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Ahead of this weekend’s All Ireland Final  (full preview available here) , Danny Morrissey looks at three key areas in which the success of Dublin or Mayo will hinge on.

1.       Midfield

The midfield contest is somewhere I’m sure James Horan and selectors of Mayo will have looked at and will be hoping to dominate if they are to be successful come Sunday. Aidan and Seamus O’Shea in my opinion shade the Cavanagh brothers as the best midfield pairing in the country and are a large part of the Mayo success train. The Dubs will match these guys up with Michael Darragh MacAuley and one from Cian O’Sullivan or David Bastick. This part of the field is where I feel Mayo hold the real edge. No disrespect to the Dublin trio but this is possibly Dublin’s weak area with Meath earlier in the year more than matching up and dominating for periods in the middle. Kerry with an average midfield nearly had enough last time out too with the Dublin midfield at no point this year dominating this section of the field. Mayo will try and pressurise Stephen Cluxton in goal to avoid any short kick-outs and go long where the O Shea’s will want it up in the sky. Yes MacAuley is a good fetcher of the football and the others hard workers but if the O’Shea brothers keep up their fabulous form to date they will dominate here which might enhance Ciaran Kilkenny , the Dublin fulcrum of attack at 11 , back into the middle to help out thus reducing their attacking threat.

Either way I’m sure Mayo will have looked at the way Meath approached and had success in the early part of their game against Dublin and hope to emulate that. For Jim Gavin and Dublin they will hope their midfield pairing will rise to the occasion and put in their best performance to-date, something that will be required and more to nullify the threat the O’Shea brothers will bring come Sunday. Whatever way it unfolds the outcome of Sam will very much hinge on the dominance here. Continue reading →