MARC Ó SÉ ON WHAT KERRY FEAR ABOUT DUBLIN
It is impossible for other teams to compete with the strength in depth at Jim Gavin’s disposal
IKNOW there is a perception out there that every time Dublin stand before us, Kerry’s instinct is to rush to a darkened room for a lie down.
They have beaten us the last four times in Championship and that does not include the merciless scelping they handed out to us in last year’s Allianz League final.
We live in ultra-sensitive times so the assumption is that Dublin are now inside our heads, tormenting us to the point that we are a beaten docket before we have even had a punt.
And that this week, as Dublin head for our back garden primed to raid us once more, Éamonn Fitzmaurice would be better seeking an audience with the Dalai Lama rather than putting the boys through their paces in training.
Let me disappoint you here. Put this down to whatever you want; arrogance, belief or absolute stubbornness, but there will not be a sliver of doubt inside Fitzmaurice’s head this week that Dublin can be beaten and the same goes for his players.
I have never been in a Kerry dressing room prior to playing Dublin where I sensed that fear – and trust me if it was there, you would know.
Perhaps, it works a little bit the other way. Ever since they beat us in the 2011 All-Ireland final – and while Dublin will argue they took it from us, there is not a doubt in my mind that we handed it to them – they have most likely been blessed with the same certainty that they have our number.
But the notion that Kerry has some kind of mental issue with Dublin is way off the mark.
It is far more serious than that, we have a footballing one.
Inevitably, the hype surrounding Saturday night’s fixture is centred on Dublin coming to Tralee to equal Kerry’s all-time unbeaten record, but that is simply a hook for this fixture and no more.
Will it play a part in the build-up internally this week? Absolutely, I know if I was still playing it is something I would seize on. I always looked for something to sharpen my competitive edge.
But in the grand scheme of things, its relevance will not match the degree to which it will be hyped.
Records are there to be broken and, hand on heart, I don’t know if there was anyone in the county who knew until the last couple of weeks that the Kerry team of the 1930s held that 34-game unbeaten record, prior to it being unearthed.
Of course, there is pride involved and Kerry will not want to hand the Dublin supporters another bragging stick to beat us with, but this is not a be-all and end-all situation.
Not like, say, prior to the 2007 AllIreland final against Cork when, as Paul Galvin articulated afterwards, we were aware that more than a century of domination could have been wiped out inside 70 minutes.
We felt like we were putting up the family farm and they were putting up a battered Ford Fiesta.
Now that’s pressure, because that was an All-Ireland final and down here that’s the only currency that buys respect.
And that is why my respect for this Dublin team runs deep and why my fear is that the gap between them and the rest of us is getting wider by the year.
I saw the champions up close and personal in Croke Park last weekend and they were chillingly brilliant.
What spooked was Dublin’s ability to toast Mayo while shy of the likes of Jonny Cooper, James McCarthy, Jack McCaffrey, Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan, Cian O’Sullivan, Paul Mannion… I could go on, but why frighten you?
And yet it did not knock a stir out of them. Eric Lowndes morphed from a fringe squad player to an All-Star wannabe wing-back in 70 minutes, Michael Fitzsimons produced a flawless corner-back display, Niall Scully raced over every blade of grass with absolute purpose while Conor McHugh sniped with menace around the square.
And that’s what chilled me to the bone. There is a reason why Dublin have been handing us our posteriors for the last few years and it is has nothing to do about what is going on between our ears and everything to do with has been going down on their bench.
That’s what has killed in most of those games; we have rolled with them for 60 minutes and then coming down the straight they have steamrolled us.
Fifteen on 15, I still think Kerry are Dublin’s equal but we are long gone past the stage where it is a 15-man game.
And Kerry’s problem is that they are relying on the same 15 year in, year out.
By the time the summer comes around, any changes to the Kerry team will be minimal because unlike
We put up the family farm, Cork put up a battered Ford Fiesta
the All-Ireland champions, there are no new faces who have reached out and staked a claim.
While Dublin were displaying their wealth of options last weekend, Kerry were showcasing their impoverishment above in Roscommon.
David Moran and Paul Geaney got them over the line with help from James O’Donoghue in the second half, while Darran O’Sullivan and Anthony Maher had to come from the bench to give the visitors some extra steel.
All this talk of Kerry’s great future is at least two to three years down the line, while Dublin are kings in the here and now and their grip on the crown is only tightening.
Who knows what team Jim Gavin will pick come the summer, but here’s a prospect to terrorise you if you are not a true blue.
He possesses the best footballer in this country in Brian Fenton and he could pair him up with James McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan or former player of the year Michael Darragh Macauley without weakening his team in any way.
He could easily go with a halfback line of Lowndes, John Small and McCaffrey, he can slip Scully into his half-forward line, and he can pick from any two players out of half a dozen to go with Dean Rock on his inside line.
That really does bear thinking about, or we will start drawing the curtains.
For now, Dublin will reaffirm once more that they are the team to beat on Saturday night but that is beginning to sound like an old record now