Pat Spillane: One All-Ireland medal – that's underwhelming for the greatest player of all time

Sunday World

21-07-2025

Pressure is on players and managers as we look forward to a cracking decider
Two top class teams, some of the greatest players in the game, a huge and enthusiastic crowd and a cracking atmosphere.
And with the new rules, what could possibly go wrong?
Maybe our expectations are too high nowadays, but the second football semi-final flopped, and the first was also disappointing.
Donegal and Meath was a non-event. From the word go, Donegal pulverised them. The Meath team basically didn't turn up.
As for the Kerry-Tyrone game, it was a strange one. While it's always lovely when Kerry win, at best I would describe it as a very average contest.
There are three stats which speak volumes.
Between the two teams, six goal-scoring chances were blown. The two teams also kicked 16 wides and they landed nine balls into the goalies' hands. The shooting left a lot to be desired.
In actual fact, the best match of the weekend was the Tailteann Cup final between Kildare and Limerick – an absolutely cracking contest from start to finish. And probably the second best match of the weekend was London and New York in the junior final.
A quick rant on the Tailteann Cup. It was set up to help the weaker counties but this is year four and no Division 4 team has won it.
And no Division 4 team will ever win it under the present format. The four winners have all either been operating in Division 2 or promoted to Division 2 the following season.
Look at the four winners: Westmeath, Meath, Down and Kildare. Are they weak footballing counties? Absolutely not.
They are underperforming counties. And I just don't think this competition is meant for them. You should not reward big counties with big populations who are underperforming.
And that brings me to the junior championship. It just goes to show the progress and the coaching being done in places like New York. This was a New York team where they are only allowed homegrown players.
Isn't it wonderful to see New York with homegrown players, with the result of brilliant coaching, winning a junior title. Kilkenny, too. OK, they didn't reach the final, London beat them in the semi-final.
But I have to qualify that. Kilkenny are the only county in Ireland that do not enter a team in the National Football League. I watched them play on Friday night against London and there are some damn good footballers there.
Yet despite not taking part in the league, they've a ticket into this junior championship. And every couple of years they win one match and they get an opportunity which many weaker counties don't get, of playing in a final in Croke Park. That's wrong.
It's time for Kilkenny to get off their backside and enter a team in the National Football League.
Right, that brings me to the All-Ireland final. With all due respect to last year's finalists, Armagh and Galway, this year, most definitely, will have the two best teams in the final.
Armagh hobbled into the final last year. They wouldn't have got there only for Shane Ryan's mistake.
Galway wouldn't have got there except Donegal's poor shooting let them down in the second half of their semi-final.
This year, we have the cream of the crop.
Let's start with Kerry. There's an old Latin phrase, ' veni, vidi, vici' , meaning 'I came, I saw, I conquered'. And that really was Kerry's performance in the semi-final. If there's such a thing as a six-point hammering, last Saturday's victory over Tyrone was it.
It wasn't a 70-minute performance but was still their best against top-level opposition. Bear in mind that this is a Kerry team missing Paul Geaney and probably their best man-marker, Tom O'Sullivan. And having a midfield pairing that do a lot of the dirty work, break a lot of ball, but can be quite anonymous from play for long spells.
Kerry know that performance won't win an All-Ireland. To be perfectly honest, as somebody who played in 12 semi-finals and 10 All-Ireland finals, whether it was psychological or not, I always felt it was great to win a semi-final.
Because semi-finals are for winning, but ideally you leave a bit in reserve – the big performance is to come.
Is that a worry for Donegal? Their best performance of the year came last Sunday. They were absolutely awesome.
Jim McGuinness is some man when it comes to tactics. Photo: Dáire Brennan/Sportsfile
You're looking at the Donegal team this year, Jimmy McGuinness's second year in charge, to see if there are differences. And yes, the two O'Donnells are a brilliant addition. Young Finnbarr Roarty and Ciarán Moore, too.
But, at the same time, it is pretty much the same template and game plan.
It's the same system of play. These players are so programmed, I'd say they could play it in their sleep.
You have the hard running in transition. They're still the kings of the turnover. God forbid you cough up a turnover to Donegal – just think of the Roarty turnover where 17 seconds later Moore was scoring a goal.
That's them at their best. The flick on from the long kick-out was working in 2012 and is still working today.
And, of course, there is their forward movement.
While they have probably even more shooters this time, the system is still the same. It's getting the ball close to the goal, getting the shooter near the posts, for low percentage one-point shots.
And when they come around on that loop, they are the best in the business.
This will be Jack O'Connor's eighth All-Ireland final. Photo: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
So, it'll be a long week of burning midnight oil for McGuinness and Jack O'Connor. They have a lot of big questions, they have a lot of searching and a lot of analysis to do.
For McGuinness, what's his big challenge this week? To work out a way of stopping David Clifford. Easier said than done.
In his quietest game this year, he scored five points. Only in Ireland would a fella score 1-9 in a national semi-final and not win Man of the Match.
So, Donegal must find a way of curtailing him and also stop Kerry's kicking game. Kerry's heads-up kicking game is the best in the business.
Jimmy needs to cut that off at source. He needs to crowd out that Kerry forward line. He needs to cut down space.
How he'll do it will be intriguing because Jimmy is some man when it comes to tactics. He can come up with outside-the-box thinking and innovations.
As for Jack, his main priority is to stop Donegal's running game. And to guard against those flick-ons at the kick-out.
Pressing Shaun Patton's kick-out is vital. Can they do it? Well, for that 15 minutes against Ethan Rafferty, who is a good operator, they dismantled Armagh's kick-out. They need to do the same with Patton.
And remember, while he was brilliant in the second half, there were flaws in Patton's kick-out in the first.
Michael Murphy is Donegal's spiritual leader. Photo: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
If Kerry have Clifford, Donegal have Michael Murphy, their key player. When he was on the field for that 45 minutes, he ran the show. He's the spiritual leader. He's the on-field general. A man-marker for Murphy is absolutely vital.
The new rules have revitalised Gaelic football. One thing is for sure, next weekend in Croke Park you won't see any seagulls idling on one side of the field, they won't have that luxury.
Next Sunday, we will have two teams with absolutely contrasting styles – Donegal's running game against Kerry's heads-up kicking approach. The new rules will mean it will be a great spectacle. I can guarantee you that.
It's a huge game for both teams. And for both managers.
Jack is in his eighth All-Ireland final. A very impressive record for a very underrated manager. He has four All-Irelands. But lose this, and it's four wins, four losses, which would grate for a winner like Jack. He needs a victory.
And that brings me to Jim. Maybe he is one of the greatest managers in the game and a tactical genius. But here's the blunt truth. He has won one All-Ireland title as a manager. One. He has also lost one. So he needs a win to copper-fasten that reputation.
The same can be said for some of those players. Murphy is one of the best footballers of all time. He has just one All-Ireland medal.
David Clifford, the GOAT, has been playing with Kerry for seven years. One All-Ireland medal. For the greatest player of all time, that is an underwhelming return.
So, that's the sort of pressure these great players and managers are under.