Not even Heffo and Micko saw a buzz like this
Kerry’s new boys must deliver
IN a lifetime as a GAA fanatic, I cannot think of a National League game like tonight’s match in Austin Stack Park.
There are so many intriguing sub-plots, not least that Dublin are chasing Kerry’s 84-year-old record of 34 games unbeaten. That’s reflected in the demand for tickets. I have talked to friends from Kerry this week who can’t find one. For a league match in the middle of March. It’s extraordinary.
Even thinking back to the 1970s, when Kerry and Dublin was the only game in town and those two teams did more than anyone else to widen the appeal of Gaelic football, there has never been a league fixture like this.
Back then, those sides were seen as manifestations of their charismatic managers – Mick O’Dwyer and Kevin Heffernan. Between them, they helped to instil ‘the cult of manager’ in Gaelic Games.
Doing coaching courses in Gormanstown in those days, we were often taken to O’Toole Park, where Dublin used to train. Heffo wouldn’t even been togged out in the sessions, he would be standing on the side of the pitch in jumper and shoes, calling the shots.
It’s funny to reflect on those sessions in the era of sports science, but I think the only scientific tool that Heffo had was the whistle around his neck – and he didn’t even use that too often. Meanwhile, down in Kerry, Micko was known as a laps-around-thefield merchant.
The two present-day managers might not have the charisma of their two pre-predecessors but they are at the cutting edge of the modern type of GAA manager. They are both keen on sports science, sports psychology and are known to be meticulous.
Jim Gavin has already taken Dublin on two training camps, that we know of, and it is only March. The All-Ireland champions spent last weekend in Carton House, a facility used by the likes of the Irish rugby team and Real Madrid. That is surely enough to dispel any fears that Dublin might engage in a bit of shadowboxing in Tralee.
This team don’t appear to know how to take their foot off the pedal. There had been a sense that they might take the League a bit more causally this spring, ahead of their bid to win a third successive All-Ireland title, but their performance against Mayo dispelled any of those doubts.
Gavin has created a situation that every manager loves. Aside from Stephen Cluxton, every place in his team is up for grabs. He has still to introduce some of his most established players this season but the young lads he has given a chance to have all impressed. And the likes of Conor McHugh and Niall Scully, I don’t think they are going to be fringe players for much longer.
One of those training camps we know about was taking place when Dublin’s thirdstring side were winning the O’Byrne Cup. The depth of their talent pool is frightening. For years, we heard about Kilkenny’s famous training matches in Nowlan Park, but Dublin’s training matches must be just as competitive now.
Having lost their first two home games to Monaghan and Mayo, Eamonn Fitzmaurice will be under pressure this evening but like the pressure that Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh felt on Thursday morning, it is self-imposed. And like Mullins and Walsh, Fitzmaurice and Kerry can respond to it.
Kerry’s defence will be the main area under scrutiny this evening. Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony, their most experienced defensive leaders, have departed and it is now up to Shane Enright, Killian Young and Peter Crowley to prove that they have matured into leaders.
In the past couple of years, it was felt there was a lack of pace in the Kerry defence. That has now been addressed but it has cost them a lot of experience. How their younger defenders fare in the cauldron that will be Austin Stack Park will be a massive factor in tonight’s game.
And we may just find out if some of these new faces in the Kerry team are good enough. It is the big question mark over them.
Everyone is talking about Dublin equalling Kerry’s unbeaten record but there is more at stake for the home side this evening. We will get a good signal of their All-Ireland credentials and how much more work that Fitzmaurice needs to do with this team.
We never had a league match like this in Micko and Heffo’s time, but thinking back to that era, it was all about Kerry and Dublin. They were the heavy-hitters. It’s the same now. The more things change in Gaelic football, the more they stay the same.