Saturday, August 28

2021 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship Final

Meath v Tyrone, Croke Park, 1pm (TG4)

Meath come into this All-Ireland final on the back of two momentous wins, first against Dublin in the Leinster final and then against a history-making Sligo side, both of which were achieved in dismally wet conditions.

Tyrone on the other hand took full advantage of the blistering sunshine and top of the ground conditions at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park in Tullamore to rack up a sensational 14-point win over Cork, so there can be no doubt that the two form sides in the country have earned their place in tomorrow’s All-Ireland decider at Croke Park on merit.

It feels like just a few weeks ago that Meath’s 2020 minors pushed a strong Derry side very hard in a delayed All-Ireland semi-final, and now the Royal County have come again with essentially an entirely new side that was solid against Louth, dominant against Dublin and in control against Sligo. At a time when the Meath minor ladies just won a Leinster title and their senior women stand on the cusp of a famous All-Ireland final tilt against Dublin, these are heady times for football in the county.

Tomorrow will be a very different challenge however, up against a Tyrone team that is packed full of scoring power. The Ulster county is averaging 26 points per game in their four starts so far, and the wide open spaces of Croke Park will surely suit them as they try to continue that trend at headquarters. They’ve done this while conceding 0-9, 1-7, 1-6 and 1-6 against good opposition, suggesting that this group is poised to make a strong bid to win the county’s first All-Ireland minor title since 2010.

For Meath, the wait is even longer. 1992 is the last time they won the Tom Markham Cup, when Trevor Giles scored 1-2 and Mark Farrelly got a last-minute goal to edge out Armagh by 2-5 to 0-10 in the decider. It remains to be seen if there are any future multiple All-Star winners of Giles’ calibre in this group, but if they do look to have a particularly strong hand anywhere, it’s at midfield where Paul Wilson and Jack Kinlough have been excellent.

If this due can control the battle for possession, Meath may be able to starve the Tyrone attack at the fuel they need to really catch fire at Croke Park – but that’s no easy task.

Saturday, August 28

2021 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Semi-final

Kerry v Tyrone, Croke Park, 3.30pm (RTE & Sky Sports)

Every so often, you hear a rumour that is so wonderful, so enjoyable, that the only thing to do is to revel in it for what it is, and to pay no heed to whether it’s true or not. The story going around Kerry for the past month and more has been that when Tyrone travelled to Killarney for this year’s Allianz League Division One semi-final, the players were brought out to a park in Killarney that morning and put through their paces with a hard running session, meaning that when the time came to throw in the ball at Fitzgerald Stadium, the Red Hand county were shattered, and so the 6-15 to 1-14 result came about.

Deciding to take your elite intercounty team to a public space in a large football-mad town on the morning of a game of that nature would be quite the public statement; particularly since at that time of year, Tyrone’s concerns would have been completely centred on an Ulster championship campaign that was about to ask them to beat Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan (the three counties that, along with Tyrone, won every Ulster title from 2009 through to 2020) in order to win back the Anglo Celt Cup.

Did this Killarney runabout actually happen? Let’s leave that to the imagination. What we can say is that even if Tyrone were fully tuned in and primed to put their best foot forward in that league semi-final, it’s a completely different side that will take the field tomorrow afternoon, for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, there is the elephant in the room of the county’s recent issues with Covid-19. For Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan, getting the best possible team on the field is just half the battle, there’s also the question of which players will be fit and ready to play to their physical and aerobic peak, and which will still be feeling the after-effects of a virus known to take very different tolls on different people.

There is the transformation in the team’s style, epitomised by the decision to replace stylish attacking players like Darragh Canavan and Paul Donaghy (admittedly the former has had injury issues) with others that are more known for putting in strong shifts of work from general play and less inclined to put up large totals on the scoreboard.

At the start of the year, Logan and Dooher seemed to try and transform Tyrone into a fast, kicking team that looked to move the ball through the lines, find the inside forward line early, and compete in a modern footballing world where larger scoring totals tend to be needed to win games.

They still look to play with pace, but there’s been a gradual switch back to carrying the ball and taking on opponents, and players like Darren McCurry and Conor McKenna will certainly look to run at their Kerry counterparts if they get the chance.

From a Kerry perspective, that final qualifier – “if they get the chance” is incredibly pertinent. We don’t know yet how good this team is, except to say that in Munster, they weren’t asked to go to the very bottom of their reserves to win a game. Perhaps, if times were different and the qualifiers were in place, then Clare, Tipperary and Cork might have won games through the backdoor to boost Kerry’s form even further. As it is, it’s just difficult to ascertain if there is a higher gear in Peter Keane’s group or if their incredible attacking talent and flair simply comes to the fore in games where they get a large share of possession.

Immediately after the Munster final, it was noted that Kerry scythed through their nearest and dearest neighbours even though David Clifford wasn’t anywhere near his best, and a backlash was expected from the Kerry captain. Will the Fossa man still have the same burning desire to make amends some five weeks after their win over Cork, or will the passage of time have blunted that edge?

In one sense, Clifford is a microcosm for the whole team. He is clearly capable of incredible moments and plays, but he’s facing a very different type of challenge tomorrow. Padraig Hampsey has arguably been the best man-marking defender in the championship so far, taking on Thomas Galligan, Michael Murphy and Conor McManus, conceding the grand total of 0-2 from play, and logic would suggest he’s the most likely candidate to try and curtail Clifford.

Of course some would argue that Séan O’Shea is arguably just as significant a threat and Hampsey has the mobility and the all-round footballing ability to move out into the half-back line if that is his assignment, though initially at least, Tiernan McCann or even possibly Peter Harte is probably more likely to pick up O’Shea.

Kerry’s biggest problem of all is that as of now, it’s impossible to tell if they have any problems. At times Cork caused them problems when they ran straight at them in the first quarter of the Munster final, but that was easily shored up. Jack Barry is reinforcing midfield and giving David Moran and Diarmuid O’Connor huge support, while Paudie Clifford and Paul Geaney as the number three and four threats in the Kerry attack is a mismatch nightmare for any team that doesn’t have not just one Pádraig Hampsey, but several of him.

Tyrone have had plenty of time to study their opponents in forensic detail, and tomorrow we’ll find out if they’ve been able to spot any weaknesses that have hitherto gone undiscovered.