Dublin defeats will inspire Kerry to victory
THEY enjoyed it, that much was clear in the self-contented smiles they flashed as they made their way off the pitch.
They enjoyed it more than they normally would a game of football in the month of March. It was an itch they had to scratch. By hook or by crook they were going to draw a line in the sand that Sunday afternoon.
Too much time had gone by without a victory over the Dubs in either league or championship. It rankled, of course it did. Kerry played that way too. In a tetchy game the Kingdom didn’t take a single backwards step.
Bernard Brogan tangled with Anthony Maher. Anthony Maher tangled with Bernard Brogan. On a wet and windy afternoon Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s men dug it out in deeply satisfying manner.
It meant far more than just the two points on offer. Fitzmaurice knew it and, just as importantly, Jim Gavin knew it too. He was uncharacteristically critical of the opposition after spending a couple of seasons as the epitome of even-handed magnanimity.
For the first time Kerry had managed to get under the Round Towers’ man’s skin. Part of him would have wanted to dismiss it as a match of no lasting consequence – of the teams that played that day only eight on each side look set to start this Sunday – part of him would have known otherwise.
Kerry approached that game with Sunday in mind. Not necessarily the All Ireland final, more with a sense that victory in 2015 would not be achieved without beating Dublin along the way.
And so, here were are. Lessons learned on that day six months ago are unlikely to be of much use to either team this weekend, then again that wasn’t necessarily the point. It was as much about mood and tone as anything else.
It was as much about these Kerry players learning what it means to beat Dublin, getting them to realise that they can, even if it’s only league, even if it’s only in the month of March.
Both sets of players and both management teams will insist they take it one game at a time, that one game is much the same as the next. Maybe that is the case, we just find it a little hard to believe that this is so when it comes to Kerry v Dublin, when it comes to an All Ireland final.
There has to be that little extra little extra jolt of electricity and excitement when thoughts of a heaving Hill drift across a footballer’s mind. Both teams will desperately want to win this game and for more than just the ostensible prize on offer.
Gavin’s men will want to be the first Dublin team in history to put three championship victories over the Kingdom backto-back and the Kingdom will be determined to stop the rot, to win back-to-back All Ireland titles for only the second time in twenty years.
Don’t be at all surprised if we get a game as tetchy as the one in Fitzgerald Stadium in the springtime. Don’t be at all surprised to find Dublin every bit as combative as they were against Mayo. Don’t be at all surprised to see cards flashed early in this game as David Coldrick seeks to lay down a marker early doors.
Kerry will relish the physical stuff every bit as much as Dublin will. As we’ve noted on these pages before this Kerry team are warriors as much as anything else. Same goes for Dublin.
Since the epic 2013 semi-final there’s been a change in emphasis by both teams and both managers, arguably forced on both of them by Donegal and Jim McGuinness. They both learned lessons from last year’s Dublin v Donegal semi-final – the only real difference being that Fitzmaurice got a chance to put his solutions to the test mere weeks later rather than having to wait months.
It’s for that reason that the odds are slightly against us having another classic in the mould of the semi-final two years ago. Both teams will be that little bit more cagey. Our suspicion is that Kerry will seek to play a similar system to the one which helped them to their 37th title last September.
They won’t necessarily pack the defence as Donegal (or Tyrone) would, instead Kerry will hold at least five (if not six) of their defenders in position at all times, with midfielders and half-forwards dropping back when the need arises.
Dublin will do something similar, although will a little less discipline. For their running game to work to its optimum (their best chance of causing Kerry bother too as it turns out) they need James McCarthy and Jack McCaffrey to strike from deep.
The first day against Mayo they didn’t do so much, in the replay McCarthy was much more prominent.
A big test of either (and, indeed, both) Donnchadh Walsh and Stephen O’Brien awaits.
Both teams possess more than enough fire-power to do serious damage to the other, meaning the outcome of this game is likely to come down to who gets their hands on the most primary possession. Ninety percent of the talk this week is sure to centre on Stephen Cluxton’s kickouts as a result. Kerry’s midfield is far superior to Dublin’s – in the league match Kerry cleaned them out there – so it’s imperative that Kerry force Cluxton to kick the ball long. If Kerry can fight the battle on their own terms then their chances of winning increase exponentially. It falls on the shoulders of Eamonn Fitzmaurice to deliver a strategy capable of doing so, it falls on the shoulders of Maher and David Moran to live up to their billing as the best in the land.
Do that and Kerry have the beating of this Dublin team, impressive and all as they are at full flight, they can be got at. If Mayo could have and, indeed, should have beaten them (twice), then Kerry certainly can do so.