Dublin and Derry now more balanced

IT’S a little odd that people should be surprised by the presence of traditional heavyweights like Dublin and Derry in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals.

Is it really just nine weeks since Tommy Lyons was feeling the full wrath of the Dublin ‘faithful’ after the defeat to Westmeath? Or 13 weeks since Derry too seemed to be on the ropes and heading for the ten count after an eleven-point pasting by Tyrone in Ulster? And yet here they both are, two steps away from a place in the All-Ireland final after the greatest possible advertisement for the qualifier campaigns.

Dublin and Derry played eight games between them in the qualifiers and only two of their opponents - Cavan (Derry, Round Two) and Roscommon (Dublin, Round Four) - have been provincial winners in the last ten seasons.

Is it any wonder that Tommy Lyons and Mickey Moran have been able to juggle their packs and come up with selections far more balanced than those they gambled on at the start of the summer? Wicklow manager Hugh Kenny is well qualified to speak about how Derry have evolved over the course of 2004. Back in late March, the Ulster side travelled down to Aughrim for crucial Division Two clash. The northerners made the journey home broken men with a two-point loss shattering their promotion hopes for a second year.

Three months later, in their first outing since the gutting against Tyrone, Derry returned with only eight of the starting fifteen from that league tussle. This time they left the Garden County with a hard won five-point win and their season was finally off the ground.

“They had a lot of ghosts to lay after the Tyrone game because they came in for a lot of stick after that and the players and management knuckled down to it,” Kenny remembers.

“They were given two fairly good draws against Cavan and Limerick. Had they drawn an Armagh or a Tyrone it would have been hard to see them get this far. They’re obviously in a better position now than when they played us after all those games under their belt.”

With Westmeath dipping their toe in the bigger pool that is the All-Ireland series for the first time, Derry will have few hang-ups about their chances of continuing this most unlikely of runs. “I have a sneaky feeling for them against Westmeath,” Kenny said. “The surprise element is gone for Westmeath now.

“If you were asked the top three teams in Ulster you’d still say Derry are in there with Tyrone and Armagh. They have a good structure with young lads coming through. It’s only two years ago that they won the All-Ireland minor title and that young lad Mark Lynch is a fantastic player for the future.”

Then their the dream pairing of Dublin and Kerry. Few foresaw that tie back in June but ex-Longford manager Denis Connerton isn’t at all surprised. He locked horns twice with Dublin, coming out the wrong side of the equation in both league and championship.

“Even on the way to play them in Portlaoise in the qualifier last month I felt that Dublin were a seriously good team, that they were in good shape,” the Rathcline man said. “We’d played them in the last day of the league and they were impressive enough then too. Dublin are good every year, always in the top five or six counties and they’d won the All-Ireland U21 title last year. I knew they’d have a shout this year, especially with all the shocks that we’ve seen and it would be no surprise if they beat Kerry. I read somewhere the other day that they haven’t beaten Kerry since 1977 and I thought ‘Jaysus, that can’t be right’. They’re due one if that’s the case.”