Hard to look past ruthless Rangers
Many county championships run very late on an annual basis and subsequently it is often late November or early December when provincial finals are played.
To prove my point, the Leinster final between Rhode and Kilmacud in 2008 was played in Parnell Park on December 7. The Connacht equivalent was in late November.
Where or how would the GAA ram in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in the same calendar year? It would be a farce. And such a development would detract from what is a wonderful competition.
Gilroy’s view is coloured completely and utterly by his manager’s bib.
Of course Dublin — especially with their current form — could do with a few players from Kilmacud Crokes to fortify their fragile confidence, and add some power to the panel. However to advocate the cramming of the second most important competition in the GAA — the most important for the majority of participants who play club football — into a jam jar would be madness.
Winning an All-Ireland with your friends and family on St Patrick’s day is the ultimate experience a player will ever have at club level and to even suggest taking away that opportunity is absurd.
Gilroy, after his exploits with St Vincent’s last year, should know that more then anyone and desist from such ill-thought-out ramblings. If a county team cannot carry on without three or four players from one club and survive in the NFL, their problems are severe.
The football final today has the makings of a great game with serious talent on display. Crossmaglen have been magnificent over the past decade. We know what they are capable of and the only question is can they reproduce the scintillating form that blew away Dromcollogher Broadford in their semi-final?
They have huge experience and men who know what it takes to win at the top level in the likes of Francie Bellew, Paul Hearty, Tony and John McEntee, Oisin McConville and John Donaldson. Added to that you have the youth and vibrancy of the three Kernans, Paul McKeown and David McKenna which has revitalised the side and gives their manager Donal Murtagh plenty of options.
They will not be easily beaten and their defeat to St. Vincent’s in the semi-final last year seems to have riled them and given them a focus.
What concerned me about Kilmacud in their semi-final win against Corofin was how long it took them to put the Galway champions away.
It was only in the last ten minutes that they put any daylight between the sides and only for Mark Vaughan’s tour-de-force they would not have won. He hit 1-6 and if he is nullified today, have they the other forwards to take on the baton and show the leadership required to win the All-Ireland? I’m not so sure.
YOU would expect Longford’s Brian Kavanagh to be that man, however he was very poor in the semi-final and has not yet torched any opposition as you would expect from an established county forward at club level. Perhaps today is that day and the wide open spaces of Croke Park is what he has been waiting for. We shall see.
Their centre-forward Pat Burke is a good player and big Mark Davoren at full-forward is also an awkward customer who got crucial goals against both Navan O’Mahony’s and Rhode in the Leinster club championship. Paddy Carr will need big games from that duo. Ross O’Carroll has impressed at full-back and he will need to be on his game to stop Johnny Murtagh.
Crossmaglen are a pragmatic, no-nonsense team and they will target Darren Magee and Niall Corkery at midfield and try to allow David McKenna and Tony McEntee to exert their influence. They have experience and with Oisin McConville still able to hit big tallies from placed balls, it would take a brave man to bet against them doing what has become second nature: drilling out a result which is rarely pretty, but is damn effective.
Crokes will be there or thereabouts and big Johnny Magee will be brought in to add solidity in the final quarter, however the smart money has to be on the Rangers.
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