The wheel turns and Kerry’s time looks to have come to beat Dublin

All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Dublin v Kerry, Croke Park, Sunday, 3.30pm — Live on RTÉ 2. The Irish Times liveblog will begin at 3pm.

A big weekend for the football championship arrives. Two near-capacity attendances at Croke Park for the All-Ireland semi-finals and the Tailteann Cup final are expected with the GAA’s gold standard rivalry taking centre stage on Sunday.

Suspicions that Dublin may be due to fall to Kerry after their longest run of success in the fixture — five wins — have gradually been questioned, as the fixture has materialised into focus.

Even in the years of plenty for Dublin this is how it played out. No matter how distant the counties looked in the early stages of the season and before championship sparked into life, the inevitable dynamic was to bring them closer together.

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[ Darragh Ó Sé: Kerry have to stop the rot - another Dublin defeat would be a catastrophe ]

Remember: the 2016 league final and Kerry got pistol whipped in the end, losing by 11 points. Yet we all knew that by the time they met again in the summer, the contest would be fierce and the verdict open until the very end.

So it proved in an All-Ireland semi-final four months later, blown open by a typical Kerry coup launched at the Cluxton kick-out and followed by a run on the scoreboard.

This time around, Kerry have been champions presumptive, a conviction hardening all through the league, which they won and from which Dublin were relegated. Yet here we are, back in the All-Ireland semi-finals to the soundtrack of, on the one hand; on the other, and against the backdrop of injury speculation.

To be fair that talk is a little more than simply lack of conviction. As Dublin’s surprisingly vigorous Leinster campaign unfolded with big scores and goals galore, it became clear that Con O’Callaghan’s return to the team after a lengthy injury absence had done a lot more than just restore the vice-captain.

As Ger Brennan said in his press call this week, O’Callaghan adds firepower but also creates space for others to thrive. It was all made abundantly clear when he was missing for the Cork quarter-final and the laboured routines of the league were revisited.

It is believed to be an injury not conducive to a pain killer but all will be revealed.

There is also a question mark over captain, James McCarthy who also missed two weeks ago with a hamstring issue and it is hard to think of a player whose style would be more affected by impaired mobility were Dessie Farrell even to be tempted to throw him in at less than full fitness.

As regards the attack, if Con can’t make it there is a school of thought that says Ciarán Kilkenny should start full forward, as the quarter-final line of Rock, Costello and Paddy Small lacked the integrated approach that Rock prefers and which O’Callaghan guarantees.

[ Ger Brennan: ‘If Con isn’t playing and David Clifford is, I don’t think we have enough to win’ ]

Kerry have been fielding similar concerns about David Clifford who is every bit — if not more so — as vital to his team’s prospects, as last year’s semi-final duly proved, but anxiety eased after a rolled ankle picked up in the quarter-final and he is named to start this weekend.

We’re unlikely to know the full impact of the Dublin injuries until Sunday afternoon.

There is more pressure on Kerry, as Jack O’Connor was brought back to win the All-Ireland and stop the nonsense. Without the trophy there appears little point in his returning to Kerry talking about learnings for next year. But he is an experienced practitioner with three titles already won.

Are they better this year? They are. As usual under O’Connor they won the league first — a prelude to all of his previous All-Irelands — but more relevantly, Paddy Tally has been retained to put order on the defence and succeeded to the point that just one goal has been conceded from play all season.

They have pace and cohesion but haven’t been burning down the house otherwise. David Clifford remains radioactive for any defence but he has been getting reasonable support to date from the other forwards and Seán O’Shea’s place kicking could back currencies.

Brian Fenton’s nemesis Jack Barry returns to the Kerry bench and is therefore available for centrefield combat.

What sways this one? The view here is that Dublin’s defence may struggle as a unit under concerted pressure and that regrettably for them, O’Callaghan is unlikely to bring fire simply because it’s hard to see him making a full recovery.

With the best will in the world and for all that their championship has been more impressive than expected, it’s also questionable how deep Dessie Farrell’s men can dig at this stage of the team’s cycle.

KERRY: S Ryan; G O’Sullivan, J Foley, T O’Sullivan; B Ó Beaglaíoch, T Morley, G White; D Moran, D O’Connor; D Moynihan, S O’Shea, S O’Brien; P Clifford, D Clifford, P Geaney. Subs: S Murphy, T Brosnan, K Spillane, P Murphy, M Burns, J O’Connor, J Savage, G Crowley, J O’Shea, J Barry, A Spillane.

Verdict: Kerry