McShea's Say: Is Ulster football all it’s cracked up to be?

After watching the two All-Ireland semi-finals on Saturday and Sunday, I wondered were we delusional about the quality and strength of Ulster football?

I had expressed the view before Sunday that this year's Ulster championship lacked quality, and Derry’s display against Galway was very poor.

They played like a team who expected to encounter visa problems if they crossed the halfway line. It was suggested that Derry worked on everything in obsessive detail, trying to rub out the margin for error that might cost them the work of a season, but they screwed up.

They are human, nobody is perfect, but it was difficult to understand how they were simply dismal when Galway eventually came to realise that this game was there for the taking. On Sunday Derry played as the Irish soccer team played under Jack Charlton as manager when his philosophy was “If plan A fails, try plan A again”.

Watching this game, which was a very poor spectacle, I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to the Derry against Donegal Ulster final, when Donegal quite clearly missed the boat.

A glaring lack of ambition when Donegal were two points in front with eight minutes to go, cost that championship. On Sunday Galway full-forward Damien Comer won the man of the match award for his excellent performance against Derry full-back Brendan Rogers, who could not handle the power and ability of the Galway man.

Against Donegal, Rogers won his award for being allowed to play out the pitch when Michael Murphy was positioned in a defensive slot. Comer is a top-class footballer, but is he a better full forward than Murphy? No, he is not.

The other imponderable from a tactical point of view was how Derry decided to allow their goalkeeper Odhrán Lynch travel all over Croke Park with devastating consequences for his team when he was absent without leave for Comer’s second goal which effectively finished this match as a contest.

This tactic where a team is depending on a keeper for scores at this level of football has never worked and never will, and one must ask is a forward line so fragile that a goalkeeper must join the ranks of attack?

Galway are worthy football finalists. They are a county with a great footballing tradition, their players always play with great belief. They will be underdogs on Sunday week against Kerry, but they will in no way feel out of place in this final.

The Dublin versus Kerry game was a great spectacle, described by Colm O’Rourke as one of the great occasions in Irish sport.
It was compulsive viewing and Kerry’s winning point from their captain Sean O’Shea was simply exceptional. I felt that O'Shea was more than a little fortunate to still be on the pitch at that stage as his tackle on the Dublin keeper Evan Comerford after missing the penalty deserved a card of some description.

It was dangerous play and merited at least a black or a yellow card. O’Shea did pick up a yellow card later in the match and could count himself very fortunate not to have taken the long walk. The negative football which is the scourge of modern Gaelic games was not much in evidence in this great battle, the awful term parking the bus is not an issue in the footballing philosophy of Dessie Farrell or Kerry manager Jack O'Connor.

In a match speckled with some wonderful individual displays, the Clifford brothers and Sean O’Shea displayed skill of the highest level while Dublin, who at least deserved a draw, saw Ciaran Kilkenny, Brian Fenton and James McCarthy continue the form that has saw them amass their six successive All-Ireland medals.

Their desire and will to win was again admirable on this wonderful occasion. The post match interview with Dublin manager Dessie Farrell after what was a gut-wrenching defeat was a master class in sportsmanship and both teams are also to be complimented for the sporting approach by both sides to a special occasion.

The loss of Con O’Callaghan to injury was a defining moment for Dublin’s prospects. After breaking into the Dublin senior team he immediately established himself as a top goal scorer and earned an All Star as part of an All-Ireland winning side.
O Callaghan quickly became a leader in what was a gifted squad, and his absence was impossible to quantify on Sunday.

Donegal’s great victory over Dublin
Donegal manager Maxi Curran once again worked his magic when his ladies team played top class football to beat a very experienced Dublin team and qualify for the All-Ireland semi-final against Meath.

He has brought Donegal ladies to the top table in Ladies football and kept them there. For his commitment and dedication he deserves our congratulations as do the members of an exceptional squad of players. Michael Naughton, the President of the LGFA,has also made a very positive contribution to what is a great success story.