The Weekend That Was: A Kerry v Donegal All-Ireland final isn't the clash of styles you think it is

Irish Times

3 days ago

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.
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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.
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David Clifford and Seán O'Shea carrying big scoring burden for Kerry
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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.