Dean Rock: I expect a big performance from Kerry and reckon they will beat Derry pretty convincingly
Tadhg Morley and David Clifford will be aiming to help Kerry lay down a marker to all fellow challengers when they face Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Derry are the Division One National League champions. So, on the face of it, perhaps it’s understandable there is a school of thought that Kerry might be undercooked entering Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final.Galway look to break out of their 90-year championship straitjacket I felt last week’s trip to Castlebar was going to be a real test of their character and, to be fair, they came away from MacHale Park with a significant victory. But the bar goes up another level again now because, with the greatest of respect to Mayo, I don’t believe that Mayo team are anywhere near the level of Kerry right now.
Despite the lack of a serious challenge and this perception Kerry are vulnerable by consequence of not having dug out wins from hard-fought matches, my hunch is they will be quite happy and content in terms of where they are at four weeks out from a potential All-Ireland final. Graham O’Sullivan is coming back from injury and is named among the subs while Brian Ó Beaglaoich played the full match against Meath – the first time in two years he started and finished a game for the Kingdom, and he is again named in the first 15 for Sunday.
But that can free up other players to take advantage of the space created by double-ups on Clifford and O’Shea. And when they both play inside, it forces the opposition sweeper to also drop deep and take a position around the 20m line. Derry’s Brendan Rogers and Conor Glass celebrate the late point which forced the game against Mayo to extra time. Derry will look to the duo for an edge at midfield against Kerry. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
My dad would have done a lot of match commentaries alongside Micheál, and as a kid I would have regularly tagged along. He was an incredible man, I can still remember him telling me he could see me playing for Dublin – long before that even felt like a possibility.
Kerry-Gaa Derry-Gaa David-Clifford
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