O’Mahony: ‘Kerry are still in very good place’
THE market may have been spooked by Kerry’s opening-round Allianz League defeat to Donegal, but not Aidan O’Mahony.
The five-time All-Ireland winner, who is the subject of this week’s TG4 Laochra Gael documentary on Thursday, was dismissive of any suggestion that the AllIreland champions might hit this summer as a Division 2 team.
In the aftermath of their onepoint defeat to Donegal, the odds on the Kingdom – winners of the last three Division 1 titles – being demoted were cut from 12/1 to 9/2 inside 24 hours.
That may have been in part down to Kerry manager Jack O’Connor’s admission that his team is in what he labelled a ‘dogfight’ to survive in the top tier.
If that might seem more than a tad reactionary, O’Connor’s concern comes against the backdrop of a challenging fixture schedule that will see them face arduous road trips to Mayo, Tyrone and Galway, while selecting from a severely depleted group in the short term.
It may only be a second-round game but with none of the absentees – most pointedly O’Connor is missing his entire starting forward line from last July’s AllIreland win – likely to be available until the round-three trip to Mayo, this Sunday’s home game against Monaghan already has something of a defining feel to it.
Not for O’Mahony, though, who suggests that the predictions Kerry are about to fall through the Division 1 trapdoor are premature.
‘I don’t think they’ll get relegated. I can see them picking up points and I think those away games against Mayo and Tyrone, they’re the games you want to blood new players.
‘That’s where you’ll see when you’re above in Omagh and places like that what players are standing up for you,’ said three-time All-Star O’Mahony yesterday.
The argument could be made that Ballybofey is another of those places where the challenge to stand tall is a given.
While newcomer Dara Roche’s bright start and the impact two other rookies in Donal O’Sullivan and Ruari Murphy had coming from the bench suggested that O’Connor may have some fresh talent to work on, the overarching feeling was that Kerry’s reserve cast did not do enough. O’Mahony argues that a rush to judgment would be unwise. ‘It’s just a tough place to go, especially for a young player coming in.
‘You always have that kind of pinch where you win an All-Ireland and you’re back to business straight away.
‘Winning is a habit as well and it’s important for that group and Jack will know that, but I just think they probably learned a lot. They could have got a draw.
‘Paddy McBrearty had a very special moment at the finish, kicked a great score. Look, they conceded no goals, they’ll have learned plenty from it.
‘The home game the next day will probably tell us a lot about where Kerry are at. It should suit them better when you’re playing at home and you’ve a big crowd.
‘It’ll be great for Jack now because he’ll be able to put pressure on to say, “Look, you’ve been given a jersey, you’re getting your opportunity, X, Y and Z have to come back in”.
‘So I think Kerry are in a good place at the moment and the game on Sunday will tell us a lot more as to where Kerry are at.’
Perhaps, but it could just be that for O’Mahony and his generation of serial winners, imagining Kerry outside the top eight is almost impossible to comprehend.
After all, it is 22 years since the Kingdom last suffered the indignity of relegation, although there are some discomforting parallels with what could unfold over the coming weeks.
Kerry were also the reigning AllIreland champions going into the 2000/2001 league and their finalround game, which saw them relegated, was a defeat to Galway on the road, which is exactly where they will be finishing up at the end of March.
The difference, though, was that it was a split calendar year competition back then – ensuring that the early rounds for All-Ireland winners were often played in a hazy blur – whereas the split season, which will also accommodate a reformatted championship structure, gives this a very different feel.
The league has always been important to O’Connor – it is hardly a coincidence that his four All-Ireland wins as Kerry manager have all been accompanied with the spring title for company.
But the demands on his panel, and a championship whose preliminary rounds will be played in a round-robin format, could force a rethink.
‘Outside of Munster, they’re going into that group format, and Jack would have known that. I think that’s where he’ll be pointing his team to start peaking.
‘There’s no point peaking at this time of the year, and he knows that.
‘I think he’ll probably just be anxious that a few would put their hands up and I think they will as well.’