Everybody was wrong about the football championshiop being a three-horse race. The upshot is that each of the semi-finalists are legitimate contenders for Sam Maguire
Malachy Clerkin: All four teams know there is an All-Ireland on offer, if they can reach out and grab it
Ahem. This country has had enough of experts, as the man said. Two of the horses haven’t even made it to the semi-finals. Which, when you consider how hard it is for contenders to get knocked out of the competition before the last 12, means that Derry and Dublin barely finished the first circuit. The race for Sam Maguire started in earnest a fortnight ago and as soon as the pace hotted up, they both cried enough.ought to have rung louder alarm bells than was the case.
The point is, we went a long time without novelty being part of the deal. The teams everyone assumed would be involved at the end generally tended to turn up. Dublin were a monolith for pretty much all of it and when they weren’t, Kerry swooped in to gather up a couple of All-Irelands. Ho-hum. This year is different. The attraction of the 2024 semi-final line-up lies in the fact that you can’t dismiss any of the four teams left. A fortnight from now, one of them will be standing on the steps of the Hogan Stand with the canister in the air. Go on – say which one it won’t be. Double-dare ya.
Crucially, all four are being led by managers who belong to the biggest days the sport has to offer. Jack O’Connor, Kieran McGeeney, Jim McGuinness, Pádraic Joyce. All-Ireland winners all, either as player or manager. None of them will arrive at Croke Park with impostor syndrome. None of their players will get off the bus feeling anything less than convinced that this is there for them.
Here’s hoping it emboldens them. Time and time again, the lesson of knock-out football in Croke Park has been that trying to bore the other crowd into submission generally fails. You can compete, you can hang in there, you can make the closing stages a bingo draw and hope your number comes up. But actually winning tends to take a bit more than that.
Kerry-Gaa Armagh-Gaa Donegal-Gaa Galway-Gaa
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