EVERY WEEKEND, OUR Friday football preview will give you the who, the what, the why, the when and the where ahead of the weekend’s GAA championship action, as well as statistics from analyst Christy O’Connor.
Here are the two huge games you can look forward to this weekend. For a chance to win Senior Championship game tickets courtesy of eir, click here.
Kerry v Mayo
All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay
When? Saturday, 3pm
Where? Croke Park
TV? RTÉ 2 and Sky Sports Arena
So Kerry and Mayo head for a replay once again. Looking back on the drawn game, Mayo are the team that can be happiest with their performance. The full-back question is Stephen Rochford’s main headache, but he must also find a way to get Lee Keegan more involved in the play and away from the shackles of Paul Murphy.
On the Kerry side, Eamonn Fitzmaurice has a lot of questions to answer. He needs to sort out a porous defence that Andy Moran, Cillian O’Connor and Jason Doherty took to town last weekend. James O’Donoghue had another ineffective display and the Kingdom need to sort an outlet on the half-forward line.
Jack Barry is likely to start for the replay, while the return from injury of either Donnchadh Walsh or Kevin McCarthy would provide a link to the inside forward line.
Whatever happens, we’re in for another belter tomorrow.
Christy O’Connor says: Andy Moran had more possessions than any other player last Sunday, with 22. He also had the most shots from play, with 8, from which he scored 1-5. Mayo had more shots at the target last week than Kerry, 33-32. The Kerry half-back line topped the possessions stats for Kerry, with Tadgh Morley, Peter Crowley and Killian Young having a combined 57 possessions.
Verdict: Kerry
Dublin v Tyrone
All-Ireland SFC semi-final
When? Sunday, 4pm
Where? Croke Park
TV? RTÉ 2 and Sky Sports Arena
A tactical battle for the ages awaits on Sunday. Since the summer began, Dublin and Tyrone have looked on an August collision course and here we are. Mickey Harte’s fine-tuned counter-attacking side come up against Jim Gavin’s possession-dominant Dubs.
Harte has been moulding his defensive template with Dublin’s electric attack in mind, and Tyrone’s defensive blanket will have to be at their best to keep the in-form Paul Mannion, Ciaran Kilkenny and Dean Rock at bay.
At the far end Tyrone’s counter-attack will ask serious questions of Dublin’s rearguard, with the deep runs of Peter Harte in particular a major threat to Stephen Cluxton’s goal. If the Red Hand are going to win this game, they need to hit the back of the net.
Christy O’Connor says: On Sunday, Sean Cavanagh will become the outfield player with the greatest number of championship appearances with 89, one behind the all-time leader Stephen Cluxton, who will reach the 90 mark. Prior to 2005, Tyrone had never beaten Dublin in the championship. They finally did that season, after an All-Ireland quarter-final replay. Tyrone also beat them in the 2008 All-Ireland quarter-final but have won their last two championship meetings, in All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2010 and 2011. The last time Dublin lost an All-Ireland quarter-final was in 2009, when Kerry hammered them. In their history, Dublin have only lost All-Ireland semi-finals to Ulster opposition on three occasions; the 1993 semi-final to Derry, in 2002 against Armagh, and 2014 versus Donegal.
Verdict: Dublin
The42 Podcasts / SoundCloud
Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:
