, Dessie Sloyan kept a glimmer of hope lit, Dara McGarty and John McPartland offered a supporting cast. But, it wasn’t until they were pinned against the wall, did we see the real Sligo in all their glory, if only they can transpose that talent into singular 70-minute spells.

What of Armagh? You really have to wonder about them. They are fast becoming the eternal enigma of Gaelic football. Following Durkin’s red card, it looked like Armagh, not Sligo, were the side with 14 men.

Once again, at headquarters, the Orchard county found itself in a winning position and couldn’t deliver. Joe Kernan was supposed to change that.

Oisin McConville has flourished under him, as has Kieran McGeeney. But, despite having enough players who have played and won at Croker, they can’t do it as a county.

The sense of occasion preyed on the teenage mind of Ronan Clarke yesterday, but it was their more established forwards that were found wanting. Although, he sparked to life for moments, Diarmuid Marsden should have made more hay against an evidently nervous full-back line. So too, Steven McDonnell.

They can talk about the rub of the green deserting them, certainly the two scores that bounced over Benny Tierney’s head were crucial as was Marsden’s goal chance that went inches wide in the first half. At headquarters, though, you manufacture your own luck. So far, Armagh are unable to do that.

Big Joe has 12 days to sort out the minds of his players, eliminate the baggage and instil belief. Twelve days to end the romantic yarn Sligo are spinning.