Down v Kildare Sunday 3.30 pm (Live on RTE 2)
At the start of the year, despite the progress shown by both teams in recent times, not many would have predicted that these two sides would still be in contention come the last weekend in August. It is a welcome breath of fresh air for the football championship, however, to have such a novel semi-final pairing.
Prior to the events of this year, the latter stages of the football championships were in danger of becoming as predictable as the hurling equivalent, despite the fact that there are double the amount of teams involved.
Kerry, for example, are not in the last four for the first time since 1999; this year’s finalists Cork have been in the last six semi-finals, while Tyrone and Armagh, and to a lesser extent Dublin and Meath have also featured regularly at this stage of the competition over the last decade or so.
Mickey Harte and Jack O’Connor can crow all they want about the current system not favouring provincial winners and finalists but they didn’t complain when they were winning All-Irelands through the back door and both Down and Kildare are where they are on merit.
Harte and O’Connor’s sticking point was the momentum teams coming through the qualifiers picked up as opposed to teams competing in provincial finals, but whatever momentum gathered by both teams prior to the All-Ireland quarter-finals must have been tempered somewhat by the four-week break since.
The novelty of the semi-final pairing makes this game a particularly difficult one to call. Up until their quarter-final victory over Kerry, Down looked like they were a year or two away from becoming a top-class side, particularly following their second half collapse against Tyrone in Ulster and their struggles against Longford and Offaly in the qualifiers.
Their comprehensive defeat of Sligo looked simply like they were kicking a man while he’s down and few predicted they would usurp the reigning All-Ireland champions, even considering their impeccable record against the Kingdom and the fact that Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin were both absent.
The Mourne men will be eager to show that they weren’t simply taking advantage of a Kerry team at the end of the road and there is plenty about them to suggest that they could be consistent contenders for a few years yet.
Long known as a flair side, Down have tightened up considerably at the back and since exiting the Ulster Championship to Tyrone, have conceded a total of 1-10 per game in three of the four games since. In the other game, against Sligo, they conceded 0-10. If they are to concede 1-10 once more against Kildare, they’ll have a great chance of progressing.
In attack, Marty Clarke has definitely relieved Benny Coulter of some responsibility, but his high profile return from Australia has taken some of the limelight off Mark Poland, Paul McComiskey and Daniel Hughes, who have also been excellent.
Captain Ambrose Rogers is a key figure at midfield for Down
Ambrose Rogers (above) looks set to miss out on a starting berth at midfield and if he does, his loss will be as big to Down as the potential loss of Dermot Earley to the Lilywhites. Despite the injuries hanging over both players, their importance to their respective sides is so high that it would be a miracle if both players do not feature at some stage.
Although he has named him to start, Kieran McGeeney might choose to hold Earley in reserve until the second half, a time when Kildare have flourished in recent games. Hugh Lynch was a more than adequate replacement for Earley against Meath and ‘Geezer’ will have no problem calling on him again this time around.
Since conceding a whopping 1-22 to Louth in Leinster, Kildare, like Down, have been pretty miserly in defence but it has been their attacking performances that have caught the eye. In the last three games, they have racked up a whopping 5-49 against Meath, Monaghan and Derry and their spread of scorers is such that on his first championship start of the season against Meath, Eoghan O’Flaherty kicked five points.
Johnny Doyle has been his usual brilliant self this season and some of his points against Meath were a joy to watch. He has been named in the half forward line for this encounter, but with the roving Eamonn Callaghan named at top of the left, don’t be surprised if Doyle stations himself in front of the posts at some stage.
James Kavanagh is also a man that will command plenty of attention from the Down defence following impressive performances against Monaghan and Meath and no one outside Down will be complaining if he can serve up a repeat of the wonderful goal he delivered in the first half against the Royal County.
Like last week’s semi-final, this may not be the highest-scoring encounter, but it should be more entertaining. As both sides are unaccustomed to this stage of the competition, they should go out with absolutely nothing to lose.
As mentioned earlier, this tie is an extremely difficult one to call, but of all the teams in the championship this year, it could be argued that Kildare seem to be the most effective as a collective unit and it is because of this that they might just edge over the line this weekend.
Dermot Earley has been named to start in the Kildare side despite doubts over a knee injury, while in one positional change, Johnny Doyle will line out in the half forward line with Eoghan O’Flaherty taking his place at right corner-forward.
Down have delayed naming their side until Friday night in an effort to give captain Ambrose Rogers every chance of recovering from a knee ligament injury suffered in a recent club game.
Check out what JOE believes could be three make or break battles at Croke Park on Sunday here.
Teams:
Kildare: S McCormack; P Kelly, H McGrillan, A Mac Lochlainn; M O’Flaherty, E Bolton, B Flanagan; D Flynn, D Earley; J Kavanagh, P O’Neill, J Doyle; E O’Flaherty, A Smith, E Callaghan.
Down: (to be announced)
Odds:
Kildare 4/5, Down 11/8, Draw 15/2
JOE Prediction: For the second week in a row, this is an extremely difficult one to call, but we fancy Kildare to edge it by the narrowest of margins.
Â
