Inside Track: There’s nothing new about the pairing for All-Ireland final

There’s a familiar look about the pairing for Sunday’s All-Ireland football final.

But how close it came to us having an all-Ulster meeting, or a repeat of 1958 when Dublin played Derry, or the 1930 clash of Kerry and Monaghan.

The semi-finals were much closer than anticipated.

This will be the 15th meeting of Kerry and Dublin in a final.

The first was when the last century was, like the GAA itself, only a child. It wasn’t, however, until the 1970s that the fixture really took off.

Dublin were title-holders, having come from way off the pace, and Kerry were only tugging along without reaching the heights, when they met in 1975.

This was the start of the greatest rivalry Gaelic football has ever known.

Dublin won that year, but it was Kerry’s turn twelve months later.

The result was the same in ’77, only this time the sides met at the semi-final stage, with Kevin Heffernan’s side going on to beat Armagh in the final.

It all went Kerry’s way after that until recent years.

They routed the old enemy 5-11 to 0-9, before winning the last of the decade’s deciders by 3-13 to 1-8.

The Kingdom were on a roll at the time.

A third and fourth successive win (against Roscommon and Offaly) had them attempting to make history in 1982, but as remarked upon on this page last week, Offaly avenged the previous year’s defeat, Seamus Darby’s late goal ending Kerry’s bid for five-in-a row.

Dublin and Kerry were at it again in the first part of the 1980s, twice squaring up to each other in the final round in successive years.

Kerry won both, and then brought up the hat-trick by beating Tyrone.

Jack O’Shea said at one of the hugely successful gatherings which the since-disbanded Louth Supporters’ Club organised, that had Kerry brought up the five-timer, they wouldn’t have achieved the later hat-trick.

Players would have retired, or maybe lost their enthusiasm for inter-county football.

There have been three meetings in the last decade, Dublin winning two of them on the way to recording the quite remarkable achievement of six-in-a-row.

Back to the present and the semi-finals.

The two big guns were expected to win, and they did.

But what a fine performance Monaghan turned in against Dublin, and what a fright Derry gave Kerry? The Oak Leaf did more than just put the frighteners on, with the game well inside the final quarter, they looked to have a real chance of taking the honours.

Up until then, they more than matched the warm favourites, and at times looked the better team.

Three late Kerry points and one for Derry, left two between them.

Guile, allied to experience and the educated boot of David Cliffford, were telling at the finish of a game that, thankfully, had more emphasis on attack than defence.

Derry will have regrets, and so, too, will Monaghan.

If only McAnespie played that ball to O’Hanlon, instead of trying to steer it past Cluxton and a couple of defenders. And how lucky was Cluxton as he grappled with a shot at the angle of post and crossbar.

A goal from either could have left the Farney much better placed to face the late Dublin onslaught, highlighted by the 1-1 from Dean Rock, giving the final scoreline a look that didn’t do justice to the Monaghan effort.

So it’s back to Croker on Sunday for a final that promises so much.

The only time blanket defending figures in either team’s preparation is when the opposition is likely to employ it; and although passing across the field and backwards is not foreign to them, expect to see plenty of attempts to punch holes in the opposition’s defence.

And there should be fair few tries for long distance points.

It should be a great game, and Dublin might snatch it.