Marc Ó Sé: Curb Shaun Patton and Kerry could pip it by a point

Ó Sé believes Donegal goalkeeper Patton will be the "ultimate test" for Kerry. 

Marc Ó Sé was part of the Kerry team which defeated Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland final. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Marc Ó Sé has identified Shaun Patton as the hammer to hammer if Kerry are to win Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

The five-time Celtic Cross holder appreciates Michael Murphy will need minding and Donegal’s runners will have to be tracked rigorously. However, he considers stemming the impact of the goalkeeper as more important to the fortunes of his native county.

Patton comes into the final on the back of Donegal’s 67% kick-out retention against Meath and 60% versus Monaghan compared to Kerry’s 56% in their win over Tyrone and 77% when they shocked Armagh.

“We have to really go after Shaun Patton,” said Ó Sé as championship sponsors AIB built up towards the final. “I know people look at it and say Michael Langan, we have to go after him and obviously [Michael] Murphy and all these fellas. But I think if we can tie down Shaun Patton and Michael Langan, if we have players that can stay with those runners and that's a lot of if, if, if but I think Patton is the big one.

“I think if we can curb the influence of this man, I see Kerry just pipping it by a point and did I see this before the Armagh game? Certainly not and there was a lot of people in Kerry that didn't see it and now we're in an All-Ireland final.” 

Ó Sé expects Donegal will have watched back Kerry’s win over Armagh closely to ensure Patton doesn’t fall into the same trap as his fellow well-regarded goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty.

The length of Patton’s restarts give him an edge, he knows. “I think when they do go long, sometimes we've seen this punch over the top - say the ball goes 70 yards - and then it might even go further into the inside line, so it's going to be so difficult for Kerry to kind of keep tabs on this fella.

“With Rafferty, I think he kind of stayed at what he was doing, he didn't kind of deviate from it, which kind of played into our hands as well. This is something that Donegal are going to look at what did Kerry do to Rafferty that spooked him and what way can we change it.

“Jim McGuinness and his backroom team are going to be so all over this and they can go short and do Kerry just pull back and allow them to go short. If they do that, we’ve seen Donegal hold the ball for three or four minutes and have that patience and that really wears a team down.

“This is going to be the ultimate test for Kerry in terms of Shaun Patton. He's pound-for-pound the best keeper in terms of what he does, particularly that kick-out, that boom of a kick that he has.” 

Kerry threw a couple of curveballs 11 years ago when they set up to brace themselves for Donegal's counter-attacks, deployed James O’Donoghue further out the field and O’Mahony never left Murphy’s side for the game.

A member of that team, Ó Sé expects some innovation from both teams this weekend and suggests Donegal may sacrifice marking a Kerry midfielder as a means of thwarting David Clifford.

“If I'm looking at match-ups, and I'm looking at, say, Michael Murphy, the obvious physical character you would say is Jason Foley. But I think he would be well equipped for the likes of say, Oisín Gallen because of that explosive pace Gallen has. So are you looking at a Mike Breen or something like that (for Murphy)?

"Curveballs, I'm sure Jim McGuinness would have plenty of those. We saw it in '08 with Kerry, we had the twin towers, Donaghy and Walsh, and then the McMahon brothers were put back. With the new rules, though, it was hard to see how you're going to tie down a David Clifford.

"In the semi-final, Malachy O'Rourke came out afterwards and said, 'if we could tie down the likes of Paudie [Clifford] and Seánie [O’Shea], we'd stop the supply of ball going to David'. Now, they did tie down the two boys, you could say, but they forgot about David.

“So, maybe it's a case where Donegal are going to focus completely on David and maybe step away from a player like a Mark O'Shea or a Seán O'Brien, somebody who's not going to maybe be as dangerous in a scoring point of view.”