Owen Grant reviews the performances of the main contenders in this year’s Football Championship.
The Football Championship may by only in the early stages but already it looks like we could be in for a tremendously hard-fought Championship after Dublin took their turn to show their potential against Westmeath.
After impressive displays from Kerry, Cork, Mayo and Donegal over the last two weeks it was important for Jim Gavin’s side to make a statement of intent at headquarters and they did that in empathic style. A 1-22 to 0-09 victory over a dejected Westmeath side was convincing not simply for the margin of victory but the style and power which they displayed in an intimidating performance.
Their defence as expected, was well organised and committed while the willingness of McCarthy and McCaffrey to bomb forward, creating problems the other way was a great display of fitness and desire. Up front Bernard Brogan scored 7 points (5f) but was overshadowed by the very impressive Paddy Andrews who finished the game scoring 1-03 with the goal in particular a stunning finish.
However as convincing as Dublin were it must be said that Westmeath were very poor. Without former All-Star Dessie Dolan (who was unable to play due to injury) they played like a team who never truly believed they could beat Dublin and overall didn’t provide Dublin much of a test.
The problem for Dublin now is one that Kerry, Cork and Mayo also suffer from – They are all big fish in very small ponds. Of the teams left in Leinster only Kildare are capable of running the Dubs close and even they struggled past Offaly yesterday. There is no doubt that Dublin have improved significantly and built on their performances during a successful league campaign but they will be hoping for a much sterner test from Kieran McGeeney’s side.
In Munster, Kerry have come out strong with huge wins over Tipperary (16 points) and Waterford (26 Points). They have taken the opportunity against weak opposition to try to implement some new tactics; with Colm Cooper being deployed at centre forward one of the changes being tested out. Playing Cooper (who scored a landmark 250th Championship point against Waterford) in a deeper position is interesting as he could cause plenty of problems against a centre back such as Graham Canty but his discipline would be questioned much more if he were to mark an attacking back such as Donal Vaughan or Karl Lacey. What was very impressive though was that Kerry had 15 different scorers against Waterford with Cooper and Buckley joint top scorers with 4 points apiece.
They’ve adapted a new defensive set up too which has made them more difficult to break down however that defence hasn’t really been tested yet and to be fair their large win’s over two of the country’s weaker sides are nothing more than what would have been expected.
The same applies to Cork who opened with an 18 point victory over Limerick and will be looking to equal that performance against Clare in their semi-final. The game against Limerick was effectively over at half time so it was hard to learn much from that performance. Another convincing win will be on their agenda when they face the Banner to set up a meeting with the old enemy.
That game will give us a real indication where the two teams are at with the loser facing the very difficult prospect of a quarter-final against the other provincial champions. The advantage that both teams hold over Mayo in particular though is that at least they will get one tough game in before the Quarter finals.
Last year’s beaten All Ireland finalists should win the Connaught Championship without breaking a sweat after they totally annihilated Galway on their home patch in their Quarter final. In that game however, like Kerry and Cork in their games, Mayo were met with very little in terms of opposition with Michael Meehan the only real threat posed by the Tribesmen. Roscommon are up next before a potential final against Leitrim or surprise package London. Mayo are rightfully huge favourites to win the provincial title but their prospects of winning the ultimate prize have taken one very significant blow.
The loss of Cillian O’Connor for what looks like the rest of the championship is a huge setback for Mayo. He’s a key player that will be sorely missed in the half forward line and from dead balls. Without the Young Player of The Year, James Horan will be hoping that Andy Moran can build on his return to action against Galway and push his way into the starting team.
Mayo were very notable in Salthill during the first half and will be genuine contenders again this year but they’ll want to emulate what Munster’s big guns are doing against the weaker competition to build up serious momentum before the All-Ireland series.
While the other contenders have yet to be tested Donegal have already overcome their first in considerable style last weekend. Much had been made of Donegal’s poor league campaign but make no mistake Donegal are going to fight tooth and nail to keep a hold of Sam. Tyrone had been tipped by many pundits before the game but Donegal managed to keep them scoreless for 32 minutes of the second half, running out 6 point winners on the day.
What was most imposing about Donegal’s performance was the strength of the squad at Jim McGuiness’s disposal. He was able to leave two All-Stars in Lacey and McHugh on the bench as well as losing another in Frank McGlynn to injury midway through the first half and still convincingly beat Tyrone. Paddy McBearty had his best game in a county jersey while Ross Wherity made a big difference when introduced.
It was a real test for the Champions and it was a performance that should genuinely worry the other challengers. They have improved further and their philosophy has evolved again but what is key is that Donegal will now face another Division one team in Down. While the other contenders are playing weak opposition Donegal should enter the All-Ireland series battle hardened and ready for whatever opposition they come up against.
Daniel Spillane wrote an article on the need to bring back the Tommy Murphy Cup due to the obvious gap between the Division One teams and the rest. The plight of those weaker teams could well be a bigger problem for the main contenders other than Donegal who will only face one real challenge in their respective Provinces – Kerry v Cork, Dublin v Kildare while Mayo may not even get one before the Quarter Finals.
One thing for sure is that it is going to be a very close fought Championship and I expect these teams to continue to lay down markers before they collide.
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