Conn glad to get back to Croker

CONN Kilpatrick delivered a stormer of a performance in the middle sector in Tyrone’s All-Ireland final triumph over Mayo in 2021, but he probably didn’t envisage that it would be nearly two years before he’d get his next opportunity to grace the hallowed turf at GAA Headquarters.

Last year was disappointing but the Red Hands have been a more competitive beast in 2023 and have booked a Croker date with their old friends from the Kingdom this Saturday afternoon.

Kilpatrick, who was a stand-out performer in Tyrone’s 1-18 to 0-13 victory over Donegal last Saturday, is looking forward to renewing acquaintances with the reigning All-Ireland champions Kerry this weekend, even with the seven-day turnaround.

“We haven’t been in Croke Park since the All-Ireland final in 2021 and it was 100 per cent our aim to get to the later end of the season. We feel that we can beat anybody on our day in Croke Park. At the same time all the remaining teams are excellent so we’ll do our best to get our homework done [on Kerry] and our recovery.”

On the swift turnaround, he added: “Well as players we want to be playing football all the time. Week-on-week can be a bit of a push but it’s better than training five or six weeks in-a-row for a single match. We know we’ve improvements to make but as players we want to be challenging ourselves in these matches against the best teams in the country.”

Kennedy has formed a particularly effective midfield partnership with Brian Kennedy and they lorded the skies as well as chipping in with a point each in their crunch preliminary quarter-final clash at Ballybofey.

An especially pleasing facet of the performance was that Tyrone built on their five-point lead at half-time, running out eight-point winners at full-time, something which hasn’t been the trend in their previous outings this year.

“We knew coming to Ballybofey it wouldn’t be easy, Donegal are an exceptional team and though they went through a rough patch at the start of the year, we knew the calibre of their players, and that we’d need to be at our best to beat them.

“We played some very good football in patches but they got a purple patch in the second-half, rattling off two or three points, so we know there’s still a lot of improvement to do.

“At the same time we managed to hold out well, something we haven’t done all year. We’d let teams back into games and that’s something we’ve worked on in training, trying to hold onto a lead and taking our time with the ball. We were calmer on the ball but we still took a few potshots which shouldn’t happen, but it’s still good to have something to work on.”

Kilpatrick also had warm words for Tyrone’s goalkeeper Niall Morgan, an Edendork clubmate of his own whose restarts were on the money against Donegal.

“Niall’s a stalwart in nets for Tyrone and we’re lucky to have him at the club, we know how good he is outfield as well from club football, so we’re 100 per cent confident in him whenever he does come out with the ball. He’s doing a great job, he’s been with Tyrone for a decade now and he has that experience to pass onto the younger boys.”