WEA Supplement - Flipbook - Page 3
ALL-IRELAND SFC FINAL
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10 2021
IN ASSOCIATION
WITH
www.irishnews.com
3
A spectacle to
be savoured
BY PAUL McCONVILLE
Sports Editor
THE ever-growing influence
of KIERAN McGEARY has
been critical in Tyrone’s
Championship success
in 2021. He relives what
has been a turbulent and
eventful campaign with
NEIL LOUGHRAN
p4-5
LEE KEEGAN had been
written off by many as being
past it ahead of this summer,
but he has proved the
doubters wrong with one
of his best seasons ever
in the Mayo jersey.
EDWIN McGREAL profiles
the Westport man
p16-17
FILLING Mickey Harte’s
boots is as tough a gig as
a managerial team can get
but FEARGAL LOGAN and
BRIAN DOOHER have proved
more than up to the task, an
achievement acknowledged
by the county’s chairman
MICHAEL KERR
p8-9
THE Irish News’ football columnist KEVIN MADDEN breaks down the tactics and looks
at where tomorrow’s intriguing decider could be won and lost
p14-15
SOME of Ulster’s leading
inter-county players reveal
who they think will win
and why
p10-11
TEST your footballing
knowledge with our
All-Ireland final quiz
p20
A look back at the five previous
Championship meetings between
the sides, with Mayo leading 4-1
p22-23
PÁDRAIG Ó MEISCILL charts the progress of both sides through their provincial campaigns and
their heart-stopping All-Ireland semi-final victories
p6-7 & p18-19
L
UCK is when opportunity
meets preparation.
Pete McGrath, Brian McEniff, Joe
Kernan, Mickey Harte and Jim
McGuinness will tell you that
any of the All-Ireland titles they
guided their respective counties
to contained an element of luck.
The late Eamon Coleman, with
that famed twinkle in his eye
and mischievous grin, would
surely concur.
Yet, good fortune only favours
those who have put in the hard
yards away from the glare of
ever-growing crowds in this
year’s Championship.
Around 40,000 will file into Croke
Park on Saturday imbued with
nervous excitement, knowing
that at any point their route they
could easily have been derailed.
Donegal had a chance to take
a five-point lead on Tyrone in
their Ulster semi-final played
in feverish heat in Ballybofey
in July. Michael Murphy strode
up to send Niall Morgan the
wrong way from the penalty
spot. The ball struck the post,
the Red Hands recycled and
in the blink of an eye Kieran
McGeary clipped over a point
and changed the landscape of
the contest.
Mayo were facing yet another
agonising defeat to their own
habitual conquerors in the
All-Ireland semi-final against
Dublin.
When Dublin took a 0-10 to
0-4 half-time lead, it looked
like the same old story for the
men from the west. However,
they summoned spirit and
stamina in equal measure to
force extra-time and an epic
victory, Diarmuid O’Connor’s
outstretched leg to prevent the
ball going dead epitomising
their refusal to count anything
as a lost cause.
Supreme conditioning at the
highest level is almost a given
these days, and yet both Tyrone
and Mayo have shown
jaw-dropping levels of fitness
and resilience to allow them
to grab those moments of
opportunity when they have
come their way.
Neither county will lack
motivation, neither lack
footballers of the highest
quality and neither will be
found wanting when it comes to
putting their bodies on the line.
It all adds up to an absorbing
contest and one which will
demand eyes fixed on it for
every single second.