Galway v Armagh is a refreshingly new final as the Sam Maguire series needs new teams at the top.
This year’s championship showed that no team is far ahead of the rest.
Next year there will be six, maybe seven, serious contenders, including this season’s semi-finalists, along with Dublin, Derry and perhaps Mayo.
Think about it: Galway needed a stoppage-time goal to defeat Division 3 side Sligo in the Connacht semi-final, while Armagh beat Tailteann Cup winners Down by one point in the Ulster Championship.
There’s no way that can happen in hurling.
Páidí Ó Sé often said that a grain of rice can tip the balance. And he was quite right: a stroke of luck, an easy goal or a bad refereeing decision can make or break a season.
These are the simple reasons why Kerry and Donegal lost: the Ulster champions converted five of 14 chances in the second half, while Kerry made it two of nine in extra time.
Forgive me if I focus a little more on Kerry today. Realistically, at the beginning of 2024 nobody expected Donegal to be in the top four. It’s a different story with my home county.
Let’s take a look at how Kerry’s ‘golden generation’ of footballers have fared in the All-Ireland series over the past seven years.
In 2018, they failed to advance from the Super 8s after drawing against Monaghan.
All six defenders, along with the four forwards who featured in the final Super 8 match of 2018 (against Meath), played last Saturday.
Individually, they proved their credentials, as 13 of the 2018 squad subsequently won All Star awards.
In the 2019 All-Ireland final, they were a point ahead and a man up going into the final stretch, but allowed Dublin to equalise.
In the replay, they essentially collapsed in the second half after Eoin Murchan scored a goal immediately after half-time.
In 2020, in the semi-final against Munster, the team was leading by two points in the 68th minute, but Cork equalised. Then, in stoppage time at the end of extra time, Mark Keane scored the winning goal for the Rebels.
In the 2021 All-Ireland semi-final, they conceded a goal in the final moments of regulation time against Tyrone and two more in extra time.
They managed to get over the mark in 2022, but last year they were in control midway through the second half of the final before conceding an easy goal and losing to Dublin.
Last Saturday was like Groundhog Day for Kerry. Midway through the second half, the team had control of the match, but ended up losing by two points after extra time.
There is a common theme here: Kerry are losing key games they should win because they get caught out in the decisive moments.
Mayo is constantly criticised for not closing out games. Kerry is equally to blame.
It is due to poor decision-making, a lack of composure and an absence of leadership.
I could highlight hundreds of examples of any of the above.
But here are two from the game against Armagh. David Clifford fired a long-range shot when off-balance, while Seán O’Shea fired with the outside of his right foot from 45 yards, but it also went wide.
There are other reasons why Kerry have won just one All-Ireland title since 2014. An inability to score goals has been their Achilles heel this season. They have failed to score in four of their seven Championship games and in five of their seven league games no forward has scored a goal.
Thus, in nine of their 14 games in 2024, no striker has found the net, despite having three current All Stars (David and Paudie Clifford and Seán O’Shea) and one former All Star (Paul Geaney) in their team.
One of my big points of contention is that Kerry have no forwards coach and none of the management team have any experience playing as a forward at the highest level.
I see Galway playing wide and getting the second and third backs to come in from the wing to score vital points, whilst Armagh create overloads which allow the backs to come in from the wing to score points.
Meanwhile, Kerry’s only plan of attack is to pass the ball to David Clifford.
Worse still, they are putting the wrong players in shooting positions. Against Armagh, Tom O’Sullivan, Jason Foley and Dylan Casey all took shots from the end zone and missed.
There is something wrong when, despite having four All Stars in attack, Kerry’s third-leading scorer in the 2024 championship was cornerback Tom O’Sullivan.
Manager Jack O’Connor has commented on the absence of Kerry fans in Croke Park. While the huge cost of travelling Kerry fans to the capital is one factor, there are other reasons why they are staying at home.
Under the leadership of Jack O’Connor, Peter Keane and Éamonn Fitzmaurice, there has been a growing disconnect between the team and the fans. The charisma and passion that Micko and Páidí Ó Sé generated is sadly missing.
The last three managers adopted a policy of closed-door training, which is now the norm throughout the country.
I accept that some sessions have to be held behind closed doors. I do not agree that the public should be excluded from all of them.
During the Mick O’Dwyer era, huge crowds used to come to see us train in Killarney, especially during the summer.
It was good for the Kerry brand and actually encouraged us to perform better when we had a crowd watching us.
Now, if Jack O’Connor had come up with an innovative game plan for Kerry, I could understand why the team would train behind closed doors. But over the past three years, there has been no change in the way Kerry play.
Furthermore, many Kerry fans were unhappy with the style of play the team displayed against Derry in the first half of the quarter-final.
It’s not Kerry’s style. Fans have no interest in going to Croke Park to watch that kind of football from their own team.
O’Connor owes nothing to Kerry football. His record speaks for itself and he will leave when he wants.
Interestingly, another high-profile player and now former manager, Gareth Southgate, had a talented squad at his disposal but opted for a conservative, safety-first style of football and England failed to win the European championship. There is a message there: O’Connor’s preferred style of football is too safe, they play with the handbrake on, there is too much paralysis by analysis and too much focus on how the opponent plays.
Kerry do not always play to their strengths, which include a brilliant kicking game and top-class forwards. They are also too loyal to certain players. The starting line-up against Armagh was the same one that failed miserably against Derry in the first half. There should have been changes.
Relying on David Clifford to repeatedly bail out the team is no longer sustainable.
He has looked physically and mentally exhausted all season. Even in games where Kerry were not in danger of losing, Jack refused to replace him, which was surprising. Last Saturday, he suffered cramp during the second half but stayed on the field.
And don’t even get me started on the fact that he’ll be playing with Fossa in the club championship next Saturday. What a way to take advantage of our best talent!
Other problems also plagued the team. For the second year in a row, an easy goal was conceded at a crucial moment as a result of an unforced error.
In this era of scientific testing and modern training techniques, it was unimaginable that Kerry would be eliminated in extra time.
In modern football, success depends on skill, pace, fitness and athleticism.
Dublin ticked all these boxes when it was at its peak, as do Galway and Armagh now. Kerry does not.
Key forwards lack pace and key defenders lack fitness. I have been criticising the poor standard of football in the Kerry club championship for some time.
The 15 players on the pitch at the end of the Armagh game were one of the poorest teams I can remember playing for Kerry in a big game.
I spoke to club coaches after the match, who confirmed my view that at most six of the current squad’s players are club football stars.
The directors told me that, with the exception of David Clifford and Seán O’Shea, they do not take any specific measures to counter the threat posed by any of the other County players if they come up against them in club football.
Last year, Kerry had a disappointing performance throughout the championship and stumbled until the final, where they were defeated.
Guess what happened this year? Kerry also underperformed throughout the year. They never reached their peak and were once again left in the dust, this time in the semi-final.
Success in team sports depends on the development of personnel and tactics.
Kerry didn’t budge this year and we are paying the price. But as they say here: “Shur, there’s always next year.”
Apologies to Donegal fans for only briefly mentioning their defeat.
They knew their team was in bonus territory, having already won the Division 2 league title and the Ulster title. What Jimmy McGuinness did in his first season was incredible, considering the situation they were in a year ago.
They managed to exceed his expectations because he did not have the same quality of players at his disposal as when he first took charge in 2010.
His success highlights the importance of having a native in charge of the county team. He understood the culture and what needed to be done.
What stands out most about his campaign is the quality of his long-range kicking. At times, it was sublime: 10 out of 11 in the first half against Louth, 10 out of 14 last Sunday in the first half.
However, when fatigue sets in, it affects decision making, kicking technique and accuracy. This is what happened to Donegal. They only scored one point in the last 30 minutes.
His powerful running game is brilliant, but it has two problems.
It is difficult to last more than 70 minutes in Croke Park. When the opposition put up such an effective obstacle as Galway did, the lack of a kicking game that would allow them to get the ball close to goal took its toll.
I think McGuinness made a mistake in replacing Patrick McBrearty, who has a history of scoring decisive goals, but credit must go to Galway for completely shutting down Donegal’s counter-attacking play.
Their defenders had scored 2-22 in this year’s championship, including 1-7 against Louth, but failed to score against Galway, which was another reason for their loss.
Finally, congratulations to Brendan Cawley, who put in a brilliant display of refereeing in the match. He got all the important decisions right, but remained anonymous. In contrast, David Gough had too much influence on the Armagh vs Kerry match.
I thought he was poor in the Connacht final, where his decision-making at the end possibly cost Mayo the game.
Last weekend, I felt like he struggled to keep up with the pace of the game, took the “throw-it-all approach” and let it all play out at one point and somehow managed to pick up a foul 50 yards into the play.
