Éamonn Fitzmaurice: As a manager you are either under siege or it is coming
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WHATEVER about the merits of the provincial championships in their current format, winning the two finals that are taking place on Sunday matters. Big time. Silverware always helps but Kerry will want that number one seed and Galway and Mayo remains one of the few genuine derby rivalries.
In my experience, Ennis is always a tricky venue for Kerry. We usually dealt with them comfortably in Killarney or Limerick but Cusack Park was a different story. As a player, we had a right battle with them in 2004, a couple of weeks after winning the league and on the way to the All-Ireland.
In 2014 we were down one at half-time. We had to start making changes after 20 minutes, bringing Aidan O’Mahony on to deal with the Clare runners that were overpowering us, particularly Shane McGrath from midfield.
In the lead in to that game on the back page of my notebook I had written down the Kerry team that had lost to Clare in 1992 in Limerick. I was holding it back in case I needed to throw something at the lads at half-time to provoke a reaction, if one were required. Things were so precarious I thought better of that one, and instead focused on what we needed to do on the pitch in the second half. We eventually won by four.
In 2017, again a couple of weeks after winning the league final, we were level at the break, a man down after Donnchadh Walsh got sent off and facing in to a stiff breeze against a good Clare team. Maurice Fitzgerald, who was a selector then, rarely spoke on match day but when he did, he really did. He is an incredible orator. He gave it to the lads. He challenged them to produce what we were practising in training but most of all to represent the jersey and the people of Kerry appropriately. I think the fact he was playing in 1992 was in the back of his mind and he didn’t want to get caught a second time. We were outstanding in the second half and it was a great win for us. It was probably the best chance a Colm Collins team had of beating us in that period. Cusack Park is a lovely surface but it plays tight, and when Clare are in the game the crowd are partisan and close to the pitch. In short, it is a great away venue.
As the crowds exited Fitzgerald Stadium a fortnight ago after the Cork game many were underwhelmed. That old chestnut 'that won’t win an All-Ireland' was being thrown around, with feeling. I concluded that while the performance wasn’t perfect, rusty over slick, it was a case of job done. On that particular day it was about beating Cork, not about producing a complete performance capable of winning the All-Ireland. The fact that Kerry hadn’t played a competitive game in a month, an eternity by modern standards, certainly fed in to the performance.
As the game went on they looked collectively and individually sharper. I expect them to be sharper again Sunday. In last year's Munster final they picked Clare apart with incisive accurate football, using the kick pass to great effect. They got five goals. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them hunting green flags this weekend. There has been a distinct lack of goals recently and while it isn’t something to be forced it will be in Kerry's thoughts.
Jason Foley and Brian Ó Beaglaoich’s return are big boosts also. The loss of Jason from three and consequently Tadhg Morley from six against Cork destabilised the defence. Both of them playing in their best positions should solidify them at the back again. Tadhg will be able to play his plus-one role as I can’t imagine Clare playing with six up. Mark Fitzgerald has done a great job with Clare since taking over and judging by Maurice Brosnan’s training ground observations this week they will be set up deep and narrow, defensively. They will be aiming to force turnovers and counter at pace. They will strive to stay in the game for as long as possible and get the crowd engaged and behind them.
It’s hard to see anything other than a comfortable Kerry win, though.
AN hour up the road, and just over two hours later, Galway and Mayo will renew hostilities in Salthill. There are some interesting numbers surrounding the Connacht SFC final that underline its competitive nature. They are meeting for a 12th successive year in championship. Other than in the 2021 Connacht final, which Mayo won by six points in Croke Park, all games since 2016 have been won by margins of one to three points. Interestingly, Galway are in the final for a ninth successive year, winning four and losing four. However they haven’t beaten Mayo in a final since 2008, with one Padraic Joyce captaining and top-scoring for the Tribesmen. And home advantage generally works in reverse in Connacht.
Both sides are locked on 48 Connacht titles each and Galway are going for a provincial three in a row for the first time since 1984. Kevin McStay and his sidekick Stephen Rochford have yet to win a Connacht title with Mayo and in his time in charge. Joyce has beaten Mayo once in eight attempts. You can be sure that is eating at someone as competitive and determined as him. For McStay and Joyce Ange Postecoglou illuminated a managerial reality brilliantly earlier this season when he said: 'As a manager you are either under siege or it is coming.' All in all plenty of angles and motivating factors for both sides, one would think. Any second guessing around the All-Ireland series simply isn’t a factor in a rivalry like this.
Similar to Kerry, Mayo got the job done against Roscommon a fortnight ago. Some of their play was excellent, more of it perplexing. At times they mixed their running game with a nice kicking game. They seemed to forget the kicking aspect for other periods but if they can ingrain this element they will be the better for it.
They set up with Aidan O’Shea and Tommy Conroy close to goal and with Ryan O’Donoghue and Fergal Boland further out as initial outlets for popped kick passes. When O’Shea is close to goal and used appropriately he is a powerful weapon, as illustrated by his goal and Patrick Durcan’s early point, last day out.
O’Donoghue’s consistent excellence continues apace and Conroy showed signs in the second half that he is ready to resume the trajectory he was on until that cruciate injury knocked him off stride. They have had plenty to work on in the last fortnight though. Their long kickout completely malfunctioned against Roscommon. They went long 11 times over the course of the game, winning only three of them. Some of the credit must go to Roscommon but McStay and company will have looked to tidy this up. An improvement in Matthew Ruane’s form would help but they also have to be better on breaking ball, where they were destroyed last time out. They may also consider the prudence of going long as often, considering they scored 1-5 from their short restarts. Either way I expect more polish from them this weekend.
Throughout 2024 they have looked as if they have been building slowly and surely with championship in mind. It’s go time now and it will be fascinating to see if they have more to bring to the party. Which they will need to, in order to compete for the big stuff.
It is hard to know where Galway are at. Their form line tells us they are in trouble and won’t compete here. They have been crucified by injuries to key players throughout the year but bit by bit they are getting them back. Even Cillian McDaid is named as one of the standby players, highlighting that he is almost ready. Big picture wise, he is critical to them. They were lucky to beat Sligo in the semi-final and have had two weeks to gather themselves. They have quality and experience but seem to the lacking hunger and belief. However, they have shown us in the past that they can turn this around very quickly. In 2022 they went to Castlebar for the Connacht quarter-final on the back of losing the Division 2 league final to Roscommon, having conceded 1-20, including a late Diarmuid Murtagh goal where he weaved past a number of static Galway backs. In the three weeks between league and championship they totally changed their tactical approach. Dylan McHugh and Kieran Molloy were transformed into de facto sweepers and they became very hard to beat. This approach took them all the way to the All-Ireland final, where they were level with Kerry coming down the stretch. Can they come with a similar change again?
This time around it may be more of a personnel and attitude alteration as opposed to a tactical one. They have selected a robust and mobile half-forward line to deal with Mayo’s strike runners from the back. If they can afford to keep Damien Comer, Rob Finnerty and Shane Walsh high up the pitch they can trouble anyone on their day. I have a feeling they will produce their performance of the season so far tomorrow. Whether it will be enough is another thing.