SHOWTIME

Kerry and Dublin ready to rock Croke Park

If you love football, that roar between Amhrann na bhFiann and throw-in is sweeter than Sweetest Thing, more glorious than Glory Days, more satisfying than Satisfaction, and more paradisiacal than Paradise.

Some of the most famous rock musicians in the world have played in Croke Park.

U2, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, to name but a few.

This week, hundreds of thousands of people queued online for hours on end, trying (and in most cases failing) to get tickets for Coldplay’s upcoming gigs at GAA headquarters.

Hosting concerts is a major source of income for the Association and it’s wonderful to see these global superstars performing in our nation’s most iconic stadium. But with all due respect to Bono and the Boss and Jagger and Chris Martin, none of them will ever rock Croke Park like Dublin and Kerry do. The deafening noise at 3.29pm on Sunday would drown out all their biggest hits.

The game’s greatest rivals on the main stage in the All-Ireland final. Music to our ears.

Back Together

If you’ll bear with the musical metaphor for just a little longer, Dublin really got the band back together for 2023. Stephen Cluxton, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion, all preposterously decorated players, returned to the panel after some time away. To paraphrase Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, they didn’t come back to make up the numbers.

After coming up short in 2021 and 2022, the Dubs are hungry for another All-Ireland. It would be a flamboyant exclamation point at end of some of their careers, most notably for Cluxton, James McCarthy and Mick Fitzsimons, all of whom are seeking a record-breaking ninth Celtic Cross.

For others, like Con O’Callaghan and Brian Fenton, it would be a communiqué to the rest of the country that they haven’t gone away, and that they’re not going anywhere any time soon.

ARC

Kerry, meanwhile, are plotting a very different arc. Having secured what was, for the vast majority of the panel, a first All-Ireland last year, they are now hoping to show us they are no one-hit wonders.

In David Clifford they have the sport’s undisputed superstar, a young man who has been in outrageous form since around 2004. He was born in 1999. Tony Brosnan has sadly been ruled out due to the recurrence of a respiratory issue, but the return of Killian Spillane (ankle) is a boost.

As for Dublin, Seán Bugler missed the semi-final with a calf injury. His availability was unknown as we went to print.

VERDICT: Dublin will provide Kerry with their toughest test to date and their strength in depth is a definite advantage. However, Kerry have proven themselves to be obdurate in close games and, as they proved in 2022, they have enough intelligence and skill to get the job done. Kerry to win by a point or two.