White was arguably Kerry’s best player after Clifford but I just didn’t think there was that real quality that is always said about Kerry footballers. It’s the type of myth they perpetuate, I think Tyrone have as good as footballers as them. They have big strong direct forwards but the point I made before the game is I don’t think they have natural finishers there besides D Clifford and O’Shea. They struggle to take pressure scores, they are all about steamrolling teams and goals on the overlap.
11 of their scores came from dead balls, be they frees, marks or 45s. The scores they got from play were all within probably not far outside the D.
I can certainly recall the scores Murphy, O’Connor, P Clifford and O’Shea got from play and they were all close range scores. They don’t seem to have the ability or confidence to shoot from range other than Clifford or O’Shea.
Nobody knew much about Hession until the last day. And while he had decent game he’s still largely unproven at this level. Coen would have been considered average at best (even by most of Mayo) until recently. Keegan rolled back the years against Dublin but his form over the last few years has been ordinary enough.
Class is permanent. I think Mayo will control the middle third of the pitch. Tyrone’s midfielders look fairly green.
I’d put Mullin on McShane and Keegan on McKenna. Be interesting to see who takes Ruane. Meyler possibly but he’ll probably be occupied with Durcan. I’d say Donnelly will be on Ruane.
For all Tyrone’s excellent individual defending on Saturday, Mayo present a more systemic as opposed to individual threat in how they attack and I think that will cause Tyrone problems.
I’d fancy a low enough scoring game relative to today’s standards. Could see the equivalent of 15 or 16 points winning it, lower even, 13. 13 won the 2016 clash.
I highlighted this for you last week fulvio and you picked 4 out of 6 Kerry forwards in a combined team
Paidi Clifford is decent and actually contributed a fair bit still on Saturday but he was being touted as one of the best players in the country when in reality he was a club player up to recently. That Kerry team was genuinely the most overrated team ever. The fact they were 1/7 to win that game beggared belief. The Kerry team of the noughties may have failed a few times at the crunch but they would hammer the current crop.
Fair enough but that’s based more on form and fitness. Two of the Tyrone forwards I wouldn’t really regard as forwards in Meyler and McGeary, they’re more like extra defenders - outstanding footballers though but they don’t carry a scoring threat. McKenna has been very hit and miss but when he gets up to speed he’s going to be one of the best footballers in the country IMO, Canavan and McShane have had injury problems which is why they are only on the bench for Tyrone.
“In 1986 during a game against New Orleans, Mark Bavaro broke his jaw and lost several teeth. He went to the locker room and had to have his jaw wired shut, but he still came back and played the rest of the game for New York”