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BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- Sport
- BreakingNews.ie
Kerry v Donegal: All you need to know ahead of the All-Ireland football final
One of the biggest days of the Irish sporting calendar is ahead of us this weekend, as Kerry take on Donegal in the All-Ireland football final. In the first year of the new rules, it has been a season to remember, with entertaining games and attacking play bringing more eyes to the game. Advertisement Now in the last weekend of July, only two teams remain, with Jack O'Connor hoping to win his fourth All-Ireland as Kerry manager, as they face Jim McGuinness and Donegal, who last won the All-Ireland in 2012. Here is all you need to know ahead of Sunday's game in Croke Park. When is Kerry v Donegal? Kerry v Donegal in the All-Ireland final in on Sunday, July 27th, with throw in at 3:30pm. How can I watch the All-Ireland final? The All-Ireland final will be shown live on RTÉ Two and BBC Two NI. For those not living in Ireland, live coverage will be shown on GAA+. Advertisement Form guide It has been a long season for both teams, who have had their challenges to overcome to reach Sunday's final. While Kerry won the Munster title once again, defeat to Meath in the group stages meant an extra game in the preliminary quarter-finals against Cavan, which set up a quarter-final against Armagh. In a repeat of the semi-final they lost last season, Kerry put in their best performance of the season to win, and set up a semi-final against Tyrone. Jack O'Connor's side never looked like losing the semi-final, as they reached their third final in four years. Advertisement For Donegal, their championship started with a preliminary Ulster quarter-final win over Derry. Hard fought wins over Monaghan and Down followed, before they had to dig deep against Armagh to win a second consecutive Ulster title after extra-time. A hard group in the All-Ireland followed, with a defeat to Tyrone not the start they were looking for/ After bouncing back with a win against Cavan, a last second win over Mayo put Donegal in the preliminary quarter-finals, where they defeated Louth. Monaghan were once again standing in front of them, and after a difficult first half, McGuinness' side rallied in the second half to make the last four. After a competitive first half against Meath, Donegal showed they had too much and were comfortable winners.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
O'Connor expects 'ferocious challenge' from Donegal
Kerry manager Jack O'Connor is expecting "a ferocious challenge" from Donegal in Sunday's All-Ireland football final. O'Connor is bidding to lead The Kingdom to Sam Maguire for a fifth time in his third spell as boss of his native county. On each of the previous four occasions, Kerry have also won the league and yet again, they are bidding for the double having accounted for Mayo in the Division One final in late March. Earlier in that campaign, Kerry fell two a two-point defeat to Donegal in Killarney but it's now when teams are hitting their peak and O'Connor has been impressed with how the Tir Chonaill men have raised the bar throughout the summer. "They seem to be peaking at the right time and have a lot of weapons all over the field," he said. "We're expecting a huge challenge and it will take a massive performance from us to get the job done. "They have a lot of threats, something like 13 different scorers against Meath. We won't be zooming in on any individuals. It's their collective and the fact they can hurt you from so many different areas is their strength." Kerry bounced back from a defeat to Meath in the All-Ireland group stages to rebuild through to the knockout phase, beginning with victory over Cavan. They would go on to defeat further Ulster opposition in Armagh and Tyrone to reach Sunday's showpiece and O'Connor feels that semi-final win over the Red Hands is a good reflection of what his team can do. "It's a very intense season and there's bound to be a blip somewhere - that was ours," he said of the Meath defeat. "That's taking nothing from Meath as I thought they played particularly well and we were down a good share of important players, but we managed to regroup and get our season back on track the following week against Cavan and every week since. "There were two big challenges, particularly the Armagh game where we didn't know what we were facing. We just hit a great patch in the second half of that game. "The Tyrone game was truer reflection as we struggled early on but after that we were quite steady and that's what we will be looking for the next day." Kerry have come up short against Armagh and Tyrone in All-Ireland finals during the 2000s, but they did defeat Donegal in the 2014 final. Those previous games against Ulster teams carry no significance according to Kerry captain Gavin White who is only concerned about the task at hand. "It's not something we talk about," White said. "We're just thinking about Donegal and the task ahead of us. Their results over the last couple of games speak for themselves. "It's a tough assignment but great to be in an All-Ireland final."
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
O'Connor expects 'ferocious challenge' from Donegal
Kerry manager Jack O'Connor is expecting "a ferocious challenge" from Donegal in Sunday's All-Ireland football final.O'Connor is bidding to lead The Kingdom to Sam Maguire for a fifth time in his third spell as boss of his native each of the previous four occasions, Kerry have also won the league and yet again, they are bidding for the double having accounted for Mayo in the Division One final in late in that campaign, Kerry fell two a two-point defeat to Donegal in Killarney but it's now when teams are hitting their peak and O'Connor has been impressed with how the Tir Chonaill men have raised the bar throughout the summer."They seem to be peaking at the right time and have a lot of weapons all over the field," he said."We're expecting a huge challenge and it will take a massive performance from us to get the job done."They have a lot of threats, something like 13 different scorers against Meath. We won't be zooming in on any individuals. It's their collective and the fact they can hurt you from so many different areas is their strength." Kerry bounced back from a defeat to Meath in the All-Ireland group stages to rebuild through to the knockout phase, beginning with victory over would go on to defeat further Ulster opposition in Armagh and Tyrone to reach Sunday's showpiece and O'Connor feels that semi-final win over the Red Hands is a good reflection of what his team can do."It's a very intense season and there's bound to be a blip somewhere - that was ours," he said of the Meath defeat."That's taking nothing from Meath as I thought they played particularly well and we were down a good share of important players, but we managed to regroup and get our season back on track the following week against Cavan and every week since."There were two big challenges, particularly the Armagh game where we didn't know what we were facing. We just hit a great patch in the second half of that game."The Tyrone game was truer reflection as we struggled early on but after that we were quite steady and that's what we will be looking for the next day."Kerry have come up short against Armagh and Tyrone in All-Ireland finals during the 2000s, but they did defeat Donegal in the 2014 previous games against Ulster teams carry no significance according to Kerry captain Gavin White who is only concerned about the task at hand."It's not something we talk about," White said."We're just thinking about Donegal and the task ahead of us. Their results over the last couple of games speak for themselves. "It's a tough assignment but great to be in an All-Ireland final."
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
The obvious way Donegal can be beaten by Kerry is ... David Clifford
When both All-Ireland men's finals are played so close to each other, it's only natural to try to take lessons from the first to bring into the second. But is that a very dangerous game to play if you're Jack O'Connor or Jim McGuinness this week? Neither man would be described as easily spooked (if you'll allow me an understatement of that magnitude). They are not short of self-confidence. But what happened to Cork – and what has been said about Cork over the last 72 hours – is a pretty stark reminder of just how huge All-Ireland finals really are. Pat Ryan made several crucial errors that may well have cost his team a chance to win the All-Ireland final last Sunday. That's all it did – it cost the players a chance. The players still made the mistakes, they still played with the limpness and insipidness that we saw with our own eyes. Whether, with a different tactical set-up, they would have had the mental fortitude to finish the job is far from a settled question. [ Anatomy of a collapse – how Cork managed to lose the second half by 3-14 to 0-2 Opens in new window ] But managers with less experience than McGuinness or O'Connor would be forgiven this week for panicking at the thought that they had forgotten something as basic as, 'who is the free man if the game demands that we play with one'? It is the sort of error that would haunt any management team at any level, let alone one in an All-Ireland senior final. A dejected Cork manager Pat Ryan watches his team go down to Tipperary in the All–Ireland men's senior hurling final. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 'Let Mark Coleman be your free man.' Every Monday morning quarterback in the country was able to see it in retrospect. But to talk about 'hindsight heroes' is to give the Cork management team a pass. Enough people were shouting about it after 10 minutes of the first half, let alone the second half. That is the real killer. When Ryan and his selectors hear that Mark Coleman idea, what will hurt the most is that they'll probably agree in their heart of hearts that it would have been the right thing to do. Either that, or there's the alternative – saying you'd do again what you did on Sunday. Neither of those options is particularly palatable. I couldn't imagine being a coach preparing for a first All-Ireland final and sitting down to watch that Cork performance seven days before you lead a team out in the biggest game of your life, feeling the second-hand panic at the idea you might miss something so likely to happen. [ Donegal v Kerry: Throw-in time, TV details and team news about All-Ireland football final Opens in new window ] 'Just relax ... we've thought of everything. Haven't we? We have. We definitely have.' 'Have you?' But there's another lesson that might be just as important to learn, one with a more positive spin. Maybe to win a final, you have to bring something different. Maybe, instead of leaning into the idea that a final is just another game, you instead internalise the idea that finals are different and require a different mindset. Victorious Tipperary manager Liam Cahill celebrates after Tipp beat Cork in the All–Ireland final. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Tipperary may have become the first team to win an All-Ireland final playing a sweeper, but they hadn't played one all season. They brought something to the biggest day that their opponents – obviously – didn't expect. You can say Cork had plenty of time to react to this curveball, but Tipp asked them the question. Having conceded seven goals in the All-Ireland semi-final, Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin said that playing a sweeper would lose you the game – 'with the alternative, you won't lose by 20 points like what we lost there. But you will lose the game.' Liam Cahill wasn't too sure, but he was pretty sure that leaving his full-back line man-on-man on that Cork full-forward line without any cover was not a great option either. Don't let the obvious thing beat you. That was the gamble Cahill took. The obvious way to be beaten by Kerry is David Clifford. In a way, allowing Seán O'Shea to kick 12 points against you still makes more sense than taking your eye off Clifford even for a moment. O'Shea did it once this season, against Armagh – can he do it again? Finals are different. When we look at Michael Murphy's role for Donegal, we'll see that the only time that Donegal really tried to find him on the edge of the square for a sustained period of the game was in the first half against Armagh in the Ulster final. It hasn't been seen since. But we all remember 2012 and the first ball he received against Mayo in that All-Ireland final. [ A Kerry v Donegal All-Ireland final isn't the clash of styles you think it is Opens in new window ] Maybe what Donegal have in store for Kerry has echoes of what we've seen in those finals (Ulster and All-Ireland) spanning 13 years. It would make a degree of sense, as Kerry don't really have anyone who matches up physically to him. I'd fancy Jason Foley in a sprint against him. But under a dropping ball, with Murphy in position and the right delivery coming in? That's a rather different proposition. Of course, neither manager is in Liam Cahill's position either. Kerry and Donegal have seasoned managers, seasoned leaders, and a bank of work this season that says they have ticked all the boxes a team needs to tick to win an All-Ireland (short of winning the final). Tipp played with the freedom that their manager obviously felt. Cahill could try things because he had to try things. Neither Kerry nor Donegal have that advantage. Time to stick or twist.
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Jack O'Connor: ‘Being involved in it so long now, I go off my instinct to know what is appropriate and what isn't'
Despite his now three comings as Kerry football manager, Jack O'Connor has never been one for looking back. Instinct is what guides him, some natural recall, too. But if he banked on what worked before always working again, he'd never have lasted this long. Sunday's showdown against Donegal will be his eighth All-Ireland final as Kerry manager. His first was 21 years ago. He could tell you Kerry beat Cork that year, and beyond that, every final is different, an entirely new script which can only be written on the day itself. 'I wouldn't be a diary man, no,' O'Connor says. 'I go off memory and instinct. And being involved in it so long now, I go off my instinct to know what is appropriate and what isn't. [ Darragh Ó Sé: The margins are tight but Kerry have one thing that Donegal don't Opens in new window ] 'Particularly nowadays with social media. You can spend a whole day looking at it if you want, and I think it's very important for players when they get away from training that they get a bit of a break mentally from it. You can't be tuned in for every waking hour of the day. READ MORE 'A lot of it now is mental. Because the way the season is, it's very hard to get the physical training spot on. You don't have a lot of time to train in between matches. We played eight games in nine weeks in the league, and there wasn't a lot of time for training there. We got some bit done the three weeks we had between the league and championship and then we had three weekends in-a-row of matches, when we didn't top our group. 'You're basically just tipping away and relying on the matches themselves to keep you right. The mental side is very important in keeping players fresh because you don't want what they are calling cognitive overload. You just can't throw too much at players.' O'Connor's seven previous finals are spread throughout his now three comings as Kerry manager: winning in 2004 (against Cork); in 2006 (against Mayo); in 2009 (against Cork); and in 2022 (against Galway). His three defeats came in 2005 (against Tyrone) and in 2011 and 2023 (both against Dublin). Kerry manager Jack O'Connor after the final whistle in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Donegal on Sunday will be Kerry's fourth successive Ulster opponents this season (after Cavan, Armagh and Tyrone), and Jim McGuinness, in his second coming as Donegal manager, also knows all about winning and losing All-Ireland finals. 'He [McGuiness] is having as big an effect on them this time,' says O'Connor. 'Like he did the first time. He's a revered figure in the county, who is able to unify them, and there has been no such thing as players opting out like in previous years. He's a formidable coach and has improved Donegal no end. 'We just see the next opposition as a challenge, the next day we go out regardless of where they are from. We don't see it [the Ulster factor] as a big deal. All I know is that there are a lot of good teams up in Ulster, it's a strong province, so there is always tough opposition up there.' The new playing rules have also presented O'Connor with a different challenge this year. And while he describes the game now as 'more enjoyable to watch, play, and to manage and coach', there may well be something of a clash of styles on Sunday. 'I don't think there will be too much change in approach from both teams. Yes, we like to kick the ball, but the opposition don't always allow you to do that. You can only play a match that you see in front of you. It depends what the opposition do to your kicking lanes, and Donegal have a powerful running game, which is natural to them because club football seems to be played like that up there. Kerry's David Clifford kicks a point during the 2023 All-Ireland final against Dublin. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho 'Ultimately, it comes down to good decision making and players that are comfortable on the ball. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat. And while we will be trying to move the ball as fast as possible, it's not something that is always possible.' What is certain is that O'Connor's current role is unrecognisable compared to when he first took over Kerry in 2004, his involvement in coaching in the county now stretching back 33 years to when he was a selector with the Kerry under-21s. 'It was a bit simpler when I got involved first. I was doing nearly all the coaching myself, with some bits and pieces of input from the selectors. I was stuck inside in the middle of the training games and coaching the drills. In some ways that was more enjoyable. 'Nowadays, I'm managing a back-room team who manage the players. I'm not saying I don't have input here and there, but I'm not as hands-on as I used to be. It's maybe better, because with back-room teams the size they are, you have to change. You can't do it the same way you did it the first time.' Still, he's picked up plenty of lessons along the way: 'Mainly in terms of what you need to avoid, and being economical with your energy. There is no point in being all wired to the moon, having all your energy spent by the weekend of the game. 'I've made plenty of mistakes myself. I remember one of my early years, I reckon I had the match played in my head a 1,000 times beforehand, but when you come to the day itself, you're spent. One of the most important things on All-Ireland final day is the ability to be able to think on your feet. And that's important for the coaching staff as well as the players.'
