Indo GAA
Dublin's Brennan bounce, Donegal have no plan B | Kerry’s class shines | Mayo press on | The GAA Weekend ??
25 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Dublin's match against Donegal?
What a tense match we have today.
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more power to you T's and C's apply 18 plus bet responsibly gamblingcare.ie Hey there we are Indosport with me John Malloy we cover sport and we have things like this I was kind of blunt well yeah world's not fair you have stage 4 cancer oh well world's not fair but sometimes I think that bluntness helps me and like me and Tommy have Terrible sense of humour.
I think it's really hard for people who don't know us very well because sometimes we throw out something really, really dark and people are like, Jesus, Ciara, they haven't been around me on this process long enough just yet for me to throw out a little bit of that. But me and Tommy find our ways to cope.
This is an Irish Independent Podcast. Now, welcome everyone. So the football championship keeps on giving. That's the short version here. Round three was every bit as exciting as we hoped in many ways. And we have our All-Ireland quarterfinal draw. So we're assuming, we think on the Sunday, we'll have Galway Dublin and we'll have Loudmonaghan and then Saturday will be Cork Mayo.
And Kerry against Tyrone. This is after Kerry beat Armagh. 418 to 17 points for Sherald Stadium. Mayo did Mayo things. It was like getting the band back together against Meath. 22 points to 213 on Sunday. Dublin, Dublin, Dublin. Some people in this studio were saying they had no chance on Friday. Not me. Possibly me. Against Donegal. 2.26 to 2.22.
And then Monaghan's second half blitz against Westmeath. 1.28 to 2.19. All four home teams won. That counts for anything. And on we go. Our GAA coverage is sponsored by AIB. Proud sponsors of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. AIB know that the support of backroom teams can have a real impact and that behind every county are those who lift us all.
Surprisingly not wearing his Dublin jersey into the studio today. Philly McMahon, who tipped the dubs. Have maybe on the morning. Tipped the dubs in the paper at the weekend. Some people knew. Colm Keyes is with us.
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Chapter 2: How did Kerry's performance compare against Armagh?
That's a long, long time ago, but I think he might have missed out a year.
I will defer to you. Niall Guyton, we apologise if Colin Keyes is wrong.
We may not. I might be wrong.
Maybe we'll edit that back in. He's part of that scene.
He's from good stock. Yeah, from great stock.
I'm that age. I'm that age. It's funny with Sean Guyton because, not the place to start, but Conor McKeown was saying even during the league for Sylvester's, he'd be kicking huge scores and there was always an acknowledgement, a great kicker, but Dublin took their time getting him in.
welcome to the party yeah crazy like he hasn't played much and he's come on to such a big game in the cauldron in terms of energy he was tight and spinners like absolute spinners like not just little over the bar like no these are big scores two pointer was a magnificent score
it was so calm when he kicked it like it was just like I'm relaxed it was so seasonal type you know experience type style I'm just gonna he knew when he was getting that ball I'm kicking this because his whole body shape was relaxed and kicked through yeah so Ross McGarry got two from the bench he got four including that two pointer so six points from the bench for Dublin just three for Donegal they were all down to Ryan McHugh just one of the aspects which allowed Dublin to win this game talk to us talk to us where are we starting here
Can we start with that photo for a second? I'll hold it up for people watching. And it is Ger Brennan, who I think we can agree has had a rough summer. And his son Patrick, who looks maybe nine or ten to me, is on the pitch at Crow Park. It's Father's Day. An amazing moment for him, for his son, for the family. You've got to be happy for Ger Brennan after what's been a rotten first.
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Chapter 3: What strategies did Monaghan employ in their game against Westmeath?
Kennedy was brilliant. The bench was brilliant. Pascal was brilliant. Paddy Small was back, punching holes, beating men. So for me, it's the energy that a group has. And do you know what excites me? I think there's more in them. I think there's a little bit more to add into the quality of them in terms of, let's say, shot execution, a few little turnovers.
But what was amazing for me yesterday, when I say they have a bit about them, is their backup defence was on point.
And that was the big worry yesterday. It was like, how are they going to contain Donegal's running game? Which, to be fair, didn't materialise the way they might have feared. But there was a sense like Dublin in defence are going to find this very difficult.
Yeah, I was worried. I was like, big open space, we've a rookie back six, you know, only kind of gelling together and it's changing and shopping and changing. And I was worried that, you know, when I looked at McGee and Langen and Pader Morgan, they were getting on the ball, they were getting scores early on. I was like, oh, this could open up, but they never really kicked on.
And Dublin just kept score after score. It was like, in a way, I'm sure they weren't saying this, we'll have to outscore these today. But then they got the back-up defence. Then they got the turnovers when they blocked up the middle channel. Then they were winning the dirty ball on the long kick-outs.
Yeah, likes of Scully getting back winning big balls in defence. Ciarán Kilkenny back there winning big balls in defence.
Ciarán Kilkenny, his interception, when I think it was McMorrow was... was robbed by Shane Malone and Shane O'Donnell was inside and Kilkenny gets back in to get a hand. And then there was that Ross McGarry interception at the Canal End goals.
And it was full of those type of moments from Dublin, scrambling moments, crowd lifting moments, defiant moments that probably hadn't been there, certainly this season or maybe the last couple of seasons in the same way that they really, they fought, to use Gerlach Nan's phrase, they fought on their backs for this one. And I think that's what really, really will please Dublin, Dublin supporters.
Everybody will be uplifted by that win.
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Chapter 4: How did Mayo adapt their tactics in the second half against Meath?
Right.
And it was a picture of game after game after game. But actually, since the league final, that's not been the case. Only the back-to-back weeks for Donegal between the Cork game, which they probably felt they should have closed out, and this week there was a week's gap. But before that, four weeks from the league final to the down game. four weeks then to Kerry and three weeks to the Cork game.
So that's a schedule that any team should be grateful for in the current climate and it should have suited them. So it was a little bit at odds what he was saying with that schedule. But he said with nothing in the tank and sure enough it didn't. I felt Donegal... And again, a little bit of hindsight. But yes, they looked one-dimensional.
You mentioned the Mogan goal, which was brilliant counter-attacking off, wasn't it? It was off a kick-out and just that movement. But constant weaving across the arc, around the 40-metre arc to try and find those gaps. And you said it there, Conor, Dublin weren't buying what Donegal were selling. And they weren't. They were holding their shape.
And if we were in here after the league final and just the movement and the ability to hold on to the ball for so long, well, they stuck with that. And Dublin held their shape and were able to pounce at the right moments. And those gaps didn't appear. And Dublin didn't... They didn't commit. They didn't overcommit in the tackle. They held their shape. They held their position.
And that was the way to contain them. And I just felt there was no ball in over the top. I didn't feel the wind was any advantage to the only goal because they don't kick the ball enough. They don't kick the ball. Michael Murphy, sometimes playing in the full forward line, still well able to win his own ball, as we saw in the Ulster final with some of his catches last year.
So well able to take a ball. no ball over the top to try and threaten that Dublin defence, which was a little bit vulnerable in previous games too. Jim McGuinness says everything has to be looked at. And it does, because I thought, you know, they were a little bit careless, maybe against down in the build up and their, their minds were elsewhere.
And maybe, maybe they were just overly Kerry focused in some way in everything that they did, that their best performances were against Kerry and somewhere down the line, they expected we're going to be meeting them again. So everything has to go into that. But ultimately, they may not be as good as we thought they were. And I think that we have to come to that conclusion right now.
Because even if you look at their bench, if you look at it written down, you're not saying that's a brilliant bench in the way you're looking at maybe Kerry's and when Kerry get the extra few players back.
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Chapter 5: What impact did injuries have on the teams' performances?
I do think they... It's just so volatile this season. It's mad what's happening. It's brilliant.
Three defeats and four is down.
I understand that, but when you look at the squad itself, talk about the subs, Gallon, McHugh and Thompson alone coming off the bench. They're serious players.
Would Gallon and McHugh not have started yesterday? Why didn't they start? Maybe they kept them in reserve, but it's... Is that the right policy to... I don't know.
I actually saw Adrian Sweeney at Only Goal Legend giving out about the idea that they were taking Gallon off and he wasn't available then for the last 20 minutes of games. So maybe this was in Jim McGuinness' head as well where he wanted Gallon to finish the match.
He put him on and took him back off. Yeah. Which is kind of, hold on a second, this fella was your star forward last year in the All-Ireland Final League. Now, we don't know what's going on in behind the scenes.
A player came on yesterday, a filly called Sean Martin, and he played the last five minutes and then he was taken off again. So he got five minutes. Why didn't he continue on for extra time, a fresh pair of legs? Joe, you make the point about last year. Donegal played 11 games last year.
No team in Championship history has ever played more in the Championship, obviously on top of their seven games. So they had an 18-game schedule. And as Conor points out, they were flying in the semi-final against Meath. They literally overran Meath in that game, came into that All-Ireland final really primed. And this year, with far less games... There's much different background music.
I think it's very similar to what Jim McGuinness was saying in his third year of his previous term in 2013, if you recall. At that stage, he was... on about the schedule of the club championships and that was really a problem that was club championships played during the game and the players were broken then. There's no club championships this year.
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Chapter 6: How did the refereeing decisions affect the outcome of the games?
That strategy is like, wow, it's working, right? That's hitting our best numbers with that kind of style, right? The question really is when they played the other teams that they've been beaten against. Was it the strategy or was it actually not fulfilling the strategy?
Well, I think because if you look at the Cork game, I don't know, we didn't get to see the full thing, but Cork rock up, hold on to the ball. They're frustrating Donegal, Donegal on them basically, running the clock down, playing a shorter period of time and setting up zonally. And Donegal didn't really have a response to that. The same way that we've seen against Dublin then as well.
Dublin sit back zonally, hold on to the ball like Joe mentioned. And there's no element of, right, now we have to go man for man or now we have to play a different way for 10 minutes to try and just... But you have to take the lead. You have to always be the lead. But that's a bad strategy. They were always ahead of the game.
Yeah, but like, sorry, Donegal were 10 points ahead of Cork.
There's something here that doesn't add up. No but if you look at Armagh against Kerry Armagh were trying that same thing where they were holding on to the ball a possession type game but they're just being blitzed off.
No I get that and we'll come to that but I'm just saying you have to be ahead. Donegal were well ahead against Cork. You know there are kind of just things that are hard to explain.
And at different stages in the second half yes Donegal were still ahead and Dublin were playing into a wind, and I sense they're holding on to possession. O'Callaghan, I've watched O'Callaghan's successive weekends now, and if he's made a mistake or a bad decision, it's not jumping out at me at all.
He was absolutely perfect yesterday in everything he did, as he was the previous week on less possession for Cavill. He's just not making mistakes. And the same with Niall Scully. They just were able to hold the ball, but kicking into the hill into that wind, you think... it's going to go against them. But Donegal just did not use the wind. They still ran the ball with the wind.
They stuck to the way they played. They could have moved it around a little bit. They could have let the ball do a little bit more work in those conditions. And maybe that's what helped to empty them, as McGinnis suggested.
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Chapter 7: What are the predictions for the upcoming matches?
Yeah. Oh, I think... There was no power in it. I thought he mishit it.
I thought it was a genuine shot. Yeah, I know it was his bastard. When would you ever shoot on your left with the inside of your foot?
And he didn't, it wasn't, I feel like his reaction would have been a bit.
I think that's what he's brought in for because he's a poacher, right?
Your left foot coming in on the left, you wouldn't hook it.
You would drill it. You'd never hook it. But he might. You'd never see a player hook it. I think he might. Of all the people, I agree, because if you're in your bad foot, you might just put your foot through it and see what happens. He doesn't lean back enough to get in the field. But he's a bit of technique.
So he's leaning forward and it just lands in behind.
He's a bit of cheekiness.
he didn't I feel like if that ball drops in the net you would have a bit of a reaction like oh my god it went to you know whereas I think it went in exactly where he wanted it to where immediately he starts shushing the hill and you know what do you think bigger question is did sort of team Philly there and even like Comerford sort of fell back if he just stood he could have caught it it would have been a bit embarrassing almost yeah yeah but regardless um
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Chapter 8: What lessons can be learned from this weekend's GAA matches?
He's tapping Paul Ganey. Last year was Pody. This time it's Paul Ganey. He's heading to the dressing room, sprinting off. You just know at that stage and he knew at that stage this is done. Maybe people try and get his autograph even at halftime. No, it's just that surge of energy that they know there and a score just before halftime.
And that's why, just to go back to Dublin, Dublin conceded the goal, the second goal yesterday in the last passage of play just before halftime. It's a terrible time to concede and they were able to recover from it. But there was no recovery from Armagh. They conceded the next point just after the throw-in. It went to seven and it was gone.
Do you know the longer it went on? Because they have good ball carriers, Armagh, and they were punching holes in that kind of Kerry defence around the arc early on. The longer it went on, the longer their attacks became. And, Ethan, up you come. And I... is either not really adding that much at times? I don't know. And it's just side to side to side.
Like, there were times watching over the weekend where I did think to myself, we could do with a shot clock. I mean, it's unenforceable at club level, so it's not possible. But like, I don't know. There's a fine line between, geez, they're very patient in attack and they've run out of ideas. Well, it didn't work.
So obviously they wouldn't be doing that again. You know, I think sometimes when you try that possession type game, I would imagine they're saying, right, we kind of stay tight enough to carry, you know, get to halftime and then let's get after the third quarter. But like, I think sometimes that has an effect mentally on where your energy is at.
in terms of your intensity because they didn't put a glove on Cardi's forwards. Cardi, don't want to take away from Cardi's performance, it was excellent. It was silky. It was brilliant to watch. Guini's pass, I love that sort of stuff. That's classy. Out of the ordinary. But they didn't put a glove on anybody. There was no intensity from Irma.
And I wonder is when you have that kind of more slow emotional state, control, control, control,
do you actually find it hard then to bring the intensity up defensively to get hands on to block runners it's hard to go from patient calm here to chaos to like rabid very hard to do I do feel that Kerry were brilliant Clifford was off the charts but like it's not like that he did anything different you don't think those Kerry forwards would say jeez that was tough out there
No, I think it was a walk in the park. The fact that they were spraying balls, guinea spraying balls over to Clifford for his two-pointer like. No, there was no pressure on the ball. It was so bad. I think the Armagh boys will be embarrassed by this morning.
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