Rock on Rockall, and the West's Awake

Well that was quite a weekend of football entertainment in Croke Park, and it has given us three of our four semi finalists, with Tyrone also filling the last quarter final spot.

I went to Croke Park on Saturday, largely to witness the Donegal - Kildare game, and it was a great day's entertainment for €30. First off we had the minor joust between Armagh and Roscommon, which went to extra time before a very brave and stoic Roscommon side edged home in a game they should probably have lost. Roscommon people told me that that was not a display of their normal high standards, so it's a great sign that they could battle through and come out the other side. Dublin are probably favourites for the minor, with Galway, Roscommon and Tipp a bit behind them in the betting, but you can never tell at Minor Level, and Roscommon showed enough gumption on Saturday to be hopeful in the semi final at least.

The weekend's senior action got under way just after 4pm as the men of Tyrone and the Roscommon Seniors faced off in a round 4 qualifer, delayed because Armagh's problems with Wicklow led to Tyrone taking an extra week to arrive at this stage. Roscommon started the brighter, and with Karl Mannion, Senan Kilbride, Cathal Cregg and especially Donie Shine causing havoc, they looked the better side for most of the first half. However the first real body blow came just after Roscommon had scored their goal to go ahead by 4 points, as Tyrone hit back with a statement of intent. A typical Sean Cavanagh run through the heart of the Rossies defence ended up with the ball in the back of the net, and the wind slightly taken out of Roscommon's sails. From there until half time, though, Roscommon refused to wilt and Tyrone will count themselves lucky (and surprised) to have been leading at half time. Roscommons direct style of football (which they abandoned in the second half of the Connacht Final) had Tyrone in all sorts of problems at the back, and Joe McMahon and Conor Gormley did not look comfortable at all. You always got the sense that Tyrone may just have had a little bit extra, and when the old hands of Dooher and Mulligan arrived on the scene at half time, that seemed to settle them down. Dooher picked up an amount of ball, and Mulligan also looked dangerous although Kyle Coney will be rightfully disappointed to be taken off. From there on, Tyrone looked in control, although Roscommon refused to go away and were unlucky to be hit by 2 latish goals to put an unfair complexion on the scoreboard. However, you do have to go to the end against teams like Tyrone, and that's a lesson that Roscommon will have to learn. They produced a similar display against Cork in the quarter final last year, and proved that in terms of football ability they can compete, but the effort required seems to come back to haunt them in the last 15-20 minutes.

I have to say Tyrone were 'professional', if I can use that word, without being spectacular. I remember being at a game between Sligo and Tyrone in Croke Park a good few years ago (I believe Sligo won it) and the movement of the Tyrone FF line that day was incredible. On Saturday it was a lot more static and predictable, even with Donnelly moving out the field a fair bit, and I think they will have to be a lot more inventive against Dublin. Sean Cavanagh is still a great weapon to have, but a running midfielder might be able to stifle him, and unless Tyrone pick up the scores elsewhere they may struggle. Peter Harte is having a great year, but did not really show that on Saturday so he is another threat they have.

The final game of the day on Saturday was the first All Ireland Senior Football Quarter Final, and pitted the Ulster Champions, Donegal, against the team that have graced the qualifiers this past two years, Kildare. This was at various times dour, dogged, disappointing, exciting, exhilarating, fascinating, tense, unbelievable and exhausting, even as a spectator. In short it was a great championship clash that resembled a heavyweight boxing bout.

The game ebbed and flowed as Kildare initially dominated possession, but failed to really penetrate the Donegal defence, while Kildare themselves left enough defenders in situ to nullify and frustrate Donegal's counter attacks which were rendered more toothless by the starting absence of Michael Murphy, who came on for the unlucky McBrearty towards the end of the first half. It was fascinating to watch the sheer workrate of both teams as the play went up and down the field. It's certainly a different type of game, and maybe not as aesthetically pleasing as the more open styles employed by the likes of Kerry, but it is no less intriguing and impressive from a sheer intensity standpoint.

At half time, it was 5-3 to Kildare, and there was a sense that Donegal may have been getting settled in. A real turning point arrived after half time when a long attempt at a shot came back off the Donegal upright and into the path of the incoming Tomás O'Connor who stuck it in the net. This was the score Kildare needed to give them breathing room, and to finally force Donegal out into the open. However the umpire, who looked very uncertain before waving the green flag, was only too willing to chalk the score off for a square ball when the referee came into him. From my vantage point, it looked like O'Connor was alright, especially when you factor in the time for the ball to come back off the post, but the umpire was obviously doubtful, and the score was removed from the ledger.

At this point I felt McGeeney made a substitution which was a mistake. He replaced Tomás O'Connor with Alan Smyth. Now O'Connor was not going that terribly well, but he wasn't poor either, and by removing him and replacing him with Smyth, Donegal immediately could forget about the high ball threat. Even by O'Connor being there, McGee and co had to be aware of that option, and his removal allowed them to revert to their normal style of pressing the ball even more.

The next turning point was the Donegal goal, an inspired substitution from Jimmy McGuinness, as Christy Toye drifted in to replace Colm McFadden and finished very well to the net. It looked almost as if Kildare hadn't clocked Toye, and he was in oceans of space when he received the pass about 13 metres out, space that was certainly at a premium up to then.

At this point Kildare looked dead and buried, but to their credit they fought back again, and a frenetic finish ended with a scored free to force extra time. McGeeney had brought on Ronan Sweeney at this stage, and he started to provide that long option again, and he is the man I'd have replaced O'Connor with.

Such was the intensity of that second 35, it was hard to believe that extra time could match it. However it did, and it surpassed it. Kildare, inspired by their finish, raced into a 3 point lead in the first half before the excellent Karl Lacey kicked an important score to turn over only 2 points down. Alan Smyth increased it to 3, and it looked like Kildare were kicking for home. It was then that Kildare hit the wall. Undoubtedly feeling the effects of 4 weeks on the trot, capped off with this ferocious battle, they simply died on their feet. In desperation they resorted to tactical fouling, but Michael Murphy punished them from long range frees, and Donegal slowly, inexorably clawed Kildare back. The sense of desperation was palpable, and when Alan Smyth failed to hold a ball in the Kildare forward line, Donegal moved it up the field to hit an equaliser. The outcome seemed inevitable then, and sure enough the last attack of the game ended with Cassidy hitting another monster point with the last kick of the game to win it for the Ulster Champions.

Donegal will be a hard team to beat on this showing, and McGee and Lacey were simply outstanding for them. On a day when defences were on top, Kildare's best performers were Morgan O'Flaherty, who hoovered up an amount of ball, and the consistently excellent Hughie McGrillen and Mick Foley. Kildare didn't deserve to lose, and your heart would have to go out to John Doyle who never really got going after suffering a dead leg from the throw in. His scoring run of 52 games on the trot ended on the day Kildare lost by a point in extra time. That must be heartbreaking for him, but his post match comments are another indication of his class. I say Kildare didn't deserve to lose, but Donegal are worthy winners and will be a big test for Tyrone or Dublin in a semi final. Rock on indeed.

Sunday dawned, and with it the expectation of two straightforward assignments for Munster's big guns as Kerry were due to reprise their flogging of Limerick, while Cork were hot favourites to see off a Mayo side that had failed to impress in winning the Connacht Championship.

Suffice to say that one game went the way it was expected to, while the other certainly did not. Kerry never had to get out of third gear to dispose of a Limerick side that, unfortunately, didn't display the same fire that was shown by the likes of Donegal, Kildare and Mayo. They seemed content to not get hammered, and while they briefly staged a mini-revival in the second half, all Kerry had to do was accelerate a little and Limerick were in their rear view mirror again. Limerick have rebounded brilliantly since the debacle in Munster, but this felt like an anti climax, and unworthy after their showings against Offaly and Wexford in particular. The Kerry forwards weren't quite as unattended as they were in the Gaelic Grounds, but anytime they raised a gallop, their movement flummoxed the Limerick back line again. Stephen Lucey was unlucky to go off injured early on, having been earmarked to keep tabs on Donaghy, but it wasn't Star that did the damage in any event. Darren O'Sullivan gave a fantastic 1-3 cameo, including a brilliant Zola style back flick goal, before going off as a precaution with a hamstring tweak while Declan O'Sullivan showed his class with two lovely points before going on sabbatical for the rest of the game. Galvin got a good run out, as did Tomás O'Sé and Bryan Sheehan and Anthony Maher gave another solid display in midfield. The sight of Sheehan, in particular, galloping forward with time nearly up will be welcome to Kerry fans, as it proves both his appetite for work and his conditioning, both of which seem in great shape this year.

All in all, despite Stephen Kelly's good work from open play, (less said about his frees the better) and a few flashes from Ian Ryan, Johhny McCarthy, Ger Collins and especially Seanie Buckley, it was poor enough from Limerick, and as I said, a bit anti climactic. Hopefully they will have better luck with injuries next year, and can get lads like John Galvin and Eoin Joy back because they need to get promotion from Division 4 if they are to make a run at Munster next year.

Kerry will be unsatisfied with this. They know they didn't raise much of a gallop, and they know that they will need to improve for a semi final. This game is the only game they will have had in 7 weeks before the semi, and that is not enough to be fully prepared, so they will have to really be firing and at huge levels of intensity in training. One of the pundits said Kerry A v Kerry B would be more intense and high octane, and it may need to be if Kerry are going to be right for the semi final.

The last game of the weekend saw a fantastic performance of guts, belief, fitness and football. And it wasn't from the All Ireland Champions. I said in my preview that if *and a big if* Mayo could take Donnacha O'Connor out of the game, and run with Kerrigan and Kelly they would have a chance. If they could then break even at midfield that was their path to victory. It was very hard to see, and I couldn't see it coming to pass, hence I tipped Cork. But come to pass it did, and how. After a flurry at the start when Mayo might have been blown away, they knuckled down and absolutely ate, and I mean ate, Cork at midfield. The work that the O'Shea brothers, Trevor Mortimor, Andy Moran and Alan Dillon (among others) did in the middle third simply annihalated Cork in the very area they would have been banking on. It was a joy to watch, as a neutral, as Mayo put their bodies on the line for breaks as well as caught wonderful primary possession, and Cork were unable to live with it, despite the physical advantages they have around that area.

With that stranglehold, Cork were always going to be living on scraps, and with their long injury list of top class forwards, Mayo managed to nullify O'Connor, Kelly and Kerrigan to a large extent. With that achieved, the rest of the Cork forwards were never going to score enough on that little amount of good ball coming in.

Kevin McLoughlin's goal was probably the moment when Mayo went from working hard to really believing, and when the game moved through the second half, this observer went from admiration of their effort and performance to a dawning realisation that Cork were not going to be able to counter this and finally onto the moment when you knew Mayo had it won, which was when they went 3 points up.

Fantastic for Mayo, Fantastic for Connacht and Fantastic for the neutral. The nagging question that Mayo now have to answer as emphatically as they did last Sunday - Is it also Fantastic for Kerry?

Hits

Donegal And Kildare (and their fans). It may not have been free flowing, but it was epic. Every man who played on Saturday left everything on the field. It was a privilege to watch it in person, and it was fantastic to see the Kildare fans applauding Donegal at the end, and vice versa as the Donegal fans gave Kildare a very warm ovation as they left, in bits. Also should mention the Roscommon fans who gave the same tribute to the defeated Armagh minors after the opening game. That's what it's all about, and one of the reasons I love the GAA.

Darren O'Sullivan. Darren O'Sullivan has been quietly labouring away in the shadows of this Kerry forward line over the past few years, even as captain, as lads like Paul Galvin, Declan O'Sullivan, Colm Cooper and Kieran Donaghy attract the spotlight, which is very understandable. This season Darren is playing with huge confidence, and people are starting to notice. His goal against Cork was a classic speed merchant's finish, while his flick against Limerick was the sign of a man playing with utmost confidence. He was the best player on the field on Sunday until he went off, and Kerry will need him to be at full throttle as he fills that role of X Factor for them.

Mayo. One swallow does not a summer make, and in this weather we should all agree with that, but Mayo's performance on Sunday was the perfect riposte to those that have been sniggering at Connacht Football recently. I've mentioned the terrible weather that two of Mayo's games have been played in, and I also said I wanted to see them in the open spaces of Croke Park on a dry day. I didn't expect to see what I saw on Sunday though, so fair play to them.

Misses.

Nothing, this weekend was too good for negativity. I'm sure Kildare will be aggrieved about the square ball decision against Donegal, but they are one of the counties that voted against the square ball rule that was trialled two years ago, and they themselves have been the model of good losers since Saturday, so lets not dwell on that incident. I do think that experimental rule should come back in though.

Other Sports

Well, as expected the NFL has been a hive of activity since the lockout ended, with free agents going from pillar to post and back again as they sign up with new teams or renew with their old ones. Some of the biggest moves have been the Arizona Cardinals finally getting their quarterback in Kevin Kolb from the Eagles, even if the price was high, and the Patriots signing Albert Haynesworth and Chad Occocinco/Johnson. The biggest movers and shakers, though, have been the Eagles. They got Dominique Rogers Cromartie from Arizona for Kolb, while they also picked up top free Agent Nnamdi Asomugha, instantly adding two All Star cornerbacks to the one they already had Asanthe Samuel. Philly will be hard to pass against with that lot. They've also added Vince Young as backup to Michael Vick, and Ronnie Brown as running back from Miami. Given that they already have DeSean Jackson and LeShaun McCoy,and Vick, the new soubriquet 'Dream Team' is well deserved. Will the Chemistry work though? One thing is sure, all these moves will propel the Eagles towards the top of the betting for the Superbowl.

Before the seaons starts (September 8th) I'll give a primer for the new year, including Division by Division, how the playoffs work, and who to look out for.