The notion that it’s wide open is plausible enough, even allowing for the natural impulse to ratchet up the excitement by making a case for all four teams left in the race.
hat impulse is pretty much a universal desire in every sport for an egalitarian spread of contenders rather than just the predictable handful of favourites. The same desire is a reliably recurring theme in the GAA championships every season. More often than not it is thwarted by the reality that there is usually one or two aforementioned favourites in pole position from first game to last.
And the notion that the 2022 race for Sam is still wide open may in fact have more to do with the fall of the fixtures rather than there being an evenly-distributed égalité among Derry, Dublin, Galway and Kerry. The rota system for semi-final fixtures meant that the Leinster winners were this year going to be meeting the Munster winners, thereby pairing the big two together: Dublin and Kerry would more than likely have to face up to each other at that juncture.
Had they been kept apart, however, the title chase would not have been seen as quite so open. It would be a case of Kerry to win one semi, Dublin to win the other — business as usual for the Old Firm of Gaelic football.
Anyway, we shouldn’t be looking too closely in the mouth of the gift horse. The fact that one of the duopoly will be gone before the final does in itself render the race slightly more open, even if the winners of that encounter will be installed as the hot fancy.
But beyond the serendipity of the fixture schedule, there is another reason for optimism. The two makeweights in the remaining quartet are coming up hard and fast along the rails. Derry and Galway are taking quantum leaps in their evolution towards legitimate heavyweight status.
And of the two, Derry’s credentials in this class are closer to being stamped and ratified. They are looking increasingly like the real deal. They are surfing a big wave and they are patently enjoying the speed of their momentum. They are breaking new ground with every game of late. They are discovering a new level of potential with every performance and each discovery is injecting them with fresh energy to go higher again. It is a virtuous circle of growth.
It is that sweet spot between innocence and experience, a team surging into unknown terrain without yet knowing what the limits of that journey will be. They dare not look down, for fear of realising how far they’ve climbed. They ought not to look down at all. Just keep going until someone shouts stop. Who knows, it could be the referee who shouts stop with the final whistle on July 24, at which time they can finally look down and realise they are looking down from the peak of the summit of the mountain.
Or it could be Galway next Saturday who shout stop. They have been on a voyage of discovery too. If their momentum hasn’t looked quite as irresistible as Derry’s, they are releasing their potential also and visibly bonding into a steely, potent ensemble. Last Sunday’s epic spaghetti western with Armagh will have welded them closer together still.
And they will need every ounce of that solidarity because it is in this fundamental facet that their next opponents seem to have a critical advantage. Derry are currently playing like a completely bonded unit. Defence, midfield and attack are operating as one living, breathing organism. They are doing all the work together, more or less. This collective energy and organisation and selflessness is giving them the power that comes with being “a well-oiled machine”, as Colm Cooper described them on The Sunday Game last weekend.
Not coincidentally, they are starting to resemble the Donegal side of 2012 in terms of the steam-roller effect they can produce when they get their all-court running game launched. As Jim McGuinness’s number two back then, Rory Gallagher was a founding architect of that particular system. As Derry’s number one, he is going back to the future and building a similar edifice across the Donegal border. They are not there yet, but it looks like this is where they are going.
Galway are a little more fragmented in their sensibility, not quite as glued together in their communal work ethic, but they are getting there too. The county does have a tradition of individual ingenuity complementing the worker bees elsewhere on the team and on their best days in every generation, this flash of class has helped them get over the line. Mind you, it is a random and erratic asset, often frustratingly invisible when it is needed most. Consistency of effort and application is generally the better bet against teams more dependent on the mercurial moment.
Yet it wouldn’t do to stereotype either side because Derry have plenty of footballing class too and Galway proved demonstrably last Sunday that they have developed a base of toughness and resilience and competitive bottle also. The more immediate challenge for them right now presumably is to recover physically and emotionally from their monumental exertions seven days ago in order to deliver another enormous effort next Saturday. Nothing less will suffice, probably.
The winners can then kick back and watch as the other semi-final unfolds on Sunday. Dublin and Kerry are both undercooked, as per usual, albeit that the latter’s game against Mayo last Sunday gave them a contest nicely-calibrated between their sleepwalks in Munster and the big showdown next weekend. They only took the game away from Mayo in the final quarter. They should be locked and loaded to hit top gear much sooner next Sunday.
It might seem counterintuitive to say that Kerry’s defence still remains unproven despite conceding just two goals in 14 games this season, from the McGrath Cup through the Allianz League and on to Munster and last weekend. Obviously it has become meaner and more tightly structured at their own end, with their forwards tracking and tackling more diligently at the other end. It is also a defence that has the pace to scramble well and defuse moments of danger pretty effectively. But it still looks like an underpowered unit overall. The Dubs in Croke Park on All-Ireland semi-final day is a horse of a different colour. The jury remains out until they can cope with the kind of firepower coming their way.
Their job will become substantially more complicated if Con O’Callaghan makes it back for the Dubs. And indeed James McCarthy too. They weren’t needed to dispose of Cork last Saturday but their manager still felt they were missed. “It had a huge impact on the team,” said Dessie Farrell post-match, “captain [McCarthy] and vice-captain and two rock-solid players. That was probably a factor in today’s overall performance.”
They still racked up 21 points but the forward line was clearly a blunter instrument in the absence of O’Callaghan, their creative spark and a perpetual menace to any defence. And a surprising number of gaps materialised in their own defence when Cork did manage to muster some coherent attacks. Kerry’s forward line could well make moot their own side’s defensive questions by asking plenty more of Dublin’s. They certainly have the artillery to do so. Therefore, McCarthy’s massive authority would of course help to stabilise Dublin’s rearguard. If he and O’Callaghan are both ruled out, then the prediction pendulum swings back in Kerry’s favour.
It is probably leaning in their direction anyway. There are ageing legs scattered throughout the Dublin team. Many of them have banqueted on All-Ireland titles for five to ten years and more. This Kerry team wants what they have. And if pure zeal for medals is to be the difference, then the Kingdom’s representatives will be bringing more of it. They should be at any rate.
Plus, they’ve been nursing some old wounds since 2019, according to their manager. “The bottom line here is these Kerry players have been yearning to get a cut at the Dubs from as far back as three years ago,” said Jack O’Connor after the Mayo game. “They lost an All-Ireland out there that they would feel they could have won. We certainly won’t be lacking motivation but neither will Dublin.”
Right so. Stand back and let them at it, then. Round the house and mind the dresser. If Derry and Galway don’t break all the crockery on Saturday, then the Dubs and Kerry will hopefully leave it in smithereens on Sunday.
