Sunday’s Dublin-Mayo clash potentially hinges on the fitness of Jack McCaffrey, says Lee Keegan.
McCaffrey has started only two of Dublin’s six Championship games this year after his decision to come out of retirement having had ongoing hamstring issues.
He did make an appearance off the bench in the runaway victory over Sligo last Sunday week and former Mayo star Keegan feels that he could tip the balance of the eagerly awaited All-Ireland quarter-final either way.
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He said: “For me, the biggest question is if Jack McCaffrey plays or not. You're talking about a guy, off the cuff, he plays it as he sees it, as he wants to, so I think he's a big, big cog in the machine that Dublin need. He brings that x-factor.
“We seen again in the first-half against Kildare in Croke Park, I'd love to see him play, I just think he brings something different. I think he's going to be a huge cog for what Dublin are going to do at the weekend.”
Should McCaffrey get the all clear to start, Keegan believes that “it definitely sways it for Dublin”.
“He’s that good. Anytime he plays he’s always that x-factor. As I said, I hope he does play so there can be no caveats after that he didn’t play if Mayo do win. You want to see the two best 15s go at it and see how that goes.
“But from a neutral (perspective), who doesn’t want to see Jack McCaffrey playing? He’s that good.”
Keegan, meanwhile, has challenged the misfiring Mayo attack to come up with the scores to beat Dublin.
Mayo were the highest scorers in Division One en route to winning the League title earlier this year but their tallies have dropped off since.
Their average score across their five Championship games stands at 14.6 points, though the win over Kerry, in which they posted 1-19, was something of an outlier as they could only manage 0-10, 0-14, 1-11 and 1-10 against Roscommon, Louth, Cork and Galway respectively, an average of 12.75 points per game.
The starting attack contributed just 0-5 to last Sunday’s win over Galway but ex-Mayo star Keegan believes that the Dublin backline is vulnerable if his former teammates have the conviction to punch holes in it.
He said: “I think there’s chinks in Dublin’s defence where they can exploit. My worry is that Dublin set up with a good system and structure early on and keep away from that chaotic stuff that Mayo love against Dublin, I think that Mayo might struggle a little bit.
“I know they’re going to keep Aidan O’Shea up top, I think that’s a smart idea. The thing I like about Mayo is they have a bit of depth now and they can rely on James Carr coming off the bench, scoring, Cillian [O’Connor] came on the last day and scored so that’s a huge bonus.
“I would still like to see some of their forwards score more, definitely. A bigger spread up in their offensive half.
“We had Paddy Durcan scoring the last day, we had a bit more of a spread but I still don’t think we’re scoring enough to win these games and if they don’t get over that threshold on Sunday and score more than 1-11, then I can’t see us winning the game.”
As Keegan sees it, there’s a high risk/reward factor if Mayo are bold in how they attack Dublin.
“Defensively Dublin are there for the taking if they (Mayo) want. But how much risk are Mayo willing to take when you have the likes of Con O'Callaghan, Ciaran Kilkenny, (Sean) Bugler has been playing brilliant football, do you just go all out and go for it or do you go just go with the structured stuff?
“I think those are the challenges which will be posing Kevin (McStay) a lot of problems this week. Not problems, more headaches that can they get around that and can they break down Dublin enough.
“I think they're going to get chances and they're going to need to take them but I just allude to that point, can they score enough? And we haven't seen that in the last three games.”
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