Tyrone All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley spoke to Joe Molloy about the weekend’s Super 8 matches including Kerry’s defeat to Galway, Tyrone’s demolition of Roscommon and a look ahead to this weekend’s huge clash between Dublin and Tyrone.
“Kerry for me are caught in no-man's land. Kerry just seem to be a team that Eamonn Fitzmaurice has lots of ways of playing them, but hasn’t settled on one. And whenever you don’t have your ‘go to style of play’ in the modern game against well drilled teams, it just falls apart. In the modern game, whenever a team starts to go ahead they just accelerate further and further ahead and that’s what happened with Galway.
“The Kerry-Monaghan game is massive. Monaghan are gonna be like men at war in that match. Here they are, playing on their home pitch in Clones against Kerry, and it’s a wounded Kerry. I don’t see a Kerry that’s sure of what they are at, at the minute as a team. And that’s a massive game for Kerry. I’m almost suspecting that Monaghan could win and if that’s the case, Kerry are gone which is unbelievable really”, he said.
After watching his county hammer a poor Roscommon side, McGinley gave his take on the match.
“How bad Roscommon were, they just were like lost souls out on that pitch. They were no match for Tyrone’s speed. They were no match for Tyrone’s physicality. Tyrone were at a complete level above them. They really put them to the sword in a ruthless manner”.
With Tyrone scoring for fun at the minute and looking like the team of old, McGinley shared his thoughts on the game against Dublin this weekend, and if Tyrone have enough to banish their 2017 championship memories.
“I hope it is. I think Tyrone will have learnt an awful lot from that. Tyrone are going to come up against a team who’s been there, done that ,and will annihilate you with their own skill. Look at the players who they had on the pitch. We didn’t even hear of them last year.
“The way they use the pitch, the forward play is unbelievable. I think it’s gonna be a fascinating game. I just think Tyrone have massively improved and I think they will make it very tight but I think Dublin will come out of there by two or three points.
“For me as a Tyrone person the worst thing about that All-Ireland semi-final was that them Dublin players will be waking up tomorrow morning without a sore on them. When you wake up the next morning after a championship game, your body should be sore.
“Last year's All-Ireland semi final was essentially non contact. Tyrone did not lay a paw on them. For me Tyrone have to man up. They have to go toe to toe and unsettle Dublin. Dublin’s work rate and their physically is off the scale. That is why they’re the team that they are.”
