Dubs’ revenge mission at red-hot Croker

SO, it has come to this. The game of the weekend and game of the season presents itself in Croke Park this afternoon. If anyone still doubts the qualifiers are out-stripping the significance of the provinces, ask yourself this: which match are you anticipating more this weekend - Dublin and Armagh or Galway and Mayo?

In Croke Park this evening, the pretenders face the champions. It is the capital on a revenge mission. Armagh and Dublin has the feel, the sense, of an All-Ireland semi-final. Never mind Armagh’s indifferent form and Dublin’s lack of a free-taker. This is what the championship is all about. Cold facts still cause doubts - the fact Dublin were beaten by Laois and really weren’t all that impressive against a poor Derry side; the fact Armagh struggled past Antrim and have been chugging along.

In the capital, nobody is reading too much into the brief trip to Clones.

“I thought it was a good result, but playing the All-Ireland champions in Croke Park is a much greater test,” legendary Dub Jimmy Keaveney said. “I know they haven’t looked that impressive either, but their title will be on the line in Croke Park and you can bet they are going to fight tooth and nail to keep it.”

This evening could be a war of attrition and questions still loosely hang if this Dublin side has the stomach for 70-odd minutes of hard-shouldering slog. They were supposed to give a definitive answer against Derry but the Ulster side’s battling qualities were strangely absent. These two have so much tangled recent history that anything could happen. Ray Cosgrove watching his free rebound off the upright brought the curtain down on act I. Act II is better forgotten by Dubs amongst the 54,000 in attendance for a league match in February and seeing a wash-out. Free-taking again could be a central theme of the third act.

“That is my biggest concern,” said Keaveney, whose dead-ball skills are cited as one of the main planks behind Kevin Heffernan’s success. “It’s an extraordinary situation with the number of people playing football in this city that we can’t find a free-taker. It is quite unusual, especially for Dublin, who have always had a tradition of free-takers. You can’t go into a game against the All-Ireland champions without a place-kicker.

“I think Tommy should start Tomas Quinn. He can take frees, and that is what we need in our forward line, and he can kick them from the ground. I know there are worries about his lack of experience, but the free-taking situation has got serious now and we need to look at how to solve it.”

Armagh have their problems, too. Injuries and loss of form has pock-marked their summer.

“Our form hasn’t been good,” Joe Kernan admitted. “We were well below our best against Monaghan, had a fairly easy win against Waterford and followed it up with an unspectacular win against Antrim. It’s time for the lads to step it up for the big time.

“This is now about finding out if the lads are hungry enough to push to retain the All-Ireland. So far, the signs are good. I was heartened by the lads’ reaction when we drew Dublin. Perhaps, this is just the game we need.”

Jarlath Burns agrees. “If you look at last year, Armagh tend to play well against stronger teams, like Tyrone and Kerry and not so well against weaker teams. And against the bigger teams, they just do enough to win.”

If Dublin goals will be a factor, the other could be the tussle between Paddy Christie and Diarmuid Marsden. Christie has been player of the championship so far and Keaveney considers him Dublin’s most powerful asset.

“I know we were beaten against Laois but if someone took a video camera and followed Paddy Christie around for that game, it would have made the perfect coaching video for kids. He didn’t make one mistake for the entire 70 minutes, and he’s been like that all year. To me, he’s the best player in the country at the moment.”

Marsden will be a different proposition. “Diarmuid is playing some excellent football,” Burns said. “And his battle with Paddy will depend on the quality of ball he gets in. If Armagh can get the right sort of ball into Diarmuid, he’ll score.”

Burns is confident this will spark the Orchard fuse but Keaveney, a bag of nerves going to Clones, is far more relaxed this time. “I would be a lot more confident going into this game. Derry had banana-skin written all over it for us, we owe Armagh a beating. The players won’t lack for motivation.”