Rainbow's Verdict - Football Column Aug 19

After the trials and tribulations of a hectic season we now find ourselves 140 minutes away from knowing the make up of this year’s GAA Football All-Ireland final pairing.

While there has been a lot of talk of the second semi-final involving Donegal and Dublin, this weekend’s encounter is no less intriguing in my book as Kerry and Mayo renew a rivalry that has pockmarked the championship on big days over the course of the last decade and more.

For me the likely outcome of semi-final number is likely to hinge on one major factor: What Mayo side will turn up on Sunday?

Will it be the team nearly beaten by London in the championship only a few months ago in Ruislip, or will it be the side that produced one of the most complete performances of this year’s championship in their last outing against Cork?

Even allowing for the vast strides made by London this year it is hard to reconcile the gulf in quality in those performances but my money is on the prospect of getting a display of the quality of the more recent outing and that can only be good news for the Mayo faithful.

The one major advantage Mayo have this Sunday is that they are going into this game as underdogs, something they exploited to the full in that fixture against Cork.

The status is based on the fact that Kerry have beaten them in three All Irealnd finals and one quarter final since 1997 but in reality the odds probably play little heed to the style or quality of football both teams have played this year.

The pre-match billing alone will doubtless have many believing that Kerry are going to have it easy this Sunday no matter how many times the players been told that this is going to be a testing assignment.

It’s worth pointing out that Mayo’s record in All-Ireland semi finals is very good and this is a different Mayo team from the one we saw bow out against Longford in qualifier action last year or the one that has fallen short in years previous to this.

Under James Horan we see a Mayo team that wants to win and who play with conviction, intensity and purpose. They targeted Cork’s keys players like Paddy Kelly in the quarter final and stuck to a game plan which saw them play football at times to a standard as good as anything we have seen in Croke Park in recent years.

They have two good midfielders in the O’Sheas and Alan Dillon has been pulling the strings in a forward line which also includes Andy Moran, to good effect. If they can produce a performance like the one served up against Cork they wont be too far off what would be viewed in most people’s eyes as an upset.

But what are they up against? That’s the problem from Mayo’s perspective.

Kerry have been the most consistent team in the country over the last 10 years playing in 10 semi- finals and eight finals winning five of them. In short they are a model of consistency.

With Kerry you get natural footballers combined with strength, speed and fitness and a team unit that will work hard for 70 minutes plus in every game they play.

They are recognised as a team that will deliver on the big day. Paul Galvin has been named to start on the bench and Eoin Brosnan holds his place at centre back which to many seems to be a problem area for Kerry.

However, their greatest attributes as I see them are the squad they can call on and the match winners they have, especially in their attacking ranks.

In Colm Cooper, Kieran Donaghy, Declan and Darren O’Sullivan you have have four players who alone can change games in seconds but with Kieran O’Leary and Donnacha Walsh you have another two young players who will only grow in strength with the experience and class of the older players beside them.

Mayo again will have to target the key players for Kerry but the problem in a nutshell is that there are probably too many of them to try and keep tabs on.

One area where I think Mayo can win is midfield and it’s in this battle that they will have to assert themselves.
They caused Cork many problems the last day in midfield and they built their platform from a strong showing in this area.

If the Connacht champions can up their perfomance from the Cork match and play with the same intensity then I give them a very good chance of beating Kerry this Sunday.

However if pushed to make a call I believe Kerry will have too much in their artillery for Mayo.