Hungry, angry and injured
McGinley was joined by Tomás Ó Sé on RTÉ's GAA Podcast to look ahead to this weekend's quarter-final action at HQ, with much of the spotlight being hogged by the two sides that met in the semi-finals during the last campaign.
Armagh were dark horses who upset the odds in a 1-18 to 1-16 win over Kerry after extra-time in last year's semis, but are disputing favouritism with Donegal this time around as they bid to defend Sam Maguire.
If there was the suspicion Jack O'Connor's charges took Kieran McGeeney's men a little too lightly last time around, such a scenario is unlikely to unfold on Sunday.
"I think Kerry's eyes were slightly off the ball," McGinley said of the 2024 semi-final. "I don't think they were 100% there and they got caught, similar to Tyrone beating them in 2021. I don't think Kerry's eyes were fully on Tyrone.
"In 2023, Kerry repaid Tyrone in spades. Kerry turned up hungry and angry and absolutely destroyed Tyrone in 2023.
"Do I think Kerry can win? Absolutely.
"I can't wait for this game.
"The thing I'm most fascinated about as a coach or a manager trying to look at the game is that Kerry love to kick that ball. Armagh love to find the arc and set up defensively and kill off that ball.
"Can Armagh's retreat to the arc be fast enough to kill the space around Clifford, [faster] than the Kerry kickpassing game, and them finding Clifford?
"Those moments will be maybe three, four or five in each half and that alone could well decide this game.
"I'm going to love seeing how much Armagh go forward, how aggressively they attack, how open they leave their own defence, how readily they have someone set up to get back and try and kill off that space, kill off those long passes, because Kerry's most threatening approach play is well signposted.
"It would look a tactic you can absolutely shut down or that you can do significant damage with if you set yourself up appropriately and Armagh are so shrewd that I expect Kerry to get that test.
"So Kerry's plan A is phenomenal but what is their plan B and how will that hold up with their injuries?"
Mike Breen and Diarmuid O'Connor are absentees for Kerry, while Paudie Clifford and Paul Geaney are only fit enough to start from the bench.
That news emerged on Thursday night after the podcast had been recorded, but Kerry's injury woes were already at the forefront of Ó Sé's mind.
Firstly addressing the Orchard County's strengths, Ó Sé said: "They're extremely well-coached. They have players to slot in, they have strength in depth, they have pace, they have physicality. They have the maverick side of it with Rian O'Neill back and a bit of unpredictability there.
"I think that they're very organised on their own kick-outs. I think they don't panic when they're down. I think they have a lot of ammunition in their locker, and I think that Kerry's backs are to the wall.
"They've lost two midfielders. Had Kerry a full complement, you would probably be going with Diarmuid O'Connor and Barry Dan O'Sullivan in midfield, allowing Joe O'Connor to go to the half-forward line and play in a midfield role anyway. But that's gone. So you're probably going to start with Joe O'Connor and Sean O'Brien at midfield.
"You don't know where Paudie Clifford is at and quite arguably, more importantly to Kerry, if he doesn't fire, the man inside doesn't fire. Where is he at and is he going to be as sharp?
"I'd back the two Cliffords to show up for Kerry. I don't think they've ever let them down on big days.
"My concern and my worry for Kerry will be, will their middle eight turn up?
"I'm talking about our middle eight for our kick-outs, I'm talking about our middle eight for their kick-outs, I'm talking about our middle eight for the defensive side of the game, and I'm talking about our middle eight attacking.
"It's a huge, huge ask for our lads. They just need to be that little bit hungrier, that little bit quicker to move the ball, to support, to shut Armagh down."
Ó Sé added of a situation that will now transpire: "If Paul Geaney doesn't start, he's the second-highest scorer from play. He is vital to them as well. He'd be a huge loss, but backs to the wall, I'd still give Kerry a great chance."
Follow a live blog on the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Saturday on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Saturday Game at 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Watch two All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Meath v Galway and Armagh v Kerry, from 1.15pm on Sunday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
If Padraic Joyce wants to begin again with Galway, he needs to find a way to begin better
'FAILURE IS THE opportunity to begin again more intelligently,' once reckoned Henry Ford. Nice sugary words, but Ford was in the business of making cars, not championship-winning football teams. In sport, more often than not, failure is not an opportunity, just a place where you get to step off and away when you are a manager. Inside 20 hours last weekend, two genuine football icons were left eyeballing that reality. Dessie Farrell blinked instantly, but Padraic Joyce played the 'time is not now ' card often favoured by the out of luck and out of time bainisteoir, but it is likely he did so with reason. Two men who are weaved deep into the narrative of their respective counties, championship winning players on the pitch and iconic figures to those off it; for all that they had in common in that unwanted shared space last weekend, there is a chasm in achievement and perspective separating them. It was Farrell who invited the greater sympathy, visibly choking with emotion as he spoke about leaving behind players who he came to know first as boys and has now left them behind as aged veterans, but there is little need for tears to be shed on his part. All he truly lost last weekend was a game of ball, one that was not gravely consequential for a couple of reasons. Firstly, even if Dublin had beaten Tyrone, the road ahead would likely have been short, although it may have stretched slightly if Con O'Callaghan recovered his full fitness. Simply put, Dublin were not good enough to win the Sam Maguire. - Legacy - More significantly, failure is not something that can be pinned on Farrell. He now stands only behind Jim Gavin and Kevin Heffernan in the pantheon of Dublin's most successful managers, which is not a bad place to be. When you consider that this was a job in which many believed he was set up to fail, inheriting a team that had already planted its flag on the five-in-a-row summit, that he squeezed two All-Irelands out of a sated team and a stalled production line was, in many ways, a stunning achievement. Deciding to stay with the team for a final season as a line of generational talents left was as much a final act of care as a declaration of ambition. Advertisement The future of Dublin in the short term is uncertain, even if Ger Brennan's announcement this week that he was stepping away from Louth will invite many to fill in the obvious blank. Thing is, Dublin football's pressing need is less about finding a manager for its showcase team and more about weaponising its huge resources, financial, coaching and, above all, playing numbers, to ensure a flow of high-end players which right now is not there. In that sense, whether Farrell stayed or went has little impact on where Dublin go, but in Galway's case, whether Joyce sticks or twists most certainly does, both on a personal level and for the county's short-term future. The likelihood that decision will be left to him is validation of his five seasons in charge, especially in a county that was once not renowned for its stability on that front. (In the last six years of his storied playing career, Joyce played under four different managers.) In fairness, his predecessor Kevin Walsh brought stability but what Joyce brought went beyond that. It is easily forgotten now, but when he declared his ambition to win the All-Ireland on his appointment in 2019, the sniggers right around the country were audible. Four Connacht titles and two All-Ireland final appearances later, talk of Galway being the best in the land has long stopped being a laughing matter, but the fact remains that Joyce's manifesto has not been delivered on. For that reason alone, it may well be that leaving is not an option. Unlike Farrell, he has a group that has all the components to not only contend but win the Sam Maguire. There was almost a consensus, even when the ink was only drying on the FRC's new rules, that the most obvious 'core enhancement' was to Galway's chances of winning the All-Ireland this year. They had the stand-out individual defenders to go man to man, a surplus of primary ball winners in the middle eight to pillage restarts, and a defined, fearsome three forwards up top to turn all those advantages into hard currency. It never rolled like that for Galway this year (Damian Comer's prolonged absence a key factor) – with the exception of their midfield mauling of Roscommon in Connacht – where the sense of a team chasing its tail was hard to shake. - Missing link - If the measure of a manager's standing with his players is their ability to keep playing for him, Joyce is on firm ground. They could and should have been eliminated from the All-Ireland series inside two rounds, trailing Derry by eight points in Celtic Park but found a way back to parity. Similarly, despite being played off the pitch against Armagh, they found a way, albeit against opponents who had nothing to play for. Related Reads No rush in appointing Dessie Farrell's successor, says Dublin GAA chairman How will eliminated teams reflect on 2025 Sam Maguire exit? Kerry have the best attack left in the championship - the rest is just pub talk They survived a frantic, fun game of ping-pong football against Down, but in many ways that only served to highlight Galway's inability to manage games, albeit it is a harder challenge given the game's new freestyle ways. And that shines a light back on the Galway sideline; not necessarily on who was there, but on who wasn't. It was only when Cian O'Neill arrived in 2022 that Galway's swagger under Joyce also found structure, and the former's unexpected departure to Kerry in the close season was a huge blow that they struggled to recover from. It is probably unfair to single out moments but there was a lack of clarity about Galway's thought process. It can be obviously distilled, in a season when kick-outs are king, to the ongoing muddled thought process that must have left Conor Gleeson and Conor Flaherty both feeling that they were auditioning live for their place as much as kicking for their team. It was there in critical moments last Sunday against Meath. Dylan McHugh's failure to off load to Shane Walsh for an open goal, and Paul Conroy's decision to unsuccessfully take on a two-pointer when he had two players to lay it off to, are the kind of errors not associated with ruthless contenders. Above all, right at the death, when Walsh kicked a two-pointer to give them a lifeline that could only be availed of by getting the ball back, they switched off to allow Billy Hogan clip the ball short free of pressure. Game over. Meanwhile, a couple of hours later, Kerry, with O'Neill on the line, suffocated Armagh through relentless pressure off their kick-out tee. That is why Joyce has much to ponder. Beginning again is not an option unless he can find a way, and a coach, to allow them to begin better.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Tyrone star to miss All-Ireland minor final after signing for Premier League club – but Red Hand boss holds out hope
Tyrone attacker Joel Kerr is to miss the All-Ireland MFC final after taking up a professional contract with Premier League club West Ham this week.
Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ger Brennan has prospered where others faltered - he's earned shot at Dublin job
We haven't heard from Ger Brennan yet on the exact reasoning behind his decision to quit Louth, so we can only surmise for now. The likelihood is that, at the very least, he was leaning towards leaving before word emerged on Saturday evening that Dessie Farrell was vacating the Dublin job. Indeed, there's every chance that he may have left Louth regardless of Farrell's intentions. But, however it's all come about, now that there is an opening and Brennan is a free agent, drawing a line between the two is irresistible. Brennan, who turned 40 on the day he announced his Louth departure, will almost certainly be approached by the Dublin county board and, given the dearth of other credible candidates, you'd imagine that the job would be his if he wants it. Yet, it's a reflection how he has done in Louth that the role he is leaving is, strictly in footballing terms, arguably more appealing than that to which he is now being strongly linked. Louth have just won the Leinster title and appear to have enough talent emerging from underage teams to kick on from here. Dublin, meanwhile, are being weakened year on year by retirements, a trend that will likely be maintained this coming winter. And, clearly, the emerging talent is not sufficient to sustain them as a serious force at the back end of the Championship for now at least. But then Brennan has proven himself adept at confounding such perceptions. When Mickey Harte jumped ship to Derry two years ago, the room for further improvement in Louth appeared minimal and, indeed, the likelihood seemed that they would drop out of Division Two and lose further ground on Dublin in Leinster, having been beaten by 21 points by them in the 2023 provincial final. Brennan was taking over from a man who had essentially told the players that juice wasn't worth the squeeze, yet he managed to galvanise them and harness the momentum that had been built under Harte to take Louth to a higher plain again. They were competitive against Dublin in last year's Leinster final and reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the first time. This year they won the provincial title for the first time since 1957. There was almost an inevitability about their struggles in the All-Ireland series on the back of such a historic breakthrough, and maybe Brennan, after two full-on years, couldn't summon the energy to take one step back in order to take two forward in reinforcing the side so that they could really challenge beyond Leinster. But the prospect of managing his native county would surely reinvigorate him. Often, managerial appointments owe as much to timing as anything else, and Brennan is hot right now. He may not be when it comes around again. So many ex-Dublin footballers have struggled when managing outside the county, effectively blowing their chances of landing the big job. But Brennan has prospered and has now earned his chance.
