The 2023 All-Ireland Football Final Gerry OShea
Monaghan and
Derry had nearly all the support of unconnected football followers in their recent
semi-final clashes with Dublin and Kerry. Outsiders knocking at the door will
always have neutrals cheering for them. The Monaghan men acquitted themselves
well but they had no answer to the late blitzkrieg of scores by Fenton,
McCaffrey, Mannion and Rock.
In the other
semi-final the Kerry road to victory was very different with a much closer
result after an enthralling game revealing high-level footballing skills by
both sides. The Derry forwards were buzzing in the first half and kicking wonderful
points from distance, leaving them ahead by three points at the break.
The
second-half introduction of Stephen O’Brien was a pivotal move by Jack O’Connor,
the Kerry manager. He accounted for two vital turnovers as well as kicking a
fine point and winning a dubious free which led to another. Still, Derry was
ahead by two points with just a few minutes of normal time remaining and only
for a brilliant save in the 52nd minute by Shane Ryan, the Kerry
goalkeeper, a Kingdom comeback would have been akin to scaling Mount Everest on
a stormy night. Instead, Kerry showed style and panache to get to the finish
line with two points to spare.
While lovers
of the game wanted the underdogs from Ulster to prevail, they are watering at
the mouth for the clash of the titans in Croke Park next Sunday. This final
promises to be one for the ages with both teams at full strength and gearing
for this climactic clash from the beginning of the season.
We have been
saturated with negative football for the last decade. Too often, the ball is
passed laterally mostly along the half-back line by players who are wedded to
possession football – keep it away from opponents, starve them of handling the
ball and you increase your chance of winning.
The only
problem with this negative strategy is that spectators find it mind-bogglingly
boring. High fielding and long kicking,
the most-admired features of the traditional game, are not favored by
coaches who, understandably, want a good result rather than a display of
aesthetic athleticism.
Dublin and
Kerry are much more committed to moving the ball forward by judicious kicking,
giving their inside forwards an opportunity to show their skills close to goal.
Dublin enjoys a surfeit of great forwards; against Monahan, Dessie Farrell, the
impressive Dublin manager, did not start Dean Rock, Jack McCaffrey or Ciaran
Kilkenny, three players that would feature for any selection of the best
footballers of our generation – now super subs who were eventually introduced
and contributed an impressive goal and two points of the seven point victory.
Mr. Farrell clearly places a premium on
experienced players. He rates highly the lessons learned by men who have been
through the immense physical and emotional turmoil of big days in Croke Park.
In a post-game interview, he revealed his priorities
and his managerial philosophy. Referring to the crucial importance of
experience on a big day before a bulging attendance in Croke Park, he said, “You
can’t coach it. You can’t give it to young fellas. They are brilliant and they
want to be involved, but there are certain things that only come with life
experience like how to close out big games.”
True to the
manager’s perspective and values, three of the Dublin players assured of
starting places on the team - Stephen Cluxton, Mick Fitzsimons and James
McCarthy – will be playing for a record ninth All-Ireland medal. That is a heap
of experience before mentioning the names of the super-subs and
long-established players like Con O’Callaghan, Brian Fenton or Cormac Costello.
While Kerry won the Sam Maguire cup last year,
their opponents will have more experience of big championship days in Croke Park
– a factor that will surely figure prominently in the psychological talking
points by the Kerry management.
Former
successes on big occasions against the opposing team also register with
players. If a team has a history of previously defeating opponents, it cultivates
an important dimension of self-belief and confidence. Here Dublin has a clear
advantage. Kerry have failed to beat them in an All-Ireland Final for 38 years,
losing four showdowns to the Dubs during that time.
Kerry and
Dublin met first in an All-Ireland Final in 1892 and next when Kerry won their
first title in 1903. They played again a hundred years ago in 1923 and 1924 just
after Irish Independence was achieved followed, unfortunately, by the awful
civil war.
An
interesting aside to the 1924 victory: there is a plaque displayed in the Kerry
Building in Yonkers honoring the captain of that team, Phil Sullivan, because a
cousin of his from the village of Baltimore in West Cork requested it after providing
a major donation for the development project.
The modern
intense rivalry between the two counties can be traced back to the 1955 All-Ireland
when the Dubs adopted a policy of selecting only players born in their county.
They had a fine team that year led by the legendary Ollie Freaney, playing on
the 40, and Kevin Heffernan at full-forward.
This was
presented by the sportswriters and cultural commentators as a showdown between the
super-fit city boys and their opponents from the bogland who had to to worry
about milking cows and chasing ewes every day. During Dublin’s semi-final
replay victory over Mayo – who else! – Ollie Freaney reportedly taunted his
opponent by whispering in his ear that the pong of cow dung was disgusting him.
Stories like
that one - probably apocryphal because what is now called sledging was unknown
in those years – heightened the lore about the divide between the smart and
modern boys from the capital and the supposedly backward men from the mountains.
The tension and build-up to that September final sixty-eight years ago has
never been matched since.
On the day
before the showdown, the Kerry team travelled by train to the capital and were
staying in Barry’s Hotel under the tutelage of Dr. Eamon N. M. O’Sullivan who worked
in the Killarney Mental Hospital and had an international reputation for
promoting occupational therapy for patients. After a steak dinner and the
recitation of the rosary, Dr. Eamon ordered an early bedtime in preparation for
the momentous confrontation the following day.
This ran
counter to the established ritual of some of the players who liked to enjoy a
few pints the night before big games. Center half-back, John Cronin and his
colleague at full-back, Ned Roche, were joined by corner back, Micksie Palmer
and star forward Tadghie Lyne in exiting the hotel through a window and
engaging a taxi man to find them a snug where they could have a drink
incognito.
No chance of
hiding in Dublin so he transported them to a bar in the Curragh area of Kildare.
The owner was apprised of his important guests and he found them a private room
to enjoy their libations. Sometime well after midnight the taxi driver returned
and, reputedly, the Kerry men re-entered their bedrooms before two o’clock.
The Kildare
innkeeper had little interest in the big match, but with his knowledge of the
drink consumed by the Kerry stalwarts he laid a big bet on Dublin and notified
his friends of his clandestine knowledge of Kerry weakness.
Great
writers tell us that that the gods thrive on ironic twists in heroic stories
and surely this one qualifies. John Cronin held Ollie Freaney scoreless and
Roche did the same marking Heffernan. Tadghie Lyne scored five of the twelve
points that won the game for Kerry, and Micksie joined the other corner back,
Jerome O’Shea, a teetotaler, as joint Sport Stars of the Week, a prestigious award
appearing in the Irish Independent newspaper every Friday.
David
Clifford is the cynosure of all eyes this week. He is being written about as
the greatest footballer ever – a preposterous assertion about any young player
in his mid-twenties. However, he is a highly-accomplished footballer with
burgeoning leadership ability. He is shadowed by opponents in every match, but
he has yet to be outplayed.
David, who
is also the Kerry captain, will likely face Dublin’s most-experienced defender
Jim Fitzsimons. A Kerry victory depends on a big display by their captain.
Will he or
the indomitable James McCarthy, playing for his ninth winner’s medal, be
accepting the Sam Maguire Cup around 5.00pm on Sunday?
Gerry
OShea blogs at wemustbetalking.com
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