Tyrone footballer Brian Kennedy poses for a portrait before a media conference at the Carrickdale Hotel in Dundalk, Louth ahead of the upcoming Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Tyrone and Dublin on Sunday, March 23rd at O'Neills Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
The mathematics are simple for Tyrone when Dublin come to town on Sunday – nothing less than a win is required to give them a chance of retaining their Allianz Football League Division 1 status.
According to midfielder Brian Kennedy, that black and white scenario has made it easy to focus their minds for the challenge ahead.
“It's basically a Championship match for us – it’s knock-out,” says Kennedy. “A win is probably the only result that will do anything for us. We know the challenge, watching Dublin all through the League, they've ground out results and they've put teams away easy as well.
“So they have serious quality and we know the challenge. We're going to have to up it another few gears from the performances over this past number of weeks to hopefully get out on top there.
“They're lightning in attack and they're very solid going back as well in defence. I watched their game against Galway at the weekend and everything seemed fluid, they were nearly getting a score every attack.
“They seem to have players to slot in everywhere and the older heads like Kilkenny and Cluxton coming in to keep the whole thing grounded and a bit of routine in it. But they're serious athletes and hopefully we can get them closed out on Sunday."
Brian Kennedy of Tyrone in action against Diarmuid O'Connor of Kerry during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Tyrone and Kerry at Pomeroy Plunkett's GAA Club in Pomeroy, Tyrone. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
It’s a testament to the equality of Division One this year that even though Dublin are gunning for a place in a final and Tyrone are trying desperately to avoid relegation you wouldn’t be surprised if the result went either way.
It all bodes well for a championship campaign that has arguably more genuine contenders than any other in the history of the game.
“You're looking at nine, 10 teams at least that fancy their chances on any given day to put any of the top teams out and get a good run,” says Kennedy.
“It feels a lot more attainable this year, especially with the new rules. A game can go any way at any particular time. If you're in the game on 60 minutes, anything can happen, you can pull away.
“Good teams are getting better as well. Dublin and Kerry maybe slumped there for a few years but they’ve definitely come back with serious youth and a serious panel, and these new rules are helping them as well.
“The kicking game of Kerry that you see at the weekend, they're going to bring it into Championship and it'll be a hard item to overcome.
“You probably couldn’t nail your hat on any team at the moment, especially when there’s so much football left to play.
“A lot of teams are showing great early form in the League and if they continue that through the Championship, it'll be extremely competitive. It's just about the other teams getting to that level, finding the tweaks in their game-plan to suit the new rules.
“It's going to be a very close Championship and anybody could emerge as favourites or contenders for it.”
