Anthony Moyles joined Ger and Colm earlier this evening on Off The Ball to discuss the upcoming All-Ireland semi final between Dublin and Kerry.
Stephen Cluxton and Paul Flynn have been the pivotal men for Dublin so far this season and our GAA pundits see their importance to the team continuing this weekend. Moyles believes the combination of these two All-Stars is vital for the DUbs.
“Flynn is absolutely unbelievable, the amount of work he does for Cluxton’s kick outs is unbelievable. When Cluxton realises his half back line and midfield are gone he goes for the half forward line which was Flynn from the far side of the field making a run all the way across the pitch into that space. Make a fifty or sixty yard run, get the ball and shift it on. He literally never stops running.”
Colm, who also has good experience of facing Dublin, and particularly Cluxton, agreed but was shocked that nobody has figured out a way to stop it.
“Cluxton has been doing that for over 10 years now and every single game you wonder how nobody has figured out Cluxton’s kick-outs. It’s been 10 years, how much video evidence do you need? But it’s because of the movement. The midfield, half back line and half forward line they almost move like a full-forward line waiting on a free. It’s no surprise that after 10 years nobody has figured it out. Cluxton always seems to find one man.”
Kerry have not been completely written off. Yet, in order to gain an upper hand their defence needs to be on top of the Dublin forwards.
Bernard Brogan, for so long the talisman of the Dublin side has been having a quiet season since the championship began and Moyles believes that Kerry need to target that and focus more on the Dublin forwards who have been playing well.
“I think if they put O Sé on Bernard Brogan it would be a mistake. If he was on Brogan for 5 or 10 minutes and Brogan is not having a good game then I would switch him over to Mannion. You’d love to see Bernard have a great game but he might be just having one of those years. Quite often what can happen is then you put your best back on him and the other lad in corner forward is doing serious damage.”
Coming down to the crunch both Colm and Anthony concede that Dublin are likely to win regardless of what Kerry do on the day.
“Dublin have got about 30% stronger and Kerry maybe 30% weaker and that’s why I’m going for Dublin,” Colm said.
Moyles agreed: “I still think Dublin have enough pace and power and everything else. I think they could win it by five or six.”
No doubt it hurt both these former opponents of the capital side of them to lean in Dublin’s direction over the Kingdom but performance and form tells us that it is likely to be Dublin joining Mayo in this year’s final.
Listen to the discussion here;
