Dublin boss Ger Brennan insists all the pressure is on Kerry and his counterpart Jack O’Connor as the mind games kicked off ahead of Sunday’s seismic All-Ireland semi-final between Gaelic football’s two greatest rivals.
Dublin face Kerry this Sunday at Croke Park as both sides look to build on impressive quarter-final wins over Galway and Tyrone respectively.
The Dubs, after a slow start to the year marred by Brennan’s elongated suspension, look to be peaking at the right time, and have many believing that they are the team to beat, while Kerry, despite their excellence, haven’t been up to their usual standards this year.
However, for Dublin boss Brennan, he feels that the expectation and pressure is on the Kingdom this Sunday.
‘In the 2023 All-Ireland final, Dublin were the favourites,’ Brennan pointed out. ‘On this occasion, Kerry are the stand-out favourites and all the pressure is on them, in terms of their manager and his coaching staff,’ said Brennan
‘Jack O’Connor has won five All-Irelands, he’s up there with Mick O’Dwyer. Cian O’Neill has won multiple All-Irelands, Kieran Donaghy has gone back having done it with Armagh.
‘The experience that they have and the medals and silverware they have brought about as a management team, it just takes a lot of pressure off us. We’re only finding our feet and similarly are defending champions. We certainly will push hard this weekend but it’s a nice space to be in. We’re fairly relaxed with the whole thing.’
And instead of clapping back to those comments, Kerry boss Jack O’Connor had a funny response to Brennan’s claim.
‘Good man, Ger!’ O’Connor said. ‘Sure, there’s pressure on Kerry every day. There’s always pressure on Kerry. Ger is playing the game, I presume.’
It’s building up to be a mouth-watering clash this Sunday, Con O’Callaghan vs David Clifford, Colm Basquel vs Joe O’Connor.
The amount of attacking talent that’s going to be on display is brilliant for fans. You can catch it on RTÉ this Sunday, with throw-in at 4pm.
