GAA: IS ORCHARD RIPE TO PIP KINGDOM?; ALL-IRELAND FOOTBALL SEMI-FINAL: Kerry v Armagh, Croke Park, tomorrow 3.30 Even the top bookies are sitting on fence.

THE bookies have rarely been so undecided - four teams left in the All-Ireland Football Championship, all ranging from prices between 7/4 and 7/2.

Kerry at the shortest odds, Armagh double that and in between Galway at 2/1 with Kildare half a point weaker.

Take any of the four recently crowned provincial champions on their merits and they all have what it takes to win the All-Ireland outright.

If we are to take the bookies' calculations a step further it's interesting to note that Armagh were a 6/1 chance at the same stage last year when Jarlath Burns was still playing and Diarmuid Marsden didn't have the injury problems he has now.

And yet 7/2 seems a generous offering for a team which has defied the weight of history in Ulster by winning back-to-back titles there.

Burns may be gone but he hasn't left the void he was expected to leave because of the development of John McEntee, Crossmaglen's talismanic performer, who has positively soared since being shifted permanently to midfield earlier in the season.

As for Marsden, they have already won an Ulster final against Derry in his absence and, while he was declared available for selection earlier in the week, the ankle problem which he picked up against Fermanagh early in a hard fought semi-final win has clearly taken a lot out of him.

Armagh have never beaten Kerry in a championship match. Their last meeting 18 years ago ended in a predictably easy win for Kerry. But history is counting for very little in the more modern game as the gap closes and the peleton of football counties knits closer together.

Kerry have played the most devastating football of the championship to date.

Their first half display against Cork was explosive and at times breathtaking, matched only by their opening 45 minutes against Meath in the league semi-final when they oozed class and fluency.

On that sort of form Kerry won't be touched, not by Armagh, Galway, Kildare, maybe not even a collection of the best of those teams!

Armagh won't need any reminding of how devastating these young men in green and gold shirts can be when they are presented with oppportunity.

They had only landed back in Ireland from a seven-day break in the Canaries when they were on the road south for a league match in the Kingdom.

How they wished they were still back in sunnier climes as Kerry waltzed in three goals and points at will for a most emphatic win.

Kerry had been doing that in every second league match. Tyrone, Cork and Donegal also felt the full force of Paidi O Se's men in full flight.

But for O Se it's either a feast or a famine. The highs of the league semi-final and Munster semi-final have been balanced against how it has unravelled on them in those matches.

Kerry's collapses in Thurles and Killarney were alarming, even though they buckled down and re-asserted themselves impressively against Cork.

They are essentially a young side but not a overwhelmingly different side from 1997, with only six newcomers to this level of football - Michael McCarthy, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Tomas O Se, Tom O'Sullivan, Aodhan MacGearailt and Noel Keneally.

All six have been luminaries of the successful Kerry under-21 teams of the last few years. There is hardly a weakness among them.

Even more important to Kerry has been the re-juvenation of their central attackers, Liam Hassett and Dara O Cinneide.

O Cinneide, so long the focus of criticism in his own county for his underachievement, has shaken off the doubts to put together two impressive performances.

He's leading and seems to be profiting from the absence of Maurice Fitzgerald from the starting 15.

Hassett's direct style and abrasiveness has complemented the speed and elusiveness of MacGearailt and Keneally on the wings where Armagh can expect to find plenty of trouble.

But in Kieran McGeeney, Hassett will find his most difficult opponent yet in this year's championship.

Armagh have taken note of the fabric of the Kerry attack themselves and consequently will raise the physical stakes considerably to a level Kerry haven't been used to.

There's a feeling in Armagh that at least three of the Kerry forwards don't like it rough so there'll be no easy rides in Croker tomorrow.

Once again Armagh will have to offer protection to their full-back Ger Reid.

Reid was the hero against Derry, showing a level of defiance that obviously spawned from the flak he has taken in Armagh over the years.

The Ulster final was his defining moment but Kerry will work on dragging John Crowley into the centre and hitting O Cinneide on the move into the left corner from where he can be devastating.

At midfield McEntee and Paul McGrane have already mastered Anthony Tohill and Dermot Heaney.

Dara O Se is an individual version of the what Kerry are like collectively. When he's good he's very good and when he's bad he's anonymous.

O Se has been very good in both games this year, his fielding, passing and overall work-rate have bene almost flawless.

But his tendancy to start games well in Croke Park and finish poorly must be curbed tomorrow. Kerry need a huge performance from their main midfielder.

Armagh's return to Croke Park for a second successive year will steel them for an even greater effort.

They lost the plot against Meath last year, picking a team which was never going to resemble the way it would line out and then confusing the issue further by crowding midfield in an attempt to suffocate John McDermott and Trevor Giles.

The tough approach towards Giles also backfired. It raised the hackles of the Meath men who went on themselves to exert sufficient force and muscle with McDermott and Giles turning the screws.

Armagh won't need to adopt those tactics this time. And they can also expect more from Oisin McConville who played under such a huge personal cloud in last year's semi-final.

McConville is the obvious threat to Kerry, Steve McDonnell is also a quality predator while Tony McEntee and Paddy McKeever have also made immense improvement in the last 12 months.

McKeever kicked points from everywhere - Kerry style - against Meath and has followed on since then.

But for all Armagh's graft and intent Kerry seem to be pulling the right chords in the right places this year.

Seamus Moynihan is a luxury at full-back, Fitzmaurice has grown into centre-back, O Se is delivering more consistently at midfield while the attack has blown more hot than cold.

And of course there's Maurice Fitz on the bench. That's the greatest luxury of all.