Fitzmaurice: Every team beatable
KERRY manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has described Dublin’s consistent level of performance as “unbelievable” but insists “every team is beatable.”
Ahead of tonight’s eagerly anticipated showdown in Tralee, Fitzmaurice (right) paid tribute to a Dublin side looking to extend their unbeaten run across league and championship to 34 games, and in the process, equal the record held by the Kerry team of 1929 to 1932.
“They are a serious team, everyone knows that,” Fitzmaurice said of Jim Gavin’s Dublin.
“I think the consistency they have brought to it is incredible. I saw a stat a couple of weeks ago concerning the great Kilkenny team that won four All-Irelands in the middle of the last decade and their longest winning streak between league and championship ran to 14 games. That puts in context what they’re doing.
“It is incredible what they are doing. Their level of consistency, their level of performance week in, week out, year in, year out is unbelievable. Championship is one thing.
“If you’ve achieved that in championship, that is doable. When you put all the variables that come into it during the league and they’ve managed to do what they’ve done, it is incredible.
“But, every team is beatable. They are beatable. Whether it will happen this Saturday night or not, I don’t know. It will happen at some stage. I’d love if it was this Saturday night.”
Kerry are the last team to beat the Dubs as they turned them over in the 2015 league and Fitzmaurice insists they aren’t too far off the pace, despite losing a league final and an All-Ireland semi-final to them last year.
“We know we are in close in championship terms. It is different in the league because you don’t have the same level of preparation you do for championship, you don’t have the full deck to work with.
“It is slightly different in championship. We know we are close. Like anything, if you fail you come back and you go again.
“You try to learn, you to improve. That is what we have been doing every time and we have been getting closer and closer.
“We’ll keep going until we get there.”