All-Ireland SFC final preview: Kerry can crack the Mayo malware code
Kobe McDonald during the semi-final between Mayo and Louth at Croke Park. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
“One chance” were the words written by Kobe McDonald on the tape around his left wrist in last Saturday week’s All-Ireland semi-final. The boy is leaving home but not before contributing to what would be the ultimate leaving present.
It is a great consolation that the AFL-bound starlet gets to grace Gaelic football’s biggest stage when up to a few weeks ago it had been feared he may never play senior football in Croke Park.
It is apt that there is an element of melancholy attached to a Mayo All-Ireland final. As McDonald walks around in the parade taking it all in, supporters will be gazing at him and wondering what might have been.
It doesn’t have to be so sad, of course. It may only be for one season but never have Mayo entered a final with as exciting a full-forward line. McDonald is a match-winner as is Darragh Beirne and Ryan O’Donoghue.
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Kerry can be expected to pay them the greatest of respects. If McDonald moves out, don’t be surprised if the wheels of Jason Foley are sent to match his.
They are a triumvirate that scream positivity but there are obviously reasons for Mayo apprehension too – and not because it’s the perfect storm of the opposition and stage or that they could be killed on kick-outs. Winning an All-Ireland semi-final as convincingly as they did have traditionally served only all-time teams, not burgeoning ones like theirs.
No matter how sobering the prospect of an All-Ireland final can be for some Mayo folk, it’s only reasonable that a team should take plenty from a third win on the bounce and in style. But what did they learn from it? That they can beat a Division 2 side, the third they have dismissed in as many games? As blurred as the lines can often be between the top two divisions, that doesn’t prove enough.
Kerry have been playing within themselves since the Armagh game and like Limerick’s hurlers had reason to bless their luck on occasions. Nevertheless, akin to John Kiely’s side, they will be all the better for what was asked of them in their All-Ireland semi-final.
With the exception of Tony Brosnan, whose absence does weaken their bench, they have the whole band back together. The national club footballer of the year Tom O’Sullivan hasn’t seen action since his return and that he is currently viewed as the third defensive substitute illustrates the options available to Jack O’Connor.
It’s our contention that Mayo have at least two players on their bench who would strengthen their starting line-up but Andy Moran appears to be taking the view that he needs to finish with a stronger side.
If the intention is to keep things tight in the opening half and hope chaos reigns in the second half, it is not the worst strategy. This Kerry team like order. They haven’t conceded a goal in their last four games. How they react to being breached would be interesting.
At the same time, across those four games, they have netted 11 times and outside the Donegal game David Clifford has bagged a goal in every SFC game. If Mayo eventually want to turn this game into a shoot-out, Kerry will oblige and their range of two-point merchants is slightly wider.
No team has ever won an All-Ireland having lost twice. That record will eventually be broken and if there is one county to shatter it, Mayo would be rightful candidates.
We have written before about the madness that this team of theirs can bring to games. It is malware that has the potential to corrode even the most certain of systems. But they have to disrupt. They have to steal. They can’t die wondering. The surer thing is Kerry won’t.
Kerry.
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