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Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Darragh Ó Sé: Donegal have a wide spread of scorers but Kerry have David Clifford - that will swing it
I know they're probably not big hurling men – no more than myself – but Jack O'Connor and Jim McGuinness would have got plenty out of sitting their players down to watch Tipp v Cork on Sunday. It's a while since you got such a clear and obvious lesson in advance of the football final. Who do you want to be on Monday morning, lads? The team heading back the road as heroes or the one that can't bring themselves to do a homecoming? All-Ireland finals can spook players. It's very easy for them to forget what's important. The fact that you're in one at all means that things have been going well. Now your job is to make sure you do everything that caused you to get here in the first place. I remember going into the 2006 final with fellas telling me I was playing great football and that I was on top of my game and all that. You can get carried away with all that stuff and maybe think that a final is the place to really embellish the whole thing. But that's the wrong way to go about it. Going into that final, I told myself to be conservative. Box clever. Don't go swinging loosely and get caught by a sucker punch. All-Ireland finals aren't about shooting the lights out, unless you're the type of player that regularly shoots the lights out. That was never me. So I said I'd go into that final and be miserable. Be tight to the man I was marking, get in and do the dirty work. Tackles, turnovers, the basics. READ MORE The hurling final showed what can go wrong if you get away from all that grind. This thing can blow up in your face very quickly. Cork were six points up at half-time but the game was over when young Darragh McCarthy scored his penalty. That was only a quarter of an hour later. If I was playing in the football final this Sunday, that would be running around in my head all week. Do your job, otherwise disaster might only be 15 minutes away. From a tactical point of view, I don't think there's much either manager can come up with that would be on a par with Liam Cahill playing an extra defender. Both of these teams have had their own way of playing since the start of the year and I can't see either of them pulling a rabbit from a hat now. Part of that is because Kerry football is Kerry football and Donegal football is Donegal football. Kerry's Seán O'Shea in action against Tyrone at Croke Park on July 12th. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho But part of it too is that football is still very young under the new rules. If you take what we have now as being the game that came after the rule changes halfway through the league, you're only really talking about a few months all together. I don't doubt that in time, some enterprising coaches will sit down and start looking for a way to destroy it. But the fortnight since the semi-final isn't long enough for that. That's why I think this will be an enjoyable final. It's all still very fresh and very new and you have two teams that can play thrilling football, in their own way. I know we can still have bad games under the new rules but I don't think this will be one. [ Darragh Ó Sé: Kerry and Donegal are operating at a level above because everyone knows their role Opens in new window ] For Kerry, a lot still revolves around David Clifford. Donegal will man-mark him obviously – I presume it will be Brendan McCole – but I don't think they'll drop a man in front of him. You saw how Armagh paid for that in the semi-final, with Seán O'Shea running riot in the first half because there was space out around the arc. That distance between them is something that has really struck me about the way Kerry have set up throughout the championship. You very rarely see Clifford and O'Shea close to each other. They have tended to give each other as much space as possible. Paudie Clifford is liable to pop up anywhere but the two big scorers keep their distance from each other. Donegal's Brendan McCole. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho Kerry need them both to be on form because Donegal's spread of scorers is so much wider. Clifford has played in four finals so far and he's had good days and bad days. Funny enough, the game against Dublin in 2023 is the one everybody holds up as his big failure but I don't see it that way. He was so close to having a brilliant game that day – a foot either way on three shots and it would have been one of the greatest All-Ireland final performances. That's how tight the margins are. Especially in a final like this one where there's no big favourite and everybody agrees that these are the two best teams in the country. There's no cause to cling to here, or no agenda for either team to lean on. Nobody will be able to say afterwards that they were written off going into the final. There's no hiding place now. Both teams know they left a good chance at an All-Ireland behind them last year. Both of them know the work that goes into getting back to this point. Losing is not an option for either of them. The players involved have to go beyond themselves, find that extra 10, 15 per cent that will make the difference. My sense is that Kerry might just swing it. No player on the Donegal team is scoring as fluently as Clifford and I just think that with a dry ball and a summer's day, he's going to make the difference. Kerry, narrowly.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
‘You don't get asked too often': James Costello jumped at chance to join Jack O'Connor's Kerry backroom
When Jack O'Connor made the decision to shake-up his backroom team after last year's All-Ireland semi-final loss to Armagh , he ran through his contacts and picked out James Costello. Costello's name didn't ring many bells outside of Kerry football circles, but O'Connor knew what he was looking for. If Kerry needed to inject some freshness going into the 2025 season, Costello would know exactly where to start. 'It was just like that, I just got a phone call from Jack and [he] asked me to be involved,' Costello recalls. 'You don't get asked too often so you take it when it comes.' From the St Pat's Blennerville club just outside Tralee, Costello was the Kerry minor football manager for four seasons, from 2019 to 2022, succeeding Peter Keane. Kerry lost the Covid-delayed All-Ireland final against Derry in 2020 by a point. He also spent last season as a Clare football selector and has been involved with various Kerry underage teams over the years. READ MORE On Sunday, he will be an important member of O'Connor's backroom team as Kerry go in search of a 39th All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Donegal stand in their way. 'I suppose it's like any field, you want to progress as far as you can,' says Costello of coming on board. 'You want to see where you can get to with the thing, where the ceiling is of it. I was very lucky to get involved with Clare. I thought that was a great grounding. I really enjoyed it and it was a very good stepping stone.' For O'Connor, Costello's knowledge of underage football in Kerry neatly supplements the other new additions to his backroom team – former Kildare manager Cian O'Neill and former Kerry senior footballer Aodán Mac Gearailt. O'Neill is no stranger to Kerry football. He previously worked alongside former manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice in a coaching capacity for three years, which included their 2014 All-Ireland final win over Donegal. Last year, O'Neill was with the Galway footballers and his experience also extends to the All-Ireland winning Tipperary hurlers in 2010, plus stints with the Limerick, Mayo and Cork footballers. Once Costello started his new position, he quickly realised O'Connor's modus operandi. The job of the intercounty manager is unrecognisable now compared to when O'Connor took the Kerry job in 2003 for the first of three stints. Delegating different responsibilities to the right people is now critical. James Costello guided the Kerry minor footballers to the 2020 All-Ireland final, which took place in 2021 because of Covid. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho 'Jack is very inclusive, he's very good like that,' says Costello. 'He likes to let people add their tuppence worth in and we have good debates and good ideas. 'Jack says himself, he's a lot more hands-off than he was in the early days. We were learning as the rules were coming in and putting our heads together. So we spent a lot of time together, like most management teams did, but it was a big help in terms of gelling the management team, I felt. 'You get in and you do your bit. Players just want to learn, want to get better. We were lucky, I suppose, everyone was thrown in at the deep end with the new rules.' [ There will always be incidents of outrageous wrongdoing when it comes to All-Ireland tickets Opens in new window ] [ Donegal v Kerry: Throw-in time, TV details and team news about All-Ireland football final Opens in new window ] Impressive midfielder Joe O'Connor is one of the Kerry players Costello was familiar with from his underage coaching. O'Connor was also a standout rugby player at underage level and was part of a successful Munster Under-18s team back in 2016. He endured a setback in 2022, tearing his cruciate weeks after Kerry's All-Ireland SFC final victory against Galway. 'I thought he had the potential to be the best midfielder in the country,' says Costello. 'But the big thing with Joe is just his dedication to work. He works really, really hard at the game and I think he's found a way or a flow of playing this new game that's working very well for him. 'He's found a way of playing within the game – opportunities to tackle, opportunities to work and opportunities to attack. I'm sure he's looking forward to the next day [against Donegal], but he has a big test ahead of him.' Costello doesn't need to think too hard about where the All-Ireland final is likely to be won and lost on Sunday. 'Your ability to milk your momentum, get your hands on ball and break the other team's momentum is absolutely crucial. 'We're probably the biggest exponents of it in both sides, really. If you can get a run on a team and get three or four kick-outs in a row and do real damage, it has a big bearing in the game. Because when the tide starts turning against you, it's a lot more difficult now to turn it around than it used to be.'
The Sun
7 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
Common sense prevails as GAA to fix obvious problem arising from All-Ireland football final match-up
KERRY are set to wear their alternative blue kit in order to avoid a colour clash in this year's All-Ireland football final. Common sense seemed to be ignored for Donegal's semi-final triumph over Meath when both teams lined out in their traditional colours. 4 4 4 It is the referee's call whether a colour clash is significant enough that one or both of the teams is compelled to wear one of their alternative strips. Ultimately, Paul Faloon did not deem that a necessary step to take. And in fairness many viewers expressed that they had little to no issue distinguishing Donegal players from Kerry counterparts. But it was a problem for some portions of the TV as well as Croke Park audience. Other sports such as rugby union have taken more of a proactive approach in recent years to be cognisant of those who suffer from colour-blindness around fixtures such as Wales against Ireland. So plenty of GAA enthusiasts will likely appreciate a needless colour clash being avoided altogether. On Tuesday Andrew Moynihan of the Kerry's Eye newspaper reported that he's heard Jack O'Connor's men will don their dark blue jerseys on the day. In a follow-up exchange on X he was asked by one follower 'Is this official?' To which, he replied: "Believe so Roman. County Board came to a decision on it." It's worth noting that when these two counties met in the 2014 showpiece neither of them adopted a secondary kit. This arguably contributed to one of the most forgettable All-Ireland finals in living memory as the Aristocrats edged McGuinness' first batch by 2-9 to 0-12. 'Easiest interview I've ever had' jokes RTE GAA host after pundits go back and forth before Meath vs Donegal You could even argue that goalkeeper Paul Durcan's oddly errant kick-out straight to Kieran Donaghy for his goal may have been partly due to him blending in with the opposition. In any case, it seems the GAA is starting to move with the times on this dilemma with this set to be the first football final since the 2010 meeting of Cork and Down where one side won't be in their primary kit. REF CALL Tuesday also brought with it news over who will referee the biggest game in the Gaelic football calendar as Brendan Cawley will take charge for the first time. The Kildare native has been on the inter-county officiating circuit since 2019 and is a widely respected figure across the game. His line umpires on the day will be Monaghan's Martin McNally and David Coldrick of Meath, with McNally also set to serve as standby referee. Last year saw Cawley oversee Galway's narrow semi-final triumph over Donegal. This time around McGuinness' men had a far easier time of it as they demolished Meath 3-26 to 0-15 on Sunday. In the wake of their 2024 defeat to Galway, McGuinness lamented their failure to convert nine of 14 scoring opportunities in the second half. But having seen his team hit 3-13 after the change of ends at a packed Croke Park, there were no such complaints this time after they ruthlessly disposed of Meath's attempt to take another major scalp. The Royals have already tasted unlikely Championship victories over Dublin, Kerry and Galway this summer. Hopes of a first All-Ireland final appearance in 24 years were therefore high. But Robbie Brennan's superb first season at the helm was brought to an end in chastening fashion. Even at half-time, things looked ominous for Meath as they trailed by 0-13 to 0-8. With a Sam Maguire decider against Kerry to come on Sunday week, Donegal could even afford to withdraw 35-year-old talisman Michael Murphy with 25 minutes still to play.
Irish Times
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
The Weekend That Was: A Kerry v Donegal All-Ireland final isn't the clash of styles you think it is
Styles make fights. The All-Ireland final looks like it will be billed as the best kind of showdown, a good old-fashioned ding-dong between two teams who favour different methods of skinning the cat. In the green and gold corner we have Kerry , keepers of the kicking flame, salty purveyors of it's-called-football-for-a-reason asides. And in the, eh, yellow and green corner we have Donegal , who would handpass their granny's coffin into the grave if they thought they could get it past the priest. That's presumably how it will be built up, at any rate. Watch out for a couple of weeks of very broad-brush painting of these two teams. It will be David Clifford v Michael Murphy ; Jack O'Connor v Jim McGuinness ; Shane Ryan v Shaun Patton. The smooth, slick footballing brilliance of princes of the Kingdom versus the systematic, relentless drive of the boys from the Hills. Some of it will ring true. But some of it will be the worst sort of guff too. The trick will be to separate the myths from the reality. READ MORE We have plenty to go on at least. Kerry and Donegal have played 18 matches between them in this year's championship to date so the sample size is bigger than it's ever been for a final. When these teams met in the 2014 decider, they had played a total of nine games between them to get there. There will be no secrets between them come 3.30 on Sunday week. The rest of us looking in from the outside will have no excuses for being ill-informed either. There are some obvious contrasts to be drawn. For one thing, Donegal tend to have a greater spread of scorers than Kerry. They saw a dozen players get on the scoresheet on Sunday, compared to seven for Kerry on Saturday. Ryan McHugh of Donegal in action against Meath's Jordan Morris during the All-Ireland SFC semi-final at Croke Park. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Kerry have averaged a shade under eight scorers per game in their eight matches, Donegal have averaged almost exactly 10 per game in their 10. As Ciarán Kirk showed in these pages last week, Kerry rely heavily on David Clifford and Seán O'Shea for over half of their scores. Donegal are a more varied threat. [ David Clifford and Seán O'Shea carrying big scoring burden for Kerry Opens in new window ] And there's no doubting the essential truth that the two counties think about the game in contrasting ways. McGuinness has often referenced the fact that Donegal teams have traditionally leant on a running, handpassing game because they play so many matches in the wind up in the northwest. Whether this rings particularly true is debatable – they get plenty of wind around the Ring of Kerry too. But one way or another, it's in the county DNA and McGuinness has never been of a mind to change it. Donegal's game is about high-running, fast breaks, up and down the pitch. That's who they are. Kerry do it differently – but as McGuinness pointed out yesterday, not THAT differently when it comes right down to it. 'I suppose when you're playing a running game and a support game, everybody needs to be able to do that,' he said, referencing the spread of scorers. 'I think today everybody did do that and we were able then to rotate fellas inside and give them a breather and let other fellas go back and hopefully they're going to be able to defend to the same level and attack to the same level as well. 'Listen, the game has changed dramatically over the last number of months. We just felt that it was important to see how those changes would grow, if you like, and then bring our own template to how we want to play the game to that. And it's served us well. I think Kerry have done the exact same thing. 'I don't think Kerry have done a huge amount differently. They have their own way of playing as well. They play with their head up, they're looking for dink balls, they're looking for third-man runners, they're looking to support. In the same way we support off the shoulder, they're looking to do it the exact same way, only with a different kick or whatever it is beforehand. 'So, yeah, everybody's got their own principles and how they see the game. For me it's important just to keep what it is to be from your county very close to the centre, and then move with the rules. And I think we've done quite a good job on that front.' Kerry's Kieran Donaghy celebrates scoring a goal with James O'Donoghue during the 2014 All-Ireland final against Donegal. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Though it may be a slightly self-serving point to make, McGuinness isn't entirely wrong. Kerry do like to let the ball do the work, it's true. But the basic thrust of both teams' game is the same – organised zonal defence, a manic zeal for breaking ball around the middle, get it up to the forwards. Kerry are not dogmatic about kicking at all costs. They indulge in plenty of handpassing too – and you can be sure they'll do so in the final. Kerry football is about winning, first and foremost. Never forget that. Go back to their last great coup, the 2014 final against Donegal. It was billed as a clash of styles all the way from the semi-finals onwards but Eamonn Fitzmaurice was adamant behind the scenes that Kerry weren't going to fall into Donegal's trap. Instead, they mimicked Donegal's low block and waited for a mistake, Kieran Donaghy pouncing on a botched kick-out for the killer goal. So yes, styles make fights. And in the new game, there isn't room for an old-style Donegal to sit back and turn a final into trench warfare. But this is Jack O'Connor's eighth final. As he pointed out on Saturday night, it's a fourth final for most of his Kerry team – or indeed a fifth, including the replay in 2019. They won't be taking any more chances with the ball than they need to. One thing feels pretty obvious after the weekend – the two best teams are in the final. Can't ask for much more than that from a championship.
Irish Times
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Green and gold summer as Kerry and Donegal set up football decider
We have ourselves a green and golden All-Ireland football final, Kerry and Donegal booking their slots in Sunday week's decider after seeing off Tyrone and Meath at the weekend. Two 'underwhelming' semi-finals they were too, as Seán Moran puts it in his report on Donegal's 20-point triumph , Kerry made to work harder by Tyrone, but, writes Gordon Manning, steered home by David Clifford who was in 'gluttonous form' . A year ago, Michael Murphy was working as a TV pundit, having hung up his boots. Then he decided to come back 'to help in every way possible that I could.' His part in reviving Donegal has, says Malachy Clerkin, been 'immense'. As, of course, has that of Jim McGuinness, Gordon hearing from the manager and Paddy McBrearty after the game. And Seán got the thoughts of a highly delighted Kerry manager Jack O'Connor , who's now through to his seventh – seventh! – final. Just as chuffed were the footballers of Kildare , Paul Keane reporting on their victory over Limerick in the Tailteann Cup final. The focus now shifts back to hurling ahead of next Sunday's final, Denis Walsh looking at the history of the Cork v Tipperary rivalry . 'On the stairway to eternity, Cork and Tipp matches were forever jostling for favour.' READ MORE Gerry Thornley brings us the latest from the Lions tour, Hugo Keenan finally making his debut in the 48-0 win over an AUNZ Invitational XV . ' Getting off the jacks was an issue ,' he revealed when asked about the bug that laid him low. He was flushed with success, though, Johnny Watterson rewarding him handsomely in his player ratings , although no one scored higher than Mack Hansen, 'star quality shining' from the fella . Andy Farrell is now left to ponder his selection for the first Test , Gerry reckoning that at least five starting positions remain up for debate. Australia, you'd imagine, will prove to be trickier opponents for the Lions than Portugal proved to be for Ireland. John O'Sullivan was at the Estádio Nacional do Jamor to witness that 'grizzly' 106-7 non-contest – perhaps fortunately for Portugal, he discovered that there was scant interest from the Lisbon locals in the game. In golf, Philip Reid reports on Rory McIlroy's tied-for-second finish at the Scottish Open , his thoughts now turned to this week's Open at Royal Portrush. That's where Shane Lowry's focus is too as he attempts to replicate his 2019 success in the tournament. Leona Maguire, meanwhile, will have a 'pep in her step' ahead of next month's Women's Open after she tied for seventh at the Evian Championship on Sunday. There were first-time winners in both the men's and women's singles at Wimbledon at the weekend, Jannik Sinner coming from a set down to beat Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Świątek crushing Amanda Anisimova 6-0 6-0. And in New York, Keith Duggan saw Katie Taylor 'close the books on her riveting series of fights against Amanda Serrano', the Bray woman triumphing against the Puerto Rican once again at Madison Square Garden. TV Watch: It's the final day of the third test between England and India at Lord's – England need six wickets and India need 135 runs to go 2-1 up in the series (Sky Sports Cricket from 10.15am). It's stage 10 of the Tour de France (TG4, TNT Sports 1 and ITV4, from noon) and at 5pm you can see Ireland take on Scotland at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship (RugbyPass TV).
