The 16th Man

WHEN Kerry hammered Dublin by 17 points in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final it was written off as a bad day at the office for the Dubs.

Sure, the Kingdom were always going to win the game - no matter what the hype about the Boys in Blue might have suggested - but 17 points was surely flattering. No?

Well, it turns out that 1-24 to 1-7, a joint Championship record gap between the teams, wasn’t in any way misleading.

On Sunday for the second summer game in succession the Dubs stunk up Croke Park in the first half.

Against Wexford they were clueless and leaderless for alarmingly long stretches. In the first 35 minutes they only managed two points, which is one less than they shot in the Kerry match before the break.

Around the same time as this latest Headquarters howler Kerry were putting together a marvellous, gutsy come-from-behind win over Cork, the team that many people were tipping to take Sam Maguire this year.

The All-Ireland champions may indeed be coming to the end of a glorious cycle, with five defenders on the wrong side of the 30-mark, but they are still burning bright.

So long as Paul Galvin remains involved throughout the season (though this is a big ‘if’ following a clash with the Rebels’ Eoin Cadogan highlighted on the Sunday Game at the weekend) there isn’t another team to touch them this year.

Cork are lacking the killer instinct and a forward approaching the quality of Colm Cooper to keep the scoreboard ticking over even when things aren’t going well.

It would be a truly enormous achievement for Tyrone to win back the All-Ireland after a two year break with a team still leaning on veteran warriors like Brian Dooher, Ryan McMenamin and Conor Gormley.

Mayo have fallen off the map, Galway will be worrying more about Sligo than booking hotel rooms in Citywest for September and outside of that the chasing pack disappear into the distance.

And the chasing pack is just where Dublin find themselves.

Manager Pat Gilroy said before the start of the season that his team were unlikely to win an All-Ireland this year and how right he was. The worry is that his three-year building project may not produce anything of lasting value either.

It seems as though he has finally sorted out his fullback line, but the midfield is non-existent.

The defensive system he tried during the League worked on smaller, slower pitches, but in Croke Park last Sunday players didn’t seem to know their roles. There were bodies behind the ball alright, but it didn’t prevent Wexford from scoring.

And put simply, Kerry just have better footballers than the rest.

Near the end of normal time in Sunday’s game Paul Flynn had a chance to play Bernard Brogan in for the winner but his 30-yard foot pass floated towards Wexford keeper Anthony Masterson. Had it been Declan O’Sullivan or Paul Galvin loading the bullets the pass would have been right on the money.

Brogan didn’t have his best day, kicking seven wides along with 2-4, but Gilroy should be praying that he doesn’t get injured or red carded any time soon.