Kerry will have so much to learn from this final for hopeless romantics
THAT a national final involving Kerry and Mayo is being sold on its novelty factor is surely the biggest compliment that can ever be paid to Jim Gavin.
These are the two longest surviving residents of the Allianz League’s top flight and pretty much permanent members of the top four all this decade, and yet a pairing that should be utterly routine is scented with something close to romance.
It is bordering on the surreal. For pity’s sake we are talking Kerry, the game’s great power appearing in their third spring decider in four years, and Mayo, the team widely acknowledged as the second best team in the country for well over half a decade.
We should be heavylidded at the prospect of such a predictable pairing, but instead the game is wide-eyed with excitement because this is a final that is truly there for the winning, rather than Dublin’s to lose.
True, Kerry beat the All-Ireland champions two years ago but, as subsequent results would prove, it never felt like a regime change.
And it is also true that if Mayo did not truly believe that they could beat Dublin, they would never have been able to rattle them like they did time after time.
Peter Keane and James Horan could have been confused for being half of a barbershop quartet last weekend, in the aftermath of sealing their places in the final.
‘The way we look at it is it’s an extra game and you learn something every day you go out,’ said Keane.
‘We just love games,’ chorused Horan.
Indeed, but playing games is a lot more fun when you are winning them and as much as both managers may blow smoke that remains the bottom line.
It is not that wearisome a notion that Mayo need to win a national title to feed the belief that they can win the All-Ireland.
A group which has come back from as many serial disappointments as Mayo are not lacking in belief, but perhaps it has been missing the sliver of luck and quality needed to get over the line.
It is 18 years since Mayo last won a national title – beating Galway in 2001 – but more importantly it would be fitting if this group that have pushed so hard and given so much find a way to put a national medal in their pockets.
Keane has insisted all spring that it is all about the journey rather than the destination, but he knows as a rookie manager from a constituency as demanding as his that when you get the chance to win early, you take it.
And, yet, neither Keane nor Horan were telling lies when claiming that the real prize here is an extra competitive fixture.
Indeed, it could be argued that the two teams who needed to reach the final the most have managed just that.
Between the two panels, four teams have got gametime this spring.
Mayo have used 33 players, Kerry 31 – which even by the League’s experimental culture are remarkable numbers.
This, in truth, is likely to be Kerry’s last high-end competitive fixture until the second weekend in July, when they will enter the first phase of the Super 8s.
Last year, they were hoodwinked when they hit the All-Ireland series, fooled into thinking they were better than they were after mauling Cork.
They will know better, but Keane will be hoping that this will provide learnings.
Shane Ryan appears to be his preference in goal but it remains a position which invites doubt, and while the recall of Jack Sherwood to full-back back has been a revelation, how Peter Crowley copes defensively will be a welcome examination.
Midfield, not least after Aidan O’Shea’s demolition job of Kerry in Tralee, should remain a source of worry for Keane, which will not be resolved whenever the injured David Moran returns.
And, of course, it will be a chance to see how Tommy Walsh copes with the speed of the inter-county game when played on a summer surface.
Outside of that, the evident physical distress they showed in the final quarter of their win over Dublin, as well as the manner in which they were bossed by Mayo raises question about their conditioning and physicality.
It can be argued, particularly with regards to the Mayo game, that the weather reduced it to a contest of physical wills but what it did facilitate was a level of physical intensity which they will have to meet later this year.
It is not as if Horan doesn’t have questions of his own, even if the unveiling of Matthew Ruane and the promise of Fionn McDonagh have given him some answers.
His boldness in the blooding process has signposted his intentions, but that, in the main, is likely to be for further down the road than this summer.
He is readying the team for the real transition which is likely to take place after this season but as he lamented the quality of his team’s defending last Sunday when they coughed up 1-18 to Monaghan, there was no sense of huge alarm.
Well, there would hardly be when he knew that the likes of Keith Higgins, Lee Keegan and Colm Boyle were watching on.
Who will win this may depend on how far Horan is willing to risk short-term pain for long-term gain?
If he rolls the experimental dice tomorrow, the chances are the Kingdom will pick up the League title.
However, win or lose, Kerry need to learn more than Mayo need to win.
Should both happen, it will have all the feel of a draw.