One All Ireland medal isn’t enough to satisfy the desires of Kerry star man Paul Murphy, Leader OF THE PACK

T’S something you can’t really escape in Kerry. It’s both the glory and curse of the place. The minute you don that green and gold jersey – at any level – you’re treated differently. There’s a certain respect, a certain deference and reverence for the jersey and for the men who wear it.

With that honour comes an even greater responsibility. To live up to the legacy of that shirt, to do it honour, to stand comparison with those who have worn it before you. Needless to say those standards are high.

Kerry didn’t become the bluebloods that they are without a set of exacting standards. Each generation is judged by those which preceded it. The reverence and deference only goes so far and you’ve got to believe this current batch of Kerry footballers know all about it.

In the context of just about any other county the idea that four years without the visit of Sam Maguire to the Kingdom would be considered a fallow period is slightly ludicrous, but this is Kerry we’re talking about here.

And the thing is, it’s not just the fans for whom it’s something of a sore point. If you’re putting the amount of effort into it as these guys are, it’s only natural to expect something out of it.

If there’s pressure – and undoubtedly there is – it’s as much (if not more so) generated by internal as external pressures. Only in Kerry could a man be sheepish about having only the one All Ireland medal.

It doesn’t really matter that it’s one more than any of the rest of us are ever going to have, it comes back to that thing about legacy, of one generation seeking the emulate those which have gone before it.

Every time Paul Murphy rocks up to training at the new centre of excellence at Currans or down in Fitzgerald Stadium he’s staring that legacy right in the face. His manager, Éamonn Fitzmaurice, has three All Ireland medals.

Selector Liam Hassett has the same amount. Maurice Fitzgerald, arguably the most stylish footballer ever to lace boot, has two and then, towering above all the others in terms of on-field achievement, is Mikey Sheehy with his eight All Ireland senior football championship medals. No pressure boys.

“I’m sure there is [pressure],” Murphy notes.

“Personally there is for me anyway. You want more than one. In a county like Kerry one doesn’t really feature, there’s guys with eight there walking around. There’s one inside in training [Mikey Sheehy], so one doesn’t really register.

“All of us want to be adding to what we have and for the new lads especially, lads who’ve had success at minor level they want to be getting the big one as well.”

You’d wonder whether all of this is particularly healthy. You’d wonder whether it might be counter-productive, heaping unnecessary pressure on young players or even not so young players. The record, however, clearly speaks for itself: thirty seven All Ireland titles and counting.

“I think it’s a good pressure,” Murphy says.

“It’s your own pressure you put on yourself, it doesn’t become suffocating, but ultimately it’s where you want to get to.”

To get there – to September, to the steps of the Hogan Stand, to the Sam Maguire – there’s a feeling that Kerry’s defence will have to improve from where it’s been for the last fourteen or

fifteen months or so (up until the Clare game at least).

We all know the criticisms by now and, even though no criticism attached itself to the twenty-six year old Rathmore man individually, the very fact that there was criticism of the defence – the unit of the team of which he was the de factor leader – had to have stung the classy half-back.

“As best you can you try and block it out,” he says.

“But if that sort of talk is persisting maybe you have to take note of it, maybe there’s something in it. I thought defensively we were much better against Clare than we have been previously.

“The free-count is down and what we’re really working on is tackling without fouling, maybe in previous games we made it too easy giving away scorable frees and that makes it difficult for the opposition.

“It is something we’ve worked on and it is something we’ve made progress on.”

The real proof of that will likely come this weekend against the Rebels. Even if Kerry’s defence was much improved against Clare in Killarney, as it was, that has to weighed against the quality of the opposition.

Clare didn’t really put Kerry under the sort of sustained pressure you would have hoped for and expected beforehand. Cork, on the other hand, seem to be coming into the type of form – and are playing the type of football – that should ask questions of this new-look Kerry team.

“I think they seem to have a settled team compared to other years,” Murphy opines.

“I think they’ve a lot of players who have really come on in the last couple of years, Luke Connolly had a brilliant campaign with Nemo he seems to have taken that form into Cork’s Munster championship campaign, so we’d always expect – from our point of view – the worst from Cork.

“We’re planning for them at their very best. They seem to have brought their very best to Munster championship this

year.”

That’s the hope of the neutral and, let’s be honest here, it’s the hope of the casual fan on the street too. The Kerry fans who travel to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening will want a real contest, not shadow-boxing.

Certainly people are excited to see the new stadium, but more so they want a good old-fashioned blood and thunder Munster final. It’s a rivalry that could be in danger of going cold unless something happens soon to spice it up.

“I think it’s still there,” the Rathmore man insists.

“Particularly locally there’s still a big rivalry and I think there’d be a lot of interest in this Munster final. Kerry have a lot of new players, Cork had a good win against Tipp. It’s a new Páirc Uí Chaoimh. There’s a load of factors like that so I think the interest will be very big in it.”

That the game is on Saturday night is somewhat novel – although we should note the 2015 Munster final replay was played in Fitzgerald Stadium on a Saturday night – Murphy, however, insists it won’t make that much difference to the players and to their preparations.

“Not really,” he says. “You’d be used to it, we’d have a couple of Saturday night National League games, so you’re used to the preparation involved. It effects work on a Friday, fellas would have to take off work on the Friday before a Sunday game anyway so it’s not a huge deal.

“We’re pretty used to having Saturday night games, the preparation is familiar to us. In a lot of ways I would [prefer to have Sunday off], particularly at club level I enjoy having a Saturday game, because you have Sunday to recover.

“With a county game, you might have the Monday booked off work anyway so you have the Monday to recover, but yeah I nearly would prefer the Saturday night game to be honest.”

For whatever reason – the new stadium, the novelty of the Saturday night game, Cork’s performance against Tipperary, Kerry’s performance against Clare or a combination of all of the above – there’s greater interest in this year’s Munster showpiece that there’s been in quite some time.

The last time Paul Murphy was in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Ed Sheeran topped the bill. This time he’s going to be centre stage and, as ever, we expect him to thrive under the spotlight. That second All Ireland medal isn’t going to win itself after all.

We’d always expect – from out point of view – the worst from Cork. We’re planning for them at their best