Malachy Clerkin: It’s All-Ireland quarter-final weekend - Operation Anyone But Kerry starts here

Operation ABK starts here. The hoariest old definition in the GAA is that an open football championship is another name for one that Kerry win by default. Eight teams land into Croke Park this weekend. The job for the other seven is to pants that definition, to make it look a fool.

Anyone But Kerry. Please. Nothing personal, obviously. If the team that ran up a cricket score in Killarney last weekend carry their bat in the same manner through the next month of football, they’ll be an adornment to the roll of honour. It will be their 40th title and few of even the most storied ones that have gone before will have cause to be haughty about a comparison.

David Clifford shimmering, Dylan Geaney sneaking up on the Footballer of the Year rails, their four Easter Island heads across the middle invading the nightmares of opposition goalkeepers. Paudie Clifford, Gavin White and Seán O’Shea have barely made a contribution between them yet. And still they return to Croke Park glistening in the sun, every inch the champions-elect.

To which the rest of us have but one reaction: puke! Nothing will take the good out of all the buzz around the new rules and new format quicker than Kerry colonising the next few All-Irelands. Clifford will pass Dean Rock to go solo third on the all-time scoring charts this weekend and we bow to nobody in professing ourselves blessed to be living through his age. But all the same, nobody outside Kerry wants a green and gold juggernaut rumbling up the road.

Variety drives a sport’s popularity. You only need to cock an ear to the hand-wringing in hurling this week to understand the need to keep a broad spectrum of people interested. In the five seasons since Dublin capped off their six-in-a-row, seven different counties have been in All-Ireland finals, with four different winners. And football has never felt more love.

Look at the line-up for the quarter-finals. The last eight has a pleasing balance to it for a start, with two teams from each of the four provinces. This has only happened twice before since the dawn of All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2001. For what it’s worth, Kerry ended up getting beaten in the finals both years – by Tyrone in 2005 and after a replay by Dublin in 2019.

Funny enough, Kerry probably had the public vote on their side going into both finals. In 2005, it was pitched as the mesmerising ballet of Colm Cooper against the bearded hatchetry of Ryan McMenamin – miles and miles from the truth of either individual, but that’s how it was seen. If future historians ever want a sense of how annoying Dublin’s dominance had become by 2019, they need only know that Kerry (Kerry!) went into that final sold as plucky underdogs with a ponytail and a dream.

So, no, Operation ABK isn’t really aimed at Kerry at all. It’s more that we need to be kept fed with surprises. This championship has been full of them and has been all the better for it. Cloudburst provincial finals. Famines ending, grown men and women crying. Three of the four provincial winners bounced out in short enough order thereafter. Armagh gone. Donegal gone. Kerry hammered. Kerry back. Dublin back, maybe.

All of it washing out in an appealing quartet of games on the weekend when traditionally everything gets down to business. Mayo v Cork. Kerry v Tyrone. Monaghan v Louth. Dublin v Galway. Call your four winners and there’s very little chance you’ll match four names with the next person along.

Whatever happens, two of Mayo, Cork, Louth and Monaghan will be in an All-Ireland semi-final in a fortnight. None of them are minnows, but nobody was staking their reputation on that kind of outcome back in April. Their supporters head to Dublin now with far more hope than they could have imagined back then. The journey is the thing, always.

That said, if history has taught anything, it’s to not get too jiggy with our expectations. This time last year, we filed into HQ anticipating a festival of football and came away having seen one tight finish and three relative blowouts. That confirmed a trend that has been remarkably consistent over the years – in the past 40 All-Ireland quarter-finals, there have been just 10 one-score games. The average margin of victory in this decade is a shade over six points.

So, for all that we assume a levelling of the field and eight teams entering the final month with big notions, reality is likely to have other ideas. It looks probable, for instance, that 2026 is at least a year too early for Tyrone’s younger generation, particularly without Darragh Canavan. On Sunday, Dublin’s revival seems at least somewhat dependent on Con O’Callaghan’s hamstring, which has only had a week to recover. Games could get away from teams in a hurry.

No matter. When Galway named their 26-man panel on Friday morning, they left the number 10 shirt off the list in honour of two-time All-Ireland winner Paul Clancy. A month from now, he’d have been feted as part of the Galway Jubilee team at the All-Ireland final. He still will be, but it all feels a bit heavier now.

Enjoy the games. Enjoy Operation ABK. Enjoy Kerry and Clifford and all the rest of them, if they eventually swan off with the whole thing.

But most of all, enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

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