Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories 'More concerning for Kerry is this may be more strategic than cyclical.'Lorcan Doherty/INPHO Kerry striving to stay a step ahead of Tyrone as football's premier force The northern powerhouse have stolen a march on the Kingdom in recent times. 5.01pm, 9 Jul 2025 Share options Micheál Clifford IT IS SAID that history has a nemesis for every sin. If Kerry’s sin in the eyes of the football world has been its capacity to dominate for swathes over the past 120 years, it may well be that history’s nemesis is called Tyrone. A modern rivalry – one which barely covers over two decades – has found a way to drill its way back through time. If it hits its target, Tyrone’s nemesis status in Kerry could hardly be more potent. For starters, should Tyrone win this Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final, they will have knocked Kerry out of all three grades, minor, under-20 and senior, in the same year. Only Cork, who for obvious reasons (36 years in total from the inauguration of the U21 championship in 1964 to the pre qualifiers Sam Maguire) had a lot more opportunities to do so has managed that feat in the past, doing so in 1971 and ‘74. Tyrone celebrate victory over Kerry in this month's Minor final.Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO More than that, though, should Malachy O’Rourke’s side prevail, it will leave Tyrone within one game of completing football’s treble, which, naturally, has only ever been accomplished previously by the one and only. Adding to the concern of those of a fatalistic disposition in the Kingdom that Tyrone’s primary purpose is to displace them as the game’s premier force, it would not be how Kerry would have envisioned the 50th anniversary of the defining year in its storied history being marked. Advertisement Inside a fortnight in 1975, Kerry’s golden era was mined. On the same afternoon that Mick O Dywer’s “team of bachelors” announced themselves by beating Dublin in the final, the curtain was raised on a new era by a minor team who, in a rhyming nod to this season, beat Tyrone with a side that included Charlie Nelligan, Mick Spillane, Sean Walsh and four-time footballer of the year in waiting, Jack O’Shea. When the U21’s beat Dublin in Tipperary a fortnight later – with O’Dwyer at the helm – that quartet of teenagers would be joined by a third of the starting senior team in Páidí Ó Sé, Tim Kennelly, Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran, Mikey Sheehy and Pat Spillane, as well as Ger O’Driscoll who came off the bench in the senior final to score the match sealing goal. And there too was Tommy ‘The Private’ Doyle, who would wrap up his six-time champion career by lifting the Sam Maguire in 1986. The impact of that treble success hardly needs stating, with that U21 team collectively yielding over 70 All-Ireland senior medals. Whatever way it rolls for Tyrone over the next couple of weeks, the dividend is unlikely to be as bountiful. The change to the age grades by dropping to U17 and U20 and a transformed competition structure which has facilitated a far greater sense of democracy in the game has made sure of that. In a way, though, whether it comes to pass or not – and even a win this weekend would still leave a formidable final stretch of road to travel – the sense Tyrone are better positioned than Kerry for the short-term is beyond argument, while for the longer-term it is not beyond comprehension. Last weekend’s thrilling minor final was the fourth time in the last six years that Kerry’s All-Ireland campaign at the grade was thwarted by Ulster opposition, while Tyrone have beaten them in back-to-back U20 campaigns (semi-final and final), and Mercy Mounthawk – Kerry’s fancied Hogan Cup contenders – were also wiped out by Ulster opposition in the past two seasons. More concerning for Kerry is that this may be more strategic than cyclical. Ulster’s ultra competitive environment sharpening the development of elite young players, while in contrast Kerry’s isolation as football’s enforcers in a hurling province has been accentuated by the fall and fall of Cork. Of course, evidence of shifting sands will hardly impinge on the thoughts of Jack O’Connor this week – nor indeed for O’Rourke either – given that they have far more obvious concerns as they prepare to engage in a fight to the death on a championship cliff edge. And Kerry have reason to cast a jaundiced eye on the off repeated accusation that they have “an Ulster issue” and, in particular, a Tyrone one. Given their preeminence as the game’s number one province, losing games to Ulster teams is not an issue but an understandable consequence of the environment in which they operate. That perception leans almost exclusively on Mickey Harte’s three championship wins in the noughties, but Kerry have not only won four of the last five championship meetings but have done so dismissively by an aggregate of 27 points. Mickey Harte and Jack O'Connor in 2005. Not that, no more than the trajectory of how both counties are performing at underage level, will matter a jot on Saturday, with Kerry’s injury list (not least the continued absence of Diarmuid O’Connor who was man of the match in their last meeting in 2023) and Tyrone’s struggle for a convincing line of good form likely to be defining in which way the semi-final rolls. But Kerry’s sense of their place in the game and Tyrone’s weaponised sense of purpose means that the future is never off the table. For now, Kerry’s bonus – although hardly their focus – this weekend, is putting the brakes on to ensure that Tyrone don’t travel back to the same starting point from which their own soared from half a century ago. Micheál Clifford Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Kerry striving to stay a step ahead of Tyrone as football's premier force”. 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