A smack off the drawing board is no harm for Kerry
IPASSED Austin Stack Park during the week and the lights were on, most likely to illuminate the drawing board which Jack O’Connor vowed to revisit in the aftermath of last weekend’s chastening loss to Dublin. It is a line that is often used – ‘Going back to the drawing board.’ To the outside world, it invites an image of Jack at the head of the class drawing out shapes that will outline a better way.
The reality is somewhat different. Everyone will get to scribble a little bit of their own work on it.
This past week, there will have been a video session that will have been excruciating viewing for some of the players, individual highlights will be edited for individual viewing, there will have been a sit down with both players and coaches, one-on-one discussions with coaching staff will also have taken place. There will be plenty of mirrors erected for everyone to look into, including the management.
That is what a drawing board actually looks like, when a team goes back to it!
But never assume that there is just the one drawing board. It will be produced again later this season when the situation arises as, no doubt, it did after the humbling by Mayo in Killarney last summer.
I have been involved in the redrawing process often enough to have a good idea of what it might have looked like this week in Tralee and to also know that it tends to do more good than harm.
It might seem odd that a League defeat would invite such introspection, but teams are operating in tighter windows and when Kerry lose to Dublin, it always cuts a little deeper. And when we lose big to Dublin, well it is a given that the drawing board will be rolled out.
It was not all bad, especially a fierce third quarter rally that whittle a 10-point deficit down to a one-score game before all that effort took its toll and Dublin’s quality did the rest.
So, what went on the drawing board this week?
Jack pointed to Kerry’s malfunctioning kick-out as the source of the team’s collapse in the first half last weekend and that is irrefutable.
The bottom line is that in trying to control and retain possession from the kick-out, Kerry have become too slow, too lateral, too predictable.
Shane Ryan is a fine kicker of the ball, but, in keeping with modern fashion, his aim is to get the ball out short and, if needs be, get it back again.
However, the slower you play it against the best teams, the more they like it. I sat down with Darragh during the week to discuss the defeat and he made the point that Kerry need to go back to basics and start going long with their kick-outs more often.
There’s this perception that Kerry simply do not have the primary ball winners around the middle to adopt that strategy, but Diarmuid O’Connor is 24 now, he is at his physical peak. We are just not seeing what he can do often enough.
Darragh made the point that when he was starting out for Kerry, he was coming up against the likes of Anthony Tohill, Conor Deegan and Gergory McCartan where the ball was put out there and you had to learn to go after it. I know there are modern coaches who will roll their eyes at this idea and suggest that Darragh is just invoking the spirit of the Fear Laidir as a battle cry from the past. However, your best chance of beating Dublin is not by seeking to play the game on their terms but making sure that chaos is your friend.
Go back to last year’s All-Ireland final where Stephen Cluxton was rightly feted for his control off the tee, particularly the way he used Brian Howard as a valve to relieve the pressure that Dublin were under, at times.
While Kerry’s failure to disrupt that hurt, it was not fatal.
It is forgotten that Dublin did a far better job pressuring Shane Ryan’s restarts in the final, but when forced to go long with his kicks, Kerry’s retention was still north of 80% which shows that they are not a team who have to be spoon-fed the ball.
One of the biggest lessons from last weekend is that Kerry will have to get bolder. And they will have to do this by going back to basics, because moving the ball slowly out of defence is never going to disrupt a team with
Dublin’s organisation and quality. If Kerry are to do that, they need to supplement their midfield with strong ball winners, which is why it is important that they have Brian O’Beaglaoich fit again because he is one of the team’s best options as a strong receiver when they are under pressure – as he proved in the final quarter of the 2022 semi-final win over Dublin.
While tweaking the game-plan is one by-product of a visit to the drawing board, the other is that the spotlight will be shone on individual shortcomings.
There has been a notable drop-off on some individual performances since winning the AllIreland in 2022.
For example, sitting through the video analysis this week is likely to be uncomfortable for Jason Foley, who has developed into one of the best full-backs in the game.
He had a difficult Saturday night with Con O’Callaghan for company. In one instance, he took his eye off the Dublin ace for barley a mini-second because he was distracted by an incoming forward and it allowed King Con to execute his trademark cutback to score that first goal.
It was an error in a game in which Kerry committed many, but as Jack pointed out after, the consequences are not ‘fatal’.
The learnings are what matter now and what the team can take from a difficult night, not least because Tyrone’s twin terrors of Darragh Canavan and Darren McCurry are visiting Killarney this afternoon.
‘ONE OF THE BIG LESSONS IS KERRY WILL HAVE TO GET BOLDER’