Sunday’s All-Ireland football final between Kerry and Donegal has been billed as a clash of styles but it is also a clash of wills where the immovable objects of the Kingdom meet the unstoppable force which Jim McGuinness’s Ulster champions are fast becoming.
Looking at both sides in the latter stages of the race for Sam Maguire, it appears to be a head-to-head with much more modern-day sophistication as the Donegal swarm faces the Kerry sting.
In scoring 3-26 against Meath in the semi-final, the men from Tir Conaill took our breath away with their devastating breakout pace from defence which time and again offered up goal and point chances at the Royal citadel.
Meath ran their legs off in an effort to keep up but in so doing, they had little to offer going forward as the Donegal defense held their danger man Jordan Morris to a point and also kept their goal and two-point effort in check.
Those had been the ground on which Robbie Brennan’s side had surprised Dublin, Galway and yes Kerry in their march to the penultimate series this term.
Meath hadn’t met such an unrelenting machine as Donegal who have perfected their swarm game to such an extent that in the wide open spaces of Croke Park, they seem to have the perfect athletic and scoring arsenal to beat any team.
Against that swarm game, there is no doubt that Kerry has the sting unlike anything that the men from the north have faced this year.
In David Clifford and in tandem with his brother Paudie and centre-forward Seanie O’Shea, they have three attackers who can create and cause mayhem to any rearguard.
Clifford is unmarkable in man-to-man combat, but then Donegal will hardly be so naive as to try to play him that way.
Given that their players get up and down the field quicker than any other outfit, expect that any time there is a breakdown in their own going forward attempts, there will be a sprint by one or two colleagues to assist whoever, probably Brendan McCole, picks up the Kingdom’s talisman.
McGuinness sets his team up to score but he also sets out to concede as little as possible. The days of sweeper or double sweeper may have changed under the new rules but having people detailed to hammer the hammer, as they say in Kerry, will be part of his masterplan to detonate the explosive Kerry attack.
Similarly, be sure that Paudie Clifford will have a shadow other than his own constantly by his side. If you keep him quiet and reduce his influence, you lessen the platform for his brother to cause damage further inside.
Seanie O’Shea, too, is key to the Kerry attack and following a majestic game against Armagh, he was subdued in the last match against Tyrone, scoring only three points, two from frees across the 70 minutes plus.
That may motivate him to step up for the final but we can be sure that he too will have company because he has the ability to kick two pointers as well as spray in good passes to David C. inside. Keep him even half-quiet and you pull another molar in Kerry’s attacking bite.
If there is a Kerryman currently running into top form, it is midfielder Joe O’Connor, who seems to have set his dial at a higher point than we previously saw from him at intercounty level.
The intensity of his forward surges and catches has made him an invaluable asset in Manager Jack O’Connor’s quest for a third League-All-Ireland double in his three times as boss of Kerry over the past quarter of a century.
From Donegal’s standpoint, he too will have to be followed and tamed if their master plan is to work, allowing them to bring Sam North West for only the third time in their history.
Overall, you marvel at how fit, powerful and well-tutored this Donegal outfit is. They are both patient and explosive, abrasive yet disciplined so that both tackling and shooting are done with the most complete sang froid attitude of any team at the top in Gaelic football.
Above all, they have an uncanny ability to adapt, to tweak their game plan on the hoof and to overcome adversity if say their kickouts don’t deliver by using their on-field awareness to provide better options to Shaun Patton.
They have improved from last year with the constant drilling from their manager and with the return of former All Ireland winning skipper Michael Murphy to orchestrate their attack, and midfield when it is needed.
Many believe they would have won the league if they wanted - or more precisely if McGuinness didn’t feel it might be a deterrent to their ultimate prize.
So they eschewed Spring silverware for the Holy Grail in the Gaelic world - Sam.
Lest it appears that we are writing Kerry off, be mindful that they now know they possess the resources to destroy an opposition in a matter of minutes.
It took Donegal's Michael Murphy two years to come out of retirement. [Inpho/Ryan Byrne]
This was something neither the general public nor Jack O’Connor fully understood before the Armagh match. Five points down to the All-Ireland champions five minutes into the second half, they reeled off 14 points - two pointers and singles - without reply in a 15-minutes of devastation that I’ve never seen the likes of, especially in Croke Park on a big occasion which the quarter-final was this year.
Armagh looked as if they were kicking on early in the second half but by game’s end, they were totally destroyed by the unyielding nature of the Kerry attack. They smelt blood and then finished off their quarry.
Less dramatically perhaps, but somewhat similarly, Tyrone had seemed the more confident team until the Kingdom found a rhythm to kick points and score the game’s only goal before half-time. That provided the platform on the turnover to shoot nine unanswered points before taking their foot off the pedal and ending up “only” winning by six points.
Kerry also has an S-factor with them this year - a genuine siege mentality. O’Connor has traded on this to the point where his call for supporters to turn out in their droves for the semi-final was answered like never before at this stage of the competition. You know the old belief that Kerry fans only bothered to make the journey to Dublin on final day - well, that has changed now.
And it has forged something of a bond between team and supporters which will be exacerbated when once more the proud tradition of Kerry won’t count for much as many neutrals and pundits believe that Donegal will win on Sunday.
Both sides have shown us their strengths, the question is can one group expose the other’s weakness.
Donegal’s zonal mass defense can take the oxygen out of attacks the way it is constructed to choke the opposition into submission. Their arc is their Fort Knox - no way through.
What they have yet to encounter in their ability to sprint back after losing possession is a side capable of kicking long passes into the heart of the Donegal defense arriving seconds before the auxiliary attackers return to the site of their day job.
Kerry can run out of defense as good as they next crew but if Paudie Clifford looks up in possession or if O’Shea or the half-back either, they are capable of putting a 50-60 yard passes into David Clifford.
This gives him two options - either to turn onto his left foot and shoot or, as he is doing more often under these new rules, to take on and beat his man.
This causes consternation among defenders and if O’Connor the manager can get O’Shea or a late arriving O’Connor the player to time their runs, they could benefit inordinately from his cross the goalmouth passes.
At the other end, the Kerry defense is still to be assessed as a proven unit. They were all over the place against Cork in the Munster championship and only began to get their act together following the surprise defeat to Meath in the last round of the Sam Maguire groups series.
The presence of Murphy and the speed of the O’Donnells, Oisin Gallen and Ciaran Moore allied to the two-pointer danger of Ciaran Thompson and Michael Langan around the “forty.”
Tadhg Morley made a cameo appearance in the semi-final and if he and Tom O’Sullivan are fit, it provides options for O’Connor should any of the starting six find they are treading water against the above attack.
Also, they will want their midfield to man up better at kickout because Tyrone stole 11 Kerry kickouts but failed to take real advantage and only scored two points from that glut of possession.
That paucity of reward may be explained in the methodical nature of Tyrone in turning midfield wins into attacking gold. They are slow, often go across and back the field a few times before targeting a shoulder to run by in the hope of creating a score.
Donegal are almost the opposite in approach. They favor a high ball from kick outs being punched forward so that their Jackals can get onto it at breakneck pace to expose their opponent’s defensive set-up.
Even if they catch a ball cleanly, they don’t hang around and often go route one to Murphy or Gallen and kick on for either a quick score from them or a feed back to the support arriving from all angles around the arc.
That is why both Patton and Shane Ryan (See panel Player To Watch) will be vital players for their teams. They are the first part of the restarts and while the outfielders have to be alert so that possession can be gained, ultimately it will depend on where they deliver the ball to that will decide the course the game will take.
Another factor could be availability of injured players. This is largely a Kerry problem because Donegal have by far the better panel - they were able to bring on players of the calibre of their skipper Paddy McBrearty, who scored three points and ran the forward line, Jason McGee at midfield and the influential Caolan McGonagle, Daire Ó Baoill and Olcan McFadden Ferry, all of whom have been starters in the past.
Kerry on the other hand got a few points out of Killian Spillane but, Evan Looney, Morley, Mícheál Burns and Tony Brosnan made little impact in the admittedly limited time available to them when introduced.
Therefore O’Connor will hope that Tom O’Sullivan, Diarmaid O’Connor and in particular Paul Geaney will be able to play their part as each one provides a real boost for defence, midfield and attack should they be introduced.
Overall the force is with the Donegal swarm but against that if the Kerry sting comes earlier and more often, they have a real chance of glory. On balance though, I expect Donegal to win a close battle that could have us on our seats right up to the end.
THREE KERRY PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR
DAVID CLIFFORD
This man is a phenom, a once-off, a generational player - maybe the best of all time. So it goes without saying that he will be No 1 priority when it comes to Jim McGuinness’s plan to stop the Kerry attack from functioning.
Since his minor days, he has been ripping up the script the way he can win his own ball and score outrageous points and goals. Two-pointers too.
We can probably forecast the winners through either how well he plays on Sunday or how well he is curtailed by the Donegal defence. One thing we can be sure of, it will not be a one-man job in marking him.
JOE O’CONNOR
Over the years Kerry have provided Gaelic games with some of the best midfielders of all time from Pat “Airplane” O’Shea to Mick O’Connell to Jack O’Shea and Darragh Ó Sé in the nineties and noughties.
What Jack O’Connor would have done for one of those as he started out on the championship trail this season knowing that one man who might fill a No 8 or No 9 slot - Diarmuid O’Connor would succumb to injury in the high season.
No county can find a player like Kerry and in the last few games Joe O’Connor has come out of nowhere to be that influential guiding light in the middle of the park.
Starting against Armagh and following on with a man of the match against Tyrone, the Austin Stacks man can go into Kerry folklore if he can reproduce such form against the marauding Donegal middle march.
SHANE RYAN
After David Clifford and possibly brother Paudie, Donegal’s focus will lock onto how the Kerry goalkeeper restarts can be thwarted from first minute to last.
In the modern game, the restarts are indeed a new currency and even with the new rules curtailing the emphasis on short kickouts, the ability to get the ball off long and short, remains a possible game changer.
Armagh’s Ethan Rafferty had the best percentage going into the Kerry game but when the Kingdom went after this facet of the game, it was the major reason they managed to score 14 points without reply early in the second half.
Ryan and the Kerry backroom team know that their opponents have a height advantage in that vicinity so watch for the short, shortish and kicking towards the sideline for Kerry players hoping to gain primary possession.
THREE DONEGAL PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR
MICHAEL MURPHY
It took two years to get him to come back out of retirement but wasn’t it worthwhile to have the 35-year-old’s catching, scoring and leadership ability to guide this vibrant Donegal outfit?
Murphy is as important to Donegal as Clifford the younger is to Kerry. The same statement can be made about the former skipper in that if he is held, then Kerry will have a much better chance of bringing Sam back to Tralee and Killarney on Monday night.
The fact that he came off after 44 minutes against Meath will save his energy and also give him a gentle prod to up his game because Paddy McBrearty is waiting in the wings.
Expect that he will be on fire this Sunday and will ask questions off the Kingdom rearguard that they have not faced - high ball into the square being a case in point.
Jim McGuinness knew how important he is and was to the set-up, now is the denouement for that belief to be tested to the full.
MICHAEL LANGAN
You could pick any one of half a dozen Donegal players from Mark McHugh to Ciaran Moore to Ciaran Thompson, but Langan has arrived this year as the added bonus in the McGuinness plan.
They have perfected the new rules to suit themselves without becoming slaves to the modern duty. Donegal are more concerned with scoring points than trying to delay their game-plan for a two-pointer opportunity.
And it has worked. Except along with Thompson, Langan has become the king of making devastating runs into opposing defenses before turning sideways to land those self-same two-pointers.
As well as catching high around the middle of the park, it is his ability to make such forward gallops that has made this Donegal outfit harder to predict and decidedly harder to defend against this championship term.
SHAUN PATTON
A meltdown against Monaghan in the first-half apart, Patton has been the go-to restart man this campaign and unlike Ethan Rafferty, he confines his attacking role solely to upping the percentage of successful kickouts.
The former Derry City, Finn Harps and Sligo Rovers netminder was the subject of a poor day under the 4-4-4 press that day yet it was his ability to kick long and accurately that transformed Donegal in the second half when they held their opponents to a mere five points.
And who will forget how devastating he can be with a restart that broke Mayo hearts. After they had equalized in the last minute to guarantee themselves a point in the last minute, it was the Garda’s precise 70-meter kick that found Ciaran Moore in open territory. Once he landed and took off under those jets of feet he possesses, Mayo’s dreams were shattered as he shot over the winning point.
Kerry beware, he too can go toward the sideline, cut out the midfield big men and land a ball on the chest of a defender or half forward with consequential scoring results.
SUPERSUBS WHO COULD CHANGE THE GAME
PADDY McBREARTY
In any other county this man would be a certain starter, and was, in Donegal until they found that he was the perfect solution under Plan B.
This has been his role this championship, as he comes on, scores and wins an amount of possession to transfer to his colleagues around him.
His three points against Meath showed his ability to settle a team and his outrage and not having been offered a pass which would have put him in for a goal told us he wants to play a bigger part in Donegal’s quest for Sam.
The perfect man to have in waiting - take a bow Jim McGuinness, you have wound this man up so tightly that he has become unstoppable once let loose onto the green grass of Croke Park.
PAUL GEANEY
Kerry have been depending on serendipity rathar than planning when putting their subs out to take the team to the final whistle. Against Armagh Mícheál Burns came on and was MacBrearty-like in the influence of his play - not to mention his two points.
Last week against Tyrone, he was less of a force and it was Killian Spillane with two-points who showed up best - yet neither can be relied on to up their game consistently which is what Jack O’Connor wants.
He may be hoping that Paul Geaney, who was having his best season in years until injury intervened, gets to a suitable level of fitness in training this week that he can unleash him on a tiring Donegal rearguard should Kerry need scores and a wise old head to guide them to victory.
