MARC Ó SÉ SAYS the weekend’s provincial finals have convinced him that Derry have leapfrogged above Kerry in the Sam Maguire pecking order.
Derry, Dublin, Galway and Kerry claimed honours at the weekend to book their places in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Dublin’s ruthlessness attacking play where they scored five goals against Kildare means Ó Sé now rates them as the number one contenders for the All-Ireland. And he feels Derry are next in line following their extra-time defeat of Donegal in Ulster.
“I genuinely think after the weekend, and of course people are going to accuse me of being a cute Kerry hoor now, I would have Dublin at number one, Derry at number two and Kerry at number three the way things are going,” he said on the latest episode of The42 GAA Weekly.
“And I’ve reasons for that. I think this Derry team have shown us…they’ve beaten the All-Ireland champions, they’ve beaten the Ulster finalists from last year Monaghan who were just pipped by Tyrone and they’ve now beaten a very experienced Donegal team. Hats off to Rory Gallagher, nobody will want to play Derry in the next round.
“A lot of the things they do, their unsporting tactics, wouldn’t be up there for me. For example putting players off on free-kicks and all that. I have to say that in terms of ability, the players they have, they’re playing to their strengths.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll play their game in Croke Park but I just think they have players that will frustrate the life out of you. Take for example Kerry down in Pairc Ui Rinn, Cork were able to frustrate the life out of them for 50 minutes.
“When you have players up the other end, you have quality down the middle with Conor Glass. Up front with McGuigan, Herron. Players at the back then like the wing-back Doherty tearing up the field.
“I just think you have the players that can play the game the way Rory Gallagher wants it to be played. Hats off to them they are the story of the championship, there’s no doubt about that and they put in some performance yesterday.”
🗣️ "People are going to accuse me of being a cute Kerry hoor now..." @osemarc2 makes a bold claim after this weekend's round of provincial finals!
— The42.ie (@The42_ie) May 30, 2022
Is he being genuine though? 🤔
Listen to the42 GAA Weekly 🏐https://t.co/gmmE7i3ndx pic.twitter.com/rJHgU2e6QM
Kerry scored 1-28 and were comfortable 23-point winners over Limerick in the Munster decider.
Afterwards, Limerick manager Billy Lee praised the respect Kerry showed them by not running in further goals, but Ó Sé saw it differently.
“I was disappointed from a Kerry point of view. I know Billy Lee said Kerry held back, fair play, they showed respect by not scoring goals. Sure what good is that for Kerry. You need to be creating goalscoring opportunities.
“There were one or two opportunities I did notice - Gavin White had one at one stage – where the goal was on. And (they went), ‘Okay, the game is over so I’ll just take the point.’
“You have to create these scoring opportunities and if you create them you have to take them. You have to be ruthless, regardless of the opposition. If you want to be at the white heat of it towards the tail end of the championship, you need to go at it now.
“A Munster final is a Munster final, regardless if you’re beating a team by 20 points or whatever. If there’s goals to be taken, take them. I left Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday and I was disappointed because okay Limerick didn’t put up a show but in saying that Kerry got one goal.
“That’s not good enough. I came home and watched the Dublin match. When I saw them firing in the goals for fun, I said we really need to up our standards a small bit. From that point of view there’s plenty of work to do in Kerry.”
