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28 MINOR
August 3, 2007 | Gaelic Life
Tyrone backs
can shut
down Kerry
Red Hands should have pedigree to
overcome Kingdom’s kids
ALL-IRELAND MINOR FOOTBALL
CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER FINAL
Tyrone v Kerry
Tullamore (Sunday 3.45pm)
CONTROVERSY aside, the Ulster
final against Derry proved
that Tyrone are no mean shakes
when it comes to their defence.
This paper hyped up Derry’s full
and centre half back but it was
the Tyrone defenders who really
stepped up to the mark, limiting
Derry to only seven scores, 1-6.
Captain Aidan Girvan was a
rock at full back while Ryan Pickering
and Paul Martin’s presence
were enough to stop the full forward
line of Lee Moore and Gavin
McGeehan making any real impact
on the game.
Moore and McGeehan were
limited to 1-2, while Derry’s key
man James Kielt notched up
three points.
However, at the other end of
the field Tyrone only managed to
score 0-10 albeit in the aftermath
one of those was discovered to
have been a wide. Just how Tyrone
will react to the fall out from
‘the point that never was’ will be
interesting. According to their
manager all that has been
brushed under the carpet and
they are fully focused on this
game.
They cruised through the Ulster
championship with a poise
and maturity uncommon in minor
sides and only in the final did
they get knocked of their stride.
Credit where credit’s due Tyrone
put on a good display after a dismal
first half although Derry
fought tooth and nail and should
have got their draw. However,
this team are a group of fighters
and Cathal McCrory’s late point
that won the game against Derry
was the perfect example of that
fact.
Their opponents on Sunday,
Kerry, are recovering from the
hangover from losing the Munster
final to old rivals Cork. Five
points split the two sides, 1-16 to
2-8 as Kerry never got off the
mark in Killarney at the end of
June.
Corner forward Barry John
Walsh hit both their goals in the
match and only one of their forwards
failed to score which may
provide some solace for Kerry. It
would appear that they found it
hard to defend against a free
scoring Cork team. That may be
a problem for them on Sunday as
Tyrone will be equally hard to
shackle up front.
According to the Kerry boss
JOHN KENNEDY
(KERRY MANAGER)
We have quite a number of injuries
to contend with about four
or five. They include Patrick Curran
(full-forward) who’s out with
a cruciate injury, Jamie Doolan
(corner-forward), Cian Tobin
(Sub) and Adam O’Reilly (Sub).
But that’s the way it is sometimes
and we just have to get on with
it. How well we perform will be a
sign of the strength of our panel.
Two of those players started the
Munster final (Curran and
Doolan) and they are a big loss
but we have a training panel of
30. The beauty of that is if you
get players injured then hopefully
you will have players able to
come in and take over.
It’s been a stop start season for
us. We were lucky to come out of
Munster. We had a tough game
against Tipperary and we were
lucky to get a draw against Limerick.
In the replay we had a really
good game.
In the Munster final we really felt
we didn’t play to the best of our
ability. The players just didn’t
perform on the day and we think
we can be better than that.
We have watched Tyrone through
the championship and we know
them from the colleges football.
We also saw the Ulster final. Derry
put up a good battle and I
don’t think that Tyrone played to
their full potential. What I do
think is that they are a very fit
time and have talent all across
their team. It will make for a real
battle. There are eight teams left
though and we feel that we are
good enough to be among them.
John Kennedy his side have had
a mediocre run during the Munster
minor championship. A draw
against Limerick and a hard
fought win over Tipp in the run to
the final does not inspire confidence.
Bearing in mind that two
of their first choice forwards are
injured, Jamie Doolan and
Patrick Curran, Sunday may be
another hard slog for the Kingdom’s
boys.
Managers» HAVE YOUR SAY
CATHAL McANENLY
(TYRONE ASST MANAGER)
Last weekend, all the boys came
through their senior championships
without incurring any injuries.
When players have this
many games then the main thing
is avoiding injuries. In terms of
the last game, they hype of that
was totally media driven. The way
we dealt with it was that we decided
we would take the attitude
that we were going to be playing
Kerry. If we let all the hype affect
us then we wouldn’t have been
able to prepare right.
At the end of the day we wanted
prepare properly and we didn’t allow
anything to affect us. We left
everything outside the game in
the hands of the officials and we
took it that we were going to be
playing Kerry.
We were disappointed with the
performance in the first half of
the Ulster final. But the positives
was that the boys in the second
half upped their game. We knew
the boys hadn’t performed to the
best of their ability but they
worked hard and hung on.
We know that Kerry have a reputation.
That is a big thing for a
team of young boys but that is
the way it is with every Kerry
team. They have got real dedication.
They were beaten in last
year’s All-Ireland final and they
will have some of those lads
available for this game. It will be
a very tough battle. In the Munster
final they didn’t perform to
the best of their ability.
There is no safety net now and it
will be a game that will go down
to the wire.