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Post by Admin on Aug 30, 2006 13:48:07 GMT
Over the next few weeks we're going to see various articles about the All-Ireland final in various online media outlets so any articles you see, please post links to them in this thread. Can eveyone please give the URL/link to each article when posting. Thanks
Where possible, please post any comments to the main final thread. Keep this for article links only.
For a full list of related Articles visit:
kerry.gaa.ie/intercounty/2006/senfoot/final2006/news.htm
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Post by Admin on Aug 30, 2006 14:14:42 GMT
Moved posts:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: All-Irl Senior Football Final 2006 : v Mayo
Post by BIGMAC on Today at 10:50Tyrone's All-Ireland-winning manager Mickey Harte is certain that another display of ferocious intent can carry Mayo to an All-Ireland title. Mickey Harte does not rule out Mayo to cause an upset Harte believes Mickey Moran's side is capable of toppling Kerry in the final if they manage to reproduce the awesome performance that sent Dublin crashing. "If they can rise again to those standards, without a doubt, they can do it," said the Tyrone boss. "But it will be difficult to get up as high as that two games in a row." Harte has first hand experience of both sides, and has found the Connacht outfit a harder nut to crack than the Kingdom. The Red Hands defeated Kerry on the way to both their All-Ireland titles, in 2003 and again last year, but came a cropper against Mayo in a 2004 quarter-final. Then, the westerners qualified for the final, but choked on the big day and were duly crushed by a rampant Kerry side. But having watched Mayo deliver in style last Sunday, the Errigal Ciaran man senses that they have conquered some of their age-old failings. "That kind of performance certainly would give Kerry a serious challenge, there's no doubt about it," said Harte. Same level "They know that they didn't play anything like what they can do, and to have that opportunity again so soon will please them a lot. "People always say there's a big game in Mayo every year. They had a big game against us in 2004, and they certainly had a big game against Dublin. "I suppose the challenge for them now is to raise it to that level again for the final against Kerry, which won't be easy to do. "They're on a nice roll, a gradual build-up, they drew with Laois and beat them in the replay. Games are better than any training, and they got the advantage of it again. "They have been in tight encounters right through Connacht, while Dublin probably hadn't been to the wire before this year at all, and that was the balance maybe at the end of it all." That was as good a comeback as I have seen in a long, long time Mickey Harte Harte insisted that success-starved Mayo supporters have every reason to fill their hearts with hope as the hype builds towards a great sporting occasion. "You'd be proud with being associated with that team if you were from Mayo. "They battled hard in the first half, and probably deserved to be a little bit better off. "And the way Dublin opened up at the start of the second half, you would have thought it was curtains for them. "It would have been easy for them to thrown in the towel and believe it was just another day that wasn't Mayo's. But that was as good a comeback as I have seen in a long, long time." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: All-Irl Senior Football Final 2006 : v Mayo
Post by kerrywoman on Today at 14:11Ye must read this article by Donaghy in the Sunday Times-did my heart good The sensation of this summer is an underdog making up for lost time. The Big Interview: Kieran Donaghy By Michael Foley His has been the story of the GAA summer. As Kerry turn towards an All-Ireland final, Donaghy has already been enshrined as their redeemer. His journey has been epic, from the depths of Austin Stacks junior C team through a reality television show and the sudden transformation from centre field to full-forward, making scores, patting down balls like a boy loosening apples from the highest branch on the tree. ....he again slung his arm around Séamus Moynihan’s shoulder. The old master and the young, playful pup. “I want to play three games with you Séamo,” he said. “Just three more.” Moynihan smiled and the whole team smiled with him. Two down. One to go. timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-2330209.html
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laddo
On Probation
Posts: 16
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Post by laddo on Sept 1, 2006 9:31:15 GMT
A cracking quote from one of the articles above
"Which isn't to say that Kerry are a team of saints. Darragh Ó Sé is still prone to throwing his weight around while if there were All-Star awards for acting the bollocks, Paul Galvin would win all 15 of them."
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Jo90
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,687
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Post by Jo90 on Sept 5, 2006 22:04:43 GMT
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Post by ardfertnarrie on Sept 8, 2006 10:41:47 GMT
I know this doesn't refer to the match, but I think this little nugget I saw in the Sunday Tribune 2 weeks ago deserves to be in the "Counting your Chickens Hall of Fame of Quotes". "Mayo still have a decent chance of winning this afternoon and, if they do that, they would have no reason to fear a Kerry team which has not left the fairly shambolic first half of the year too far behind them. This Kerry team is no rock. Dublin are the only truly solid group of footballers we have seen in this country over the full course of the summer."  www.tribune.ie |
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Post by austinstacksabu on Sept 8, 2006 14:00:27 GMT
For those who may not have seen this article before, it was written by Keith Duggan on the Friday before the 2004 All Ireland final.
It is one of the finest sports pieces I've ever read, if not the finest, and is also so much more than that. It's a powerful social commentary on the ever present reality of emigration for many people in Ireland.
Well worth a read if you have ten minutes.
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Returning to the heartland
Keith Duggan
All-Ireland SFC Final/Mayo v Kerry: This weekend, the exiles will flood back into Mayo and, in particular, to Tourmakeady, the verdant stretch of townland that runs between the shore of Lough Mask and the dark Party Mountains. On Mayo's football scroll of honour, Tourmakeady has made little impression, but in terms of the game and its meaning to Mayo the place represents what is vaguely referred to as "the heartland".
For most of the last century, Tourmakeady has bled people. Just as Achill folk gravitated towards Cleveland, Tourmakeady worked up an unbreakable affinity with Chicago. Since the 1930s, Tourmakeady men worked on the sky-reaching buildings off Lake Michigan, pining for the plain and familiar shore of the Mask, one of the untapped beauty spots of the west.
The leaving continued more or less unchecked until the 1980s ended, and now that the exodus has stopped it is said there are as many Tourmakeady people out in America as are left in the native area.
"The club here did two tours of Chicago, one in 1979 and again in 1986," says Tourmakeady club chairman Pádraig Ó hÉanacháin. "I ended up going out ahead of the club in 1986, so I was in the airport when the team landed. Growing up, I was always aware of the connection, but it was only that night in the arrival hall I learned the scale of it. There must have been 500 people waiting there with Tourmakeady links."
The Ó hÉanacháins do not consider themselves anything other than an ordinary GAA/Mayo family, and yet they are immersed in Gaelic football. Pádraig played on the 1981 Tourmakeady championship side that caused a bit of a stir by beating Garrymore - "they were the kingpins then" - in the Under-16 B championship.
The club would win a county junior title the following year and had reason to be optimistic for the seasons ahead. But by the time that generation of Under-16 footballers reached the Under-21 grade, nine of their number had left Ireland.
Pádraig, a bank manager in Westport, was one who stayed. Like his father Tom, a schoolmaster in the nearby townland of Srath, he grew accustomed to watching the phenomenon of young people disappearing.
Emigration was always a fact, but after Tom secured a teaching post in Tourmakeady in 1947, it worsened dramatically.
"Nearly every lad I went to school with left," Tom says. "Nearly every one of them. Some would come back for a visit, but others were not seen around here again. All of the lads I went to school with had big families - 12 in that house, nine in that - they all left. I would say the present population is not even half of what it was, especially in the southern half.
"The 50s was the worst. While it was bad in the 30s, at least then it was confined to America. World War II, funnily, put a stop to it, and although there was fairly dire poverty, there was good fun around here. In the 50s, they started for England. There were bad stories of men tramping all over the place looking for work.
"They used to tell how they would move a cow lying down in a field and sleep in the spot for warmth. Entire families left. Houses closed up. It was really frightening. We felt that whole townlands would close down. It was really depressing."
Tom attended Mayo's first All-Ireland victory, over Laois in 1936. He can still name that team, starting with Tom Burke in goal, at the drop of the hat, and because he was 14 and in thrall he possibly retains a stronger affection for them than the famous 1950/51 Mayo team.
Football was unorganised in Tourmakeady then - "We made attempts at it when we had a ball" - but interest in the game was enthusiastic.
The local schoolteacher was a GAA and Fianna Fáil fanatic and made it his business to secure a copy of the Irish Press newspapers that were delivered on the milk lorry. Eventually a number of Fianna Fáil-oriented men took to gathering at Donoghue's shoemakers on a nightly basis.
"A namesake of my own, Lord have mercy on him, would read the paper aloud for those that had gathered there. Green Flag was the big GAA columnist. And then the rows would start."
Tom married into distinguished football stock. His wife, Joan O'Neill, came from Ballinrobe, and her brother Owen Roe played in goal for Mayo in the mid-1950s, including the All-Ireland semi-final defeat against Dublin in 1955. A particular save he made from Kevin Heffernan earned him the sobriquet "the prince of goalkeepers" from a young Michael O'Hehir.
Her younger brother, Art, a suitably named forward full of skill and guile, was deemed to be one of the best young footballers in the county, and although he played for Mayo in 1959 at the age of 20, his career was sadly ended by a serious knee injury.
Ballinrobe was generally the point of departure for family members forced into emigration, and from her early childhood Joan considered the now defunct railway station a place to dread.
"It was always a very morbid thing. I have a terrible memory of Ballinrobe railway station, I hated going there. Because any time you would go there you would find parents bringing maybe their daughters or their sons there and crying their hearts out. Because there was always the chance they would never see them again. It was horrendous."
Tourmakeady CLG came into existence in 1965. Around the same time, Gaeltarra Éireann set up a knitwear factory in the village, a small, vital industry whose worth was infinitely greater than the profit it showed on the ledger.
It was a means for some young people to remain in the area and, more significantly, it attracted some new people into the area. Through the dark years, the lights from the knitwear factory were a comfort. Three years ago, though, it was switched to Bangalore, India.
"I worked there myself for a brief period in the mid-1980s," Pádraig says. "I suppose there was about 60 of us in there at the time, which is significant in a small community."
"Without it," Tom says, "the whole thing would have been a wash-out."
As with the rest of the country, Tourmakeady stabilised in the final years of the last century. The bleeding stopped. Drive through the place this September and you are struck not with any sign of lingering poverty but by the deep and untouched beauty of the place. There are plenty of fine houses with stunning views of the choppy, black waters of Lough Mask. Many are the summer dwellings of the sons of Tourmakeady who found wealth in Chicago.
Tourmakeady has millionaires now, though not necessarily in Tourmakeady. Through the decades, generous sums of money found their way across the Atlantic. For families. For the church renovations. For the club. The covered stand is called Ardán na nDeoraí. The Exiles Stand. The Stand of Tears.
It is a pretty ground, Tourmakeady's, located in a low spot to give it some cover from the wind that blows off the lough. When Mayo are on the All-Ireland trail all club activity stops, so it will be a winter championship for Tourmakeady this season.
The fervent hope is, of course, that the Sam Maguire will visit the clubhouse before Christmas. It arrived courtesy of the Galway footballers in 1998, but, as Pádraig laughs, "that is not quite the same thing". Although Tom was a lucky charm as he watched from the Railway End in 1936, he will not travel to this final.
"I am old and grey and full of sleep," he quotes with mock self-pity while Joan throws her eyes to heaven. He might as well be charged with minding Tourmakeady for the day for all that will be left in it.
Regardless of how Sunday's final goes, Tourmakeady will enjoy a series of homecomings that will start in earnest tonight and last for the rest of the week.
"People's hearts stay here, I am convinced of that," Joan said.
In the grimmest days, it was feared that Tourmakeady might fall into complete abandonment. That has not happened, although emigration has altered the natural demographic of the area harshly. In Tom's teaching days, there was a period when the national school in Srath had three teachers and 110 pupils. Today it houses 14 kids.
The census would probably register the current population at around 1,100, but of course the census does not travel as far as the Irish haunts of Chicago. Perhaps this week would give a truer reflection of its people.
Pádraig Ó hÉanacháin is looking forward to meeting some school friends he has not seen in a while. They will talk about the All-Ireland, of course, and of how the country is going. And they will undoubtedly, after a few down in O'Tooles or the Lough Mask Inn, revive the stories of their indomitable days on the Under-16 B circuit in Mayo, when they were champions and ready to take on the world.
Which, in a way, they did, although not as they would have imagined.
© The Irish Times
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Post by Admin on Sept 10, 2006 17:44:43 GMT
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Post by northside25 on Sept 11, 2006 11:09:52 GMT
Good article in the Irish times today by Tom Humphries with Dara O'Se. Well worth a read so if anybody has access to the Irish Times on the net, would they mind posting the article.
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Post by middlefan on Sept 11, 2006 11:35:40 GMT
Fairy-tales abound, but Darragh's still making his own legend
Tom Humphries finds the Kerry star unfazed by the tabloids but wary of Saturday's papers.
Darragh Ó Sé has had one of those summers where much has been said about him but nothing proved apart from his return to excellence.
Cynical football! Walkouts! Much more! He has been named in connection with everything except the disappearance of Shergar. Ó Sé though has played more championship time than any Kerryman in football. Not much about life in the big leagues surprises him anymore.
"I like to add to it when people tell me these things they've heard. People will tell me some yarn and ask is that true. It's enough just to shake the old head and say sure that's not half of it. You've only got the tip of the iceberg there. It's gone beyond a joke at that stage when I get to hear about it so I might as well leave it grow a few legs.
"Kerry people love talking about football and a good 'bad' story is as good as a good 'good' story. There was one this summer doing the rounds involving myself and the Gooch. If we did what we were supposed to do we were right tough men. You wouldn't want to be sensitive."
He settles back into the armchair and gives a big, disarming grin.
"So what kind of questions have you got anyway?" He chuckles because we are speaking the day after his by-now-celebrated appearance at the press conference to launch the Kilmacud Sevens football tournament. Even by the Kingdom's exalted standards of genially saying, well, yerra, nothing really, it was a tour de force.
"I would have spoken about it all fine after the Crokes stuff," he says, "but one of the lads comes bombing in with these questions straight off about the final, so I said I'd leave the boys suffer. I know it wasn't ground-breaking stuff but still I picked up a tabloid today and it says in a headline, 'Ó Sé says tough games will stand to us.'
"What can you do? I don't mind TV and radio because people see the context you say things in. I don't like all that drama at the top of the page."
He has been schooled well. He works as a partner in a successful Tralee auctioneering firm and his neighbours in the few-hundred yards of business space in that part of town include Mikey Sheehy, Seánie Walsh, Charlie Nelligan and Eoin Liston. Whether he is out west, as he calls home, or in Tralee, he's never short of advice or anecdotes.
Out west. With the brothers Fergal, Tomás and Marc he grew up on Ireland's most famous crossroads: Ard an Bhothair in Ventry, outside An Daingean. Mount Eagle in the background. Páidí next door.
Darragh arrived in 1975, the year Páidí won his first All-Ireland medal. Darragh's first All-Ireland as a travelling fan was 1982. As a young footballer Darragh was no genius but he met the scholars.
Schooling was done first in Cill Mhic an Domhnaigh, where there were 28 children in the entire school, and An Daingean CBS, where Liam Higgins took up the burden of moulding him as a footballer. No prodigy but the benefits of breeding and nurture were always going to stand to him.
"Tradition, I suppose. We all grew up the same, playing our All-Irelands in the back garden. The usual shenanigans. I was average enough till I made the Kerry minors. I wasn't good enough the first year - made it the last year I was eligible.
"I was lucky. I grew a lot in that last year. Ogie (Moran) brought me into the panel then and they've been trying to get rid of me since."
He remembers Kerry's lap-of-honour three-in-a-row in the mid-80s but remembers even more keenly the famine that followed. He appreciates what is there now. He's not a man for looking back in anger or in sentiment.
"People ask if beating Armagh this year was something special for me. It wasn't. You can read a lot into these things. It's about winning. It doesn't matter if you beat Kilkenny footballers in the All-Ireland final. It's about the winning. They'd say the same in Mayo."
But surely the defeat to Armagh in 2002 - seminal as it was in terms of Kerry's rude introduction to the Northerners' robust, blanket defence - made that a significant year personally for Ó Sé, having lost his father, Mícheál, that summer and having been captain of the team?
"Yerra, listen, beating Armagh wasn't something special more than what it meant for this year. What happened in 2002 happened. People often say that. They tell me I was a point away from lifting the cup as Kerry captain. But I was a magpie - I wasn't supposed to be captain. I was a point away in a club final as well. I'd say I'm bad luck with captaincies. Leave me away from it."
Luck! A sub-theme of prior negotiations for what was to have been a more substantial feature article was the role of luck or superstition or piseogs. Being spread over a national paper on the day before a big game was something not to be considered.
The last question is intended to elicit a more detailed explanation of the role of the piseogs. Piseog club isn't unlike Fight Club though. Darragh Ó Sé laughs, too old not to have seen this coming.
"First rule of piseogs: no talking about piseogs."
"But?"
"At all."
"At all?"
"Well the main piseog is we don't talk about piseogs."
You get up grinning and wondering aloud if an affinity for the piseogs isn't the most wonderful way for mapping ones life. Ó Sé is grinning too. Another All-Ireland looming. Another act in the traditional side of his life. You wish him luck.
"Thanks," he says, "and keep us out of the paper on the Saturday."
Done.
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seamus
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,741
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Post by seamus on Sept 11, 2006 13:39:01 GMT
Excellent article!! Tom Humphries is the man!
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Post by aidanfoley on Sept 11, 2006 15:38:40 GMT
Tom Humphries is the new Con Houlihan!!! No better accolade you could give a journalist!!
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Post by the1theyalllove on Sept 11, 2006 16:31:14 GMT
Great article...Dara is the man! Humphries is some writer...
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Post by Die Hard Kerry Fan on Sept 11, 2006 16:35:39 GMT
Great article, good man Mr. Humphries
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Post by austinstacksabu on Sept 11, 2006 23:03:35 GMT
Tom has a special understanding of Kerry football which is fantastic to see in a Euro Dublin biased national newspaper. Earlier in the year he wrote a locker room article about what made Kerry fans (remember the opening paragraph about buying a CD in Roxy Records and hearing the most indepth football talk from two young fellas across from him), and then one the day of the Longford match and now this.
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Jo90
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,687
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Post by Jo90 on Sept 11, 2006 23:46:04 GMT
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Post by inforthebreaks on Sept 12, 2006 15:37:41 GMT
another good piece on seamus moynihan in todays times too if anyone has the ireland.com priveleges.
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Post by austinstacksabu on Sept 12, 2006 15:46:43 GMT
The Irish Times log in. De Rigueur for the Irish living abroad!!
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Determined to play substantial role
Kerry v Mayo: Seán Moran talks to Séamus Moynihan, who has had his fair share of ups and downs since 2000.
It's hard to imagine but Séamus Moynihan hasn't known a truly fulfilling All-Ireland engagement for six years. That was the season he finished as captain of the All-Ireland winners and Footballer of the Year after a stunning series of performances as an improvised full back.
Kerry have been regularly back since. Moynihan's despair beneath the podium as Kieran McGeeney lifted the Sam Maguire after a bristling final in 2002 is well remembered.
Two years ago the landslide win over Mayo came at the end of a summer most of which he had spent injured. A cameo 15-minute appearance at the end when the match was never in doubt was as good as it got for the doyen of Kerry football, whose form, when restored to his optimum position of wing back during a successful league campaign, had been so good as to position him for another Footballer of the Year accolade.
Back in the side 12 months ago he had the unhappy experience of seeing his relatively unheralded opponent Ryan Mellon score two points from play.
In case anyone thinks that a player at the end of a successful career should be able to ride the waves of fortune in more Kiplingesque style, former team-mate Dara Ó Cinnéide, now retired and an RTÉ analyst, can put them right. Speaking after the 2002 defeat he said: "Nothing hurts him more than losing. It magnifies his emotions 10 times. After the All-Ireland final, we were all hurting but you could see how much more it was hurting him."
Next Sunday will be Moynihan's first chance since the beginning of the decade to play a substantial role in a Kerry All-Ireland victory. It comes at the end of an oscillating season that has seen Kerry win the NFL and play wretchedly in the championship before bouncing back with an epochal win over Armagh, one of their Ulster tormentors, before reversing two poor displays against neighbours with a solid All-Ireland semi-final display.
Moynihan was man of the match that day, rolling back time with a headline performance, utilising his ability to read the game and the physical strength that made him in his prime unshiftable on breaking ball or in the tackle.
It was a big change from the July displays against the same opponents. Outplayed by Cork in a drawn Munster final, Kerry suffered a similar experience in the replay and this time Billy Morgan's team weren't as accommodating.
Although the NFL got the year off to a good start despite some uninspiring performances in the regulation fixtures, Moynihan is aware that the spring form wasn't the true guide it has otherwise been in recent years. "It wasn't our most convincing league campaign and probably that fed into the Munster championship."
For the player himself it was an accidental league campaign. Having delayed his return, it was only an injury to Michael McCarthy that opened the door to some game time in the concluding fixtures.
"I took time off after Christmas but there were a lot of personal things going on. I was training away by myself and Jack and I were aware of that. I had planned to come back at a later stage but I had a few things on my plate with a house and a baby due as well."
There have been changes to the team since the turnaround following the Munster championship failures. Most striking has been the switch of rookie centrefielder Kieran Donaghy to full forward.
Moynihan, like a few of the Kerry players, is circumspect about the relentless hype. "Kieran had been playing very well for us as a midfielder all year - himself and Darragh had been very good throughout the league. He was unfortunate to get sent off in the first game against Cork but he has done very well inside. I don't think he's been the catalyst. He's made a massive change - there's no denying that but one player won't make a difference; it's a combination.
"He must realise as well that his ultimate test is in an All-Ireland final. That's when players are really judged. He's going to be marking a fantastic player in Heaney, an experienced guy who put (Conal) Keaney in his pocket the last day."
Behind all of the preparations for what will be his fifth trip to the season's finale is relief at being there when the big prize is up for decision. "If someone had told us coming off the field in Páirc Uí Chaoimh that day, playing the way we were, that we would reach an All-Ireland final, we'd have been delighted."
© The Irish Times
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jay
On Probation
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Post by jay on Sept 12, 2006 19:51:23 GMT
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Post by Admin on Sept 12, 2006 22:37:10 GMT
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Post by austinstacksabu on Sept 13, 2006 16:56:56 GMT
The most naive PR spin I've hever heard: Ronan McGarrity obviously thinks nobody pays any attention to him.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he adds. “I have nothing to lose. The pressure is on the Kerry midfielders. Who the hell am I? I’ve achieved nothing so far in Gaelic football compared to what Darragh Ó Sé has done so I’m going to relish the challenge, I’m going to look forward to it. At the end of the day if I get beaten then so what, nobody expected me to do any good.
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mozzy
Senior Member
Nunc Coepi
Posts: 746
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Post by mozzy on Sept 13, 2006 17:14:41 GMT
Very true Austinstacks - seems like the media are aiding the 31 Counties who wants us to loose.....
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Post by Admin on Sept 13, 2006 22:30:28 GMT
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Jo90
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,687
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Post by Jo90 on Sept 14, 2006 9:28:08 GMT
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seamus
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,741
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Post by seamus on Sept 14, 2006 10:34:36 GMT
About a boy
He may always have that short fuse, but for Tomás Ó Sé football now has its place in the order of things. He speaks to Tony Leen.
THESE ARE the tell-tale signs. Waving off the opportunity to soothe Munster final depression in favour of teasing it out with someone who won’t tell Tomas Ó Sé where it all went wrong.
Rare is the uncomplicated summer beer for today’s footballer; as exceptional as a Sunday babysitter and a night out with your girlfriend, the mother of your pride and joy.
When these worlds line up, an inter-galactic session is imperative. It’s the rules. But instead, you bounce in home before midnight, tingling at the prospect of a chat on the quality of bottled milk and the demise of Kerry football with the one person you know will provide perspective. These are the tell-tale signs.
“I’m after quietening down a lot,” agrees Tomás Ó Sé. “I’m more settled now in Cork, and there’s a lot of responsibility with yer man. Everything revolves around him.”
He looks down at the burnt-red hair of his first-born, Micheal. “He is someone who is going to be there always, not just for a few weeks.”
By Sunday night, Ó Sé may be a triple All-Ireland football champion, but Micheal isn’t fussed either way. Same as the night Ó Sé drove up from Killarney after being substituted against Longford; he didn’t need Micheal to tell him that walking straight to the dressing room was stupid.
“There’s very few things that can instantly turn a bad situation into a good one, but a kid does that. It’s unconditional love, irrespective of whether you’ve had a good or bad day. Some would say ‘spend every moment with them because they’ll grow up too fast’, but I’m already looking forward to the fun I’ll have with him when he’s walking.”
Hilary Johnson is Ó Sé’s stabiliser. Keeping it all going — the football, the teaching, the parenting — is a shared project, and the daughter of one of Baile na nGall’s last active fishermen, Seanín, does her share, and then some.
“I’m getting a pile of sleep, and support from herself. He sleeps at night, but Hilary is very good with him,” says Ó Sé.
As the pair of them nursed their beers in the South County in Douglas after the Munster final replay, it wasn’t just the defeat that had Ó Sé stewing. Form was eluding him; being taken off a week later against Longford only made public what he knew himself.
“I saw red, I suppose. I was more upset with myself than anything. I knew the minute I went into the dressing room I was wrong, but we chatted it out. Jack [O’Connor] was very good and it was never a problem.”
O’Connor wasn’t happy at the time, but understood. “We had a lot of players this season who suffered dips in form at different times. All we are looking for from fellas going through a rocky patch is that their attitude is good,” said the coach. “They take it on the chin when they are taken off and they try and prove a point the next day out. I think Tomás Ó Sé did that.
“It’s a long season and these guys can’t be at the top of their game all the time. The only day they need to be at the top of their game is All-Ireland final day.”
Only, the former footballer of the year keeps beating up on himself, demanding more. He still yearns for that hour with Roy Keane, to listen and learn. Last year, he righted things after a slow start to the season, but this term, it’s been slower and more frustrating.
“Jack’s been good in that regard, given me chances when another coach might have given me a bollocking or dropped me. The Longford game was the kick in the arse I needed. It’s hard if fellas are expecting you to do more and more every season. Being a defender isn’t enough, it seems; you’ve got to score a couple of points, too.”
Ó Sé’s wobbler was timely sustenance for those ailing rumours of mutiny in the camp. “The quality of rumours in Kerry is more fantastic than anywhere else, that I’m certain of,” he shrugs. “The stories that went around about fellas being at each other’s throat, that players from West Kerry and South Kerry weren’t getting on — this team has been together for seven or eight years, and a lot of them are my best buddies.
“The only people who believe those things are the people spreading the stories. I get on very well with Jack, so does my brother Darragh. Jack wants to win, we want to win; we never spoke about South Kerry or West Kerry, I just don’t feel the need to dignify stupid comments like that.”
It may be that Sunday’s All-Ireland final will be the coach’s last with Kerry. Ó Sé, for one, will be sorry. “He’s had three very good years, brought a freshness to the whole set-up. The three selectors have tried to better themselves and those around them each season; every player respects them for what they’ve done because they’ll leave no stone unturned to prepare for Mayo in the final.”
And that includes the hard decisions. “He’ll make no bones about it — if someone is going better than the man with the jersey, then they’ll play — Sean O’Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy have worked, but Paul O’Connor was also brought in because he was going well. Jack and the selectors felt he was worth the risk, and more often than not, his eye has not failed him.”
AT 28, Ó Sé looks around him now with a different eye and less talk. At the exuberance of Donaghy, how Gooch dealt with his loss, the flourishing talent of Marc, the bottomless resolve of Darragh and Moynihan. A good crew to be around. Fellas that make the long drives worth it. Galvin in the car, too.
“A lot of people are putting our comeback down to Kieran Donaghy, but the general attitude changed after the Cork defeat. We knew we had to raise the bar. We just don’t want to leave it after us this year. We have been in this situation before and that will help us; we know how we felt in 2002 [against Armagh]; champagne football all the way to the final, but it was no good to us in the end.”
The bile bothers, too. “We were getting flak all over the country, but it’s the stuff you get at home that bothers you. It hurts you, drives you on. You want to prove them wrong.”
He has no worries about Donaghy or Gooch — both know it only takes a moment for it all to change — or his elder sibling.
“You know when Darragh’s going well, you don’t need to read it in the papers. Even after the All-Ireland last year, he was going well with the club, and once he stays injury-free, he’s flying. Back as far as 2002, he was footballer of the year, even though it was Armagh who won the All-Ireland. I don’t know how many Championship games he has played with Kerry, but you could count the bad ones on one hand.”
In public, the Ó Sé brothers communicate with eyes, glances and head shakes more than words. Tomás has never asked Darragh if he’s retiring at the end of the season, never wondered of Marc where he got that burst of form from. But he knows one thing — Darragh and Moynihan are the best two players he’s togged with.
“As good as you’ll get anywhere,” he nods. “Moynihan is unreal, and I mean unreal. Nobody knows the injuries he’s gone through, the mileage he has up, and what he’s done to get back to where he is — Sigersons, County championships, Kerry since 1992. Himself and Darragh have been consistent throughout their careers. They’ll have no regrets when it’s all over.”
Not that Ó Sé sees himself dragging his body out of the car for training at 32. But there’s a few good seasons left yet. “If we lose on Sunday, I can imagine what people will say. They will say this Kerry team is finished. I don’t think that’s the case, win, lose or draw. Let’s say Darragh and Seamus go; if they do, they’ll be the only ones. We played and won an All-Ireland final without them two years ago. Fellas coming on are contributing.”
He knows plenty about contributing. It may be that he finds himself policing Alan Dillon in Croke Park. Last September, he left headquarters with a “nasty” taste in his mouth, and a ferocious desire to even the score. But when the madness subsides next week, he has the comfort of a new constant in his life. Somebody with a footballer’s kick.
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kerrywoman
Full Member
Maurice Fitz was and still is a genius
Posts: 64
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Post by kerrywoman on Sept 14, 2006 13:37:30 GMT
Pat Spillane
Watch The Sunday Game Live featuring the All-Ireland SFC final on RTÉ Two from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. Listen live on RTÉ Radio 1.
It's safe to say that the two best teams in this year's Championship will grace the annual showpiece but I think they were only the best two of a very average lot.
Mayo's chances of success will depend largely on how they deal with Kieran Donaghy, who has transformed Kerry as a team since his switch to full-forward after the Munster final replay defeat to Cork.
Kerry will be looking to contain or cancel out Conor Mortimor and reduce Ciaran MacDonald's impact, and they will try to ensure he has as deep a lying role as possible.
I know the Kerry defence looked vulnerable against Longford and in the first half against Armagh, but they're now averaging a concession of 11 points per match over the last few games so I think they should have enough about them to stifle Mayo's tricky forwards.
If they (the Mayo forwards) end up with Seamus Moynihan, like Mayo's James Nallen, they're both there to be run at, but if Diarmuid Murphy continues to play the sweeper role I think the Kerry defence will cancel out the Mayo attack.
I don't agree with Declan O'Sullivan's return at the expense of Eoin Brosnan at all. I don't agree with it on several counts. Firstly, if it isn't broke don't fix it and this is a winning Kerry team. It's been going well since the Munster replay defeat so I don't see the need for change on this occasion. I also don't buy into this 'form in training' thing because I firmly believe form in training means nothing because it's so unrealistic. I also think it's not right in the sense that Gooch has been stripped of the captaincy and he's a player that has been struggling with confidence all year long. I don't think this is going to help his cause at all. The absence of Brosnan is also a big loss to Gooch because they link up very well as they play for the same club, while Brosnan is the highest goalscorer on the panel with four goals in the last three matches. I think it's unbelievable.
The other thing about Brosnan is that he has an electrifying burst of pace and that's exactly what you want when you're taking on the likes of James Nallen. It's a big, big decision and if Kerry lose that's going to be the stick that's going to beat the selectors' and management's back. I hope they're right, it's a big call and although I think Declan's a good player, he played brilliantly in 2004, it hasn't gone down well in the county.
Looking to the sideline battle, I've a funny feeling that the players have taken over in Mayo over the last few months. I genuinely believe they're providing the leadership and the boys are letting them get on with it, which is fair enough because they're producing the goods. Jack (O'Connor) is shrewd and he has changed the tactics considerably since the Munster Championship, so Kerry will not be found wanting in this department. However, I don't think it will be won or lost on the sideline even though you'd have to say that the best managerial change of the season was taken by Mickey Moran in the semi-final against Dublin. Everything he did turned to gold that day.
The quality of the Croke Park pitch has come in for a lot of criticism in recent weeks but I think a lot will depend on the weather this Sunday. What they did for the Hurling final was they let it grow because of the threat of rain, compensating for a slippery pitch by creating a grassy pitch. As a result, they ruined the game as a spectacle and it became a joke. If they cut the grass tight and it rains, then yes, it will become a factor because it will turn into a skating rink. It looked a lot better last Sunday for the Camogie final and the forecast isn't bad for Sunday so I don't think it will be a significant factor this week. But unfortunately for a lot of games this year, it has!
Barring a draw on Sunday, this will be Jack O'Connor's final game in charge of Kerry. He probably regrets not leaving after the first All-Ireland, and then couldn't go at the end of the last campaign. He's had a brilliant record; three years, three All-Ireland finals, one title won so far, two National League titles.
If Kerry lose on Sunday a lot of people in Kerry will consider him a failure, which I think is wrong because he's had an excellent record. If any other county manager had a record like that they'd be delighted and there isn't exactly a queue of candidates lined up to replace him.
There's a lot of talk about Mick O'Dwyer and Páidí Ó Sé coming in together and to me it's the likeliest combination. I think Páidí would be for it so it will all depend on Mick. I think it would be a great combination and I think if they're interested they're the only candidates worth considering. They get on well with each other, they work well together and I'd certainly be for it.
Looking to the match itself, I'm going to go for a Kerry win. I went for Cork to win the hurling and I'm tipping Kerry for the football. Like I've said before, I'm not impressed by the team, which has dampened my optimism a certain amount. But I still think there's a lot more ifs and buts about Mayo; can they put big games back-to-back together, will they be as good again? There's more if and buts about Mayo and Kerry have more consistency in the last couple of matches so I'll have to go for them to claim their 34th title. But I would say that, wouldn't I?
In conversation with RTÉ Publishing's Shane Murray
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Post by kerrygold on Sept 14, 2006 13:46:07 GMT
i have to say i find myself agreeing with everything in that last article.
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Post by kerryman on Sept 15, 2006 8:54:35 GMT
Pat Spillane If they (the Mayo forwards) end up with Seamus Moynihan, like Mayo's James Nallen, they're both there to be run at, but if Diarmuid Murphy continues to play the sweeper role I think the Kerry defence will cancel out the Mayo attack.  Pat Spillane didn't write a bad article there, but if Diarmuid is playing as a sweeper I suspect we might be in trouble. Could be referring to Moynihan perhaps?  |
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RashersTierney
Senior Member
Ballymun is the North Kerry of Dublin,but quieter!
Posts: 369
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Post by RashersTierney on Sept 15, 2006 11:04:13 GMT
For those who dont have a Unison account registered, here's the O'Mahoney article. I think he's a brilliant player, one of the unsung heros who are the bedrock of success
THE great tradition which underpins Kerry football means that there's never any danger of today's stars being seen as sui generis. Last year Colm Cooper was the new Mike Sheehy, this year Kieran Donaghy is the new Bomber. Tomás and Marc Ó Sé get compared to their uncle Páidí while, mark my words, Darren O'Sullivan's status as a flying blond wing-forward for a new millennium will garner those Pat Spillane comparisons before too long.
And Aidan O'Mahony? He's the new Tommy Doyle. This might be seen as damning the Rathmore man with faint praise but that's not the intention. A steady satellite in a cosmos of shooting stars, Doyle is the forgotten man of the greatest football team of all time. But he was a very good footballer, which is something he has in common with O'Mahony. And it's not the only thing.
Ask someone to name the Kerry four in a row team and invariably Doyle is the last name they'll think of. Ask someone to name the Kingdom team which won the All-Ireland in 2004 and reached the finals of 2005 and 2006 and chances are O'Mahony will be the first player they'll forget. Doyle was a fireman in the Kerry team, shifted around the defence to where the need was greatest. O'Mahony has played everywhere in the back-line, mostly at corner-back or wing-back, though there was a lengthy sojourn at centre half-back in this year's league and he's had a couple of championship starts at full-back.
Doyle might be largely forgotten now, but he racked up three All-Stars in his day. O'Mahony grabs few headlines, but he was nominated for an All-Star last year and will be again this year, barring an absolute nightmare in the final. When Doyle is remembered, it's probably for being blatantly pushed/cunningly nudged/not touched at all (delete according to county allegiance) by Séamus Darby in the 1982 All-Ireland final immediately prior to the goal which destroyed Kerry's dreams of five titles in a row. But he played, in an unfussy and ultra-competent way, a key role for Kerry.
It's the same kind of role played by Gay O'Driscoll on the great Dubs team, by Brian Murphy for Cork hurlers and Derek Lyng for Kilkenny. They may not be glamour boys but they are players the manager doesn't have to lose sleep over. No matter what happens, they'll do their job. These are bedrock players. Diligent is perhaps the word which best describes them.
I met O'Mahony last week at the Kerry press night in Killarney's Brehon Hotel. In one corner of the room a dozen journalists were mobbing Kieran Donaghy, while Séamus Moynihan was barely visible under a canopy of dictaphones. O'Mahony, on the other hand, was sitting unattended by the wall, like the girl nobody has asked to dance. It seemed appropriate; he might be quickly becoming one of the best defenders in the country, but the Rathmore man hasn't really figured on the media radar yet. Three years in, he's still the mystery man of the Kerry set-up.
Not, you'd have to say, that being out of the limelight seems to bother the guy. He comes across as surprisingly relaxed, chuckling fulsomely at a couple of my questions. (Never ask him how he got to be so quick, this strikes him as hilarious all together. I don't know. He seems pacey enough to me, but what do I know.)
O'Mahony seems a cheerful, uncomplicated country lad in the same kind of mould as his clubmate, defensive colleague, friend and fellow Garda Tom O'Sullivan. And like O'Sullivan, he also gives off an air of what we used to call, "hardiness." There isn't a pick of spare flesh on him and there is something alert and focused about the lad. If they put this guy marking someone, you feel, he'd follow them into the grave.
If they put this guy marking someone, you feel, he'd follow them to the grave
It's this alertness, this remorseless devotion to the job in hand which has seen O'Mahony become a fixture in the Kerry defence. He was a surprise inclusion on the team in 2004, first coming to public attention when he was brought in to mark Limerick's Stephen Kelly in the National League semi-final of that year. It's easy now to forget how highly regarded Kelly was then, so blisteringly fast it looked borderline unfair to expect defenders to keep up with him. The previous year against Limerick he'd tortured Kerry for 20 minutes before being forced out with an injury which might have cost the underdogs victory.
This was the kind of in-at-the-deep-end assignment which could set a young player back for years if it went wrong. But O'Mahony mastered Kelly that day, and in the drawn Munster final at the Gaelic Grounds when many of the more experienced Kerry players seemed unnerved by the home team's big push for a first provincial title in over a century.
His man did get away for a goal inside 10 seconds in the replay, but O'Mahony quickly re-established dominance. Stephen Kelly was never quite the same player again, O'Mahony was on his way.
By the end of the year he had an All-Ireland medal in his pocket and was being singled out by Dara Ó Cinnéide as one of the players who had made a big difference as Kerry bounced back from two years of harrowing underachievement in big games.
Even when the team seemed to be on the verge of self-destructing earlier this season, O'Mahony kept his standards high. He was one of only four Kerry players, the others being Kieran Donaghy, Marc Ó Sé and Darragh Ó Sé, selected on the provincial All-Stars team after the Munster Championship. In the closing stages of the drawn game against Cork it was a thrilling run from O'Mahony which gave Bryan Sheehan the chance to put Kerry ahead before the Rebels equalised at the death through James Masters.
It was not an a typical intervention. Man-marking may be O'Mahony's forte but he is adept at the judicious foray into attack. It was his well-weighted through ball which gave Declan O'Sullivan the chance to score the winning goal in last year's Munster final and a high floated O'Mahony pass which enabled Kieran Donaghy to feed Eoin Brosnan for one of the goals which got the Kingdom's campaign back on track against Longford.
This has been a good year for Aidan O'Mahony. He is no longer a neophyte and he's aware that this brings new challenges.
"I suppose that I've been here three years now and I'm 26, the same age as Marc Ó Sé and Eoin Brosnan. We've been very lucky to have such good, experienced players around us up to now. It's easy to play well when people are doing it around you, but it was time for us to start stepping up our game, and I think we've managed to do it this year. It helped that I played frequently at centre-back in the league. You get to play a lot of ball there and it helps you sharpen up for the championship."
O'Mahony's successful stint at centre half-back indicates his rise in the Kerry defensive hierarchy. His assured performances two years ago helped soothe some of the worry occasioned by the loss of Séamus Moynihan through injury and saved Jack O'Connor from having to bring a less than fully fit Moynihan back into the team for the final.
There were still those who thought that Moynihan's return last year would spell demotion for O'Mahony but instead it was the far more experienced Eamonn Fitzmaurice who dropped to the bench. The return of Mossie Lyons this year might also have meant danger for O'Mahony but he saw off this challenge too. Kerry have now had basically the same defensive unit for three years, something the Rathmore man sees as hugely advantageous.
"Playing together for three years has given us a good understanding and a good reading of each other's game. We know when and how to back each other up. If Tom and Mike and Marc come out with the ball, then Tomás and Séamus and myself know when they're going to give it to us and we know when they'll come again for the next pass.
"Being able to read things like that is important because possession is the key to our game and Jack has us working very hard on retaining possession in training, he'll have the forwards putting a lot of pressure on us. They're very tough, those fifteen against fifteens, they're better than any challenge games."
He admits that he hasn't given much thought to who he'll be marking in the final. It's been mainly drills in training for the past week and Kerry haven't got around to considering Mayo yet. But Mayo, he feels, look a different team this year.
'A team that can come back from seven points down with 60,000 Dublin fans shouting at them deserves a lot of respect
"Before it was really just Ciarán McDonald and Conor Mortimer, but now the other four forwards are contributing as well. Alan Dillon has come on a lot and I don't expect it to be anything like the 2004 final. I think we'll probably have to play our best football of the year to get through this one. A team that can come back from seven points down with 60,000 Dublin fans shouting at them deserves a lot of respect. Mickey Moran has made a great job of them."
This year has been different, he says. He hadn't imagined what it would be like to lose an All-Ireland final, but the experience of the older players who'd been there before helped him out. And when he got back to training in January and the team began to win a few league games, "then the bite and the hunger was back."
Training every other night of the week, doing weights every other night of the week is hard work; there are special diets to follow and little chance to socialise. Sometimes he feels like he's a professional athlete. But, and this fits in with his no nonsense attitude on the pitch, he doesn't crib about the sacrifices he has to make. O'Mahony loves this life.
"I've always dreamed about this, playing for Kerry. I don't know why you'd give out about the training because, having played inter-county football, you'd be lost without it. The friendships you make, the bond between the members of the team, it's incredible.
"The first game I ever saw in Croke Park was in 1996, myself and Tom O'Sullivan went up and Kerry lost to Mayo. But we went round to all the games that time, in Munster and club games and everything and you'd never imagine that some day you'd be part of it."
He had trials with Kerry in 2001 and 2002 but hadn't made it then. He had been captain of the Under-21 team in 2001 but they lost to Cork in the Munster semi-final despite the presence of O'Mahony, Marc Ó Sé, Brosnan, Tadhg Kennelly and Seán O'Sullivan. As minors they had lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Laois.
O'Mahony had been a good under-age player but nothing spectacular. Shrewd observers reckon his game was brought on a good deal by his Sigerson Cup experience with CIT where he ruefully remembers, "coming up against Jordanstown one time when they had 28 inter-county players on their panel. But I enjoyed it, Sigerson is very tough and definitely the closest thing to senior inter-county football. We had a good team, Cork lads like Kieran O'Connor, Graham Canty, Alan O'Connor and Michael Prout."
Cork are very much a presence in his footballing life with Rathmore being right on the border between the counties. He likes the banter, he says, and perhaps his dismissal of this year's Munster final result - "in Kerry we don't worry too much about Munster finals, it's All-Ireland finals we're thinking about, look at the small crowd that was at the replay" - is in that spirit.
He really lights up when he talks about Rathmore, how they won their first East Kerry title in 21 years last year. He's lucky to be from Rathmore, he says, because they play in the big games that get you noticed.
O'Mahony's performance in the 2002 League final when Rathmore shocked county champions Kerins O'Rahillys was one of the individual performances of the season in Kerry. Last year, when his side were struggling against Legion of Killarney in the East Kerry quarter-final, he got up from number six to kick two huge points as they got through by one. He is, quite simply, a man you turn to when the road gets rocky.
And, if he never does get the credit he deserves, so what? He's not in it for ego reasons. "I'm just there to do a job, whatever job the management give me I'm happy to do it, wherever I get switched during the game. Even this year, when no one gave us a chance against Armagh, I was confident enough. I've got a bit of confidence in myself now, Jack O'Connor is good at doing that for you.
"I'm a bit quicker because of the work Pat Flanagan has done with us, with leg weights and that. Going in against Armagh, I didn't think we had anything to prove to anyone except ourselves. But we upped the ante a bit that day. I keep taking inspiration from the good players around me, keep the enthusiasm going because Jack has been fair with me. That's how he is. Whoever is doing it in training gets their chance, so you can't slacken off."
He's taken his chance. Chances are he'll keep taking it.
Eamonn Sweeney
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Joxer
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,365
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Post by Joxer on Sept 15, 2006 14:56:49 GMT
The prediction from RTE is for a Mayo win...thats got to be a good omen surely!!
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Post by Kingdomson on Sept 15, 2006 21:26:11 GMT
Setanta website preview tips Mayo for senior and Kerry for minor www.setanta.com/portal/content/bigmatchpreviews -- Sunday, September 17th -- BANK OF IRELAND ALL-IRELAND SFC FINAL Croke Park 15.30: Kerry v Mayo You're in an All-Ireland final but you've done it the hard way. After sneaking out of your province, you've beaten Tyrone's conquerors in the quarter-final after a replay. After that you've had to face the Dubs in front of a packed Croke Park. You win by a single point after Dublin hit the post late on to prevent them from snatching a draw. Waiting in the final are Kerry, who have drawn with Cork in the Munster championship before losing the replay. They regroup to beat them in the semi-final though. You are most people's underdogs for the final, with history totally against you. Most of you will recognise this run as that of Mayo's to this year's All-Ireland final. It might strike some of you as being freakishly similar to Armagh's path to the All-Ireland final in 2002. Will Mayo take this as an omen that their name is on the Sam Maguire this year? Of Course not. If Mayo are to win on Sunday they will have to reproduce the best aspects of their performance against Dublin, while cutting down on the features of their play which saw them cough up a number of goal chances and go seven points down early in the second half. The similarities with Armagh's 2002 triumph just shows that Mayo are certainly not without hope going into Sunday's game, but fate will not win them anything. Hard work will. People seem to forget it now, but Armagh were not lauded as a mighty team back in 2002 in the way that they have been since. The truth is they had the bit of luck that all champions need back in 2002, while it could be argued that that luck has deserted them since, even though they would appear to have a slightly stronger team and panel at present. Mayo could be about to adopt a similar route, but it must start with a win on Sunday. Like Armagh in 2002, they have been enjoying the bit of good fortune that perhaps they hadn't been getting before. Squeezing by Leitrim and Galway by a point, two points down with time up against Laois before drawing and winning the replay, and then there's the Dublin game where they could have been buried by half-time. There is a confidence in this Mayo team that hasn't been there before, the confidence that All-Ireland medals bring. They may not be the most treasured ones, but there are plenty of All-Ireland medals in the Mayo panel thanks to their under-21 success earlier this year as well as Crossmolina and Ballina's All-Ireland club triumphs of recent times. These collections might not compare too favourably with those in the Kerry dressing room, but it has to count for something. While Kieran Donaghy's transformation from midfielder to full-forward has been a spectacular success, the platform for Donaghy's dominance has been his old partner Darragh Ó Sé at midfield. Ó Sé is back to his best but will come up against his stiffest challenge so far this year in the shape of Ronan McGarrity and Pat Harte. Even if one of them isn't firing, Mayo have David Brady on the bench. If Ó Sé needs help at midfield, Kerry's best option is to move Donaghy out, but such a move could wreak havoc on their forward line. Mayo can edge the midfield battle. Inside, David Heaney won't give up anything easily to Donaghy. Heaney may simply hope to just break the ball away from Donaghy when it comes in, and this is where his defensive colleagues will be vital. No doubt Mickey Moran and John Morrison will have a plan hatched. Expect Donaghy, Cooper, Russell and Galvin to give plenty of problems, but Mayo might just be able to limit the damage to manageable proportions. Certainly an improvement on the Dublin showing will be necessary. Up front Mayo have plenty of firepower to hurt Kerry, and plan B isn't too bad either as their bench showed against Dublin. As a team, Mayo must improve from the semi-final but it's hard to ask a whole lot more of their forwardline. Shoot 1-16 on Sunday and that should do the trick. Kerry looked a shoo-in for the All-Ireland title after their performance against Armagh. It could be argued that it was their most significant victory since the All-Ireland final win of 1975. Mayo's win over Dublin goes even deeper that that. It has to be their most important win since the 1951 All-Ireland final. They won a game in a fashion in which few thought they could. They have a momentum like never before. That might just be enough. MAYO - David Clarke; Dermot Geraghty, David Heaney, Keith Higgins; Aidan Higgins, James Nallen, Peadar Gardiner; Ronan McGarrity, Pat Harte; Billy Joe Padden, Ger Brady, Alan Dillon; Kevin O'Neill, Conor Mortimer, Ciaran MacDonald. KERRY - KERRY - D Murphy; M O Se, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T O Se, S Moynihan, A O'Mahony; D O Se, T Griffin; S O'Sullivan, Declan O'Sullivan (capt), P Galvin; C Cooper, K Donaghy, MF Russell. VERDICT: Mayo ===== ESB ALL-IRELAND MFC FINAL Croke Park 13.30: Kerry v Roscommon Kerry go into the game as favourites but that's nothing new for Roscommon who have been written off in most of their games this year. Coincidentally, just like the Mayo seniors, Roscommon are aiming for their first All-Ireland title since 1951. Their win over Meath was no mean feat, given that the Royals were very impressive in their Leinster final win over Offaly. Roscommon, after seeing off traditional heavyweights Galway and Mayo in Connacht, had an easier proposition in the quarter-final against Tipperary. They soaked up plenty of Meath pressure early on in the semi-final before Conor Devaney's penalty and Donal Shine's point put them three in front at the changeover to set them on their way. Kerry have had an unusually long wait for a minor title by their standards, without a win since 1994. They were comfortable winners over Donegal in the semi-final and in Paddy Curran, they have the type of forward who may be able to punish Roscommon where Meath couldn't. Playing in an All-Ireland final might just sit that bit easier with the Kerry lads as well and they seem to have enough quality to secure a first minor All-Ireland title for 12 years. KERRY - T Mac an tSaoir; B Russell, M Moloney, D Ó Sé; S Enright, A Greany, B Costello; T Walsh, G O'Driscoll; J Buckley, D O'Shea, D Moran; G Sayers, P Curran (capt), E Kennedy. ROSCOMMON - M Miley; P Gleeson, M McLoughlin, S Ormsby; P Domican, D Flynn (captain), C Garvey; D Keenan, K Higgins; C Devaney, J McKeague, D Shine; P Garvey, F Cregg, D O'Gara. VERDICT: Kerry |
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Pat Spillane didn't write a bad article there, but if Diarmuid is playing as a sweeper I suspect we might be in trouble. Could be referring to Moynihan perhaps? 
