Mournemen aim for Final place

Séamus Leonard casts his eye over second of this year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-finals as qualifier survivors Down and Kildare do battle at Croke Park, for RTE News:

While the meeting of these two teams at All-Ireland semi-final stage could be considered novel, there is nothing particularly surprising about their progress to this point.

If it had been known that both Kerry and Tyrone would not make the final four, a lot of observers would have tipped Kildare and Down to be among the contenders to take their spots.

In Down’s case they took Kerry’s place directly. In overcoming the Kingdom, the Ulster side maintained an amazing unbeaten record in Championship games against the Munster giants.

And while Kerry are in a transitional stage and were missing suspended duo Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin, Down’s achievement should not be diminished.

The Mourne men have always had capable forwards, although the pressure on Benny Coulter to shoulder the scoring burden has weighed the Mayobridge man down at times.

But the return of Martin Clarke from his stint in Australian Rules has reinvigorated Down’s attack this year, with both his dead ball expertise and contribution from open play playing a major part in their improvement.

Manager James McCartan was a forward by trade during his playing career, but he has had to focus on shoring up Down’s previously leaky defence in his first year in charge. They had the most watertight rearguard in Division 2 of the National League, where they went unbeaten in their seven games.

They may have lost out to neighbours Armagh in the final, but Division 1 football for 2011 had already been secured and they had set down a marker for what was to come in the summer.

Their Ulster campaign was ended prematurely when Tyrone proved too streetwise for them in the quarter-final, but wins over Longford, Offaly and Sligo in the qualifiers afforded them a crack at Kerry in the last eight of the All-Ireland series.

Kildare’s Leinster Championship was over before it even began when they were dumped out by Louth in the quarter-finals.

But just as they did when they were beaten by Wicklow in 2008, the Lilywhites were able to dust themselves down and build slowly through the back door. They needed a replay to get the better of Antrim, but got the result they needed up in Casement Park before accounting for Leitrim, Derry and Monaghan in subsequent rounds.

They came up against a fancied Meath side in the All-Ireland quarters, and despite losing midfielder Dermot Earley to a knee injury early on they managed to run out eight-point winners.

It would have been hard to envisage Kildare coping with losing the Sarsfields clubman a couple of years ago, but the fact they did shows how mentally tough they have become under Kieran McGeeney’s stewardship.

As you would expect from a McGeeney team, they are extremely resilient defensively, but the most notable aspect of their performances is the number of chances they create.

Granted they shoot a huge number of wides but they never lose faith and have managed to rack some impressive tallies, including a whopping 2-17 against Derry up in Celtic Park.

Earley has been named in Kildare’s starting line-up, but it would be a major surprise if he makes the throw-in and even more surprising if he lasts for anything close to 70 minutes.

Kildare are probably the more complete outfit at the moment, but Down have a proud history at Croke Park. The Mourne men have an impressive ratio of five All-Ireland titles to 12 Ulster Championships.

They haven’t reached the All-Ireland semis since 1994 (before the qualifier system was introduced) and so that effectively means that they have won Sam Maguire almost one in every two times they have mastered their province.

Belief plays a huge part at this stage, and while neither side should be lacking in that department, the self-assurance Down showed against Kerry suggests they could be the ones to face Cork on the third Sunday in September.

Verdict: Down