{"id":551689,"date":"2026-07-15T22:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551689\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:28:15","slug":"o-se-identifies-kerry-habit-that-could-help-mayo-to-all-ireland-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551689\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00d3 S\u00e9 Identifies Kerry Habit That Could Help Mayo To All-Ireland Shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking ahead to the All-Ireland final<\/a> between Kerry and Mayo, it’s clear that Jack O’Connor’s side will enter the game as clear favourites.<\/p>\n

Not only do The Kingdom have significant recent pedigree at the highest level, but they also possess what many regard as the best playing squad in the country. Their firepower up front is remarkable, with some key players returning to fitness just in time for the decider.<\/p>\n

Mayo are a rather unexpected finalist, having struggled at times this season. Still, nobody can say they don’t deserve their spot<\/a> in the showpiece event after their performances in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

When it comes to how they could potentially pull off a shock, one Kerry legend sees an obvious pathway.<\/p>\n

Kerry habit could give Mayo All-Ireland final hope<\/p>\n

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Kerry have not been at their brilliant best over the last couple of games, failing to make the most of their firepower up front in the games against Tyrone and Dublin. They certainly did not blow teams out of the water in the manner they have done in the recent past.<\/p>\n

Writing in the Irish Times<\/a>, Darragh \u00d3 S\u00e9 suggested their slower pace of play seemed to be a deliberate tactic from Kerry, an understandable one considering the players they had coming back from injury.<\/p>\n

In saying that, he worries such an approach could prove costly against dangerous Mayo team.<\/p>\n

It seems fairly obvious that they\u2019re minding them and deliberately slowing the game to play in a lower gear…<\/p>\n

I would worry that it\u2019s a dangerous game to play. Mayo are coming to Croke Park in classic Mayo fashion \u2013 nobody giving them a chance and them playing with a swagger anyway…<\/p>\n

By every metric, Kerry have to be heavy favourites on Sunday week…<\/p>\n

But if they keep playing with the handbrake on, my fear as a Kerry supporter would be that they leave Mayo in the game. Give these fellas a sniff and mad stuff could happen.<\/p>\n

How can Mayo upset Kerry in All-Ireland final?<\/p>\n

Mayo will no doubt relish the underdog tag coming into this game, even if Andy Moran has no issue with the potential hype that will build in the county<\/a> over the next week or so.<\/p>\n

Kerry will be hoping that their extra bit of quality at the back can have a telling impact, with their opponents having struggled defensively at times in 2026. The Connacht side have been cut open far too easily in some games and will be hoping to avoid that in the final.<\/p>\n

Still, adopting a blood and thunder approach may be their best of pulling off an upset in this game. It will be fascinating to see how it all plays out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking ahead to the All-Ireland final between Kerry and Mayo, it’s clear that Jack O’Connor’s side will enter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,8764,43],"class_list":["post-551689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mayo","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}