A Kerry victory on Monaghan soil well within their ability

NFL DIVISION 1 ROUND 3 Monaghan v Kerry

Sunday, February 11 Inniskeen, Co Monaghan Throw-in at 2pm

EAMONN Fitzmaurice was sticking to the understandable mantra that it’s one game at a time and that regardless of the team’s positive start Kerry’s next game is simply about putting in a performance and letting the result take care of itself. The question was asked last weekend – after Kerry opened a League campaign with two wins for the first time since 2009 – if those four early points will make any difference to how Kerry might approach subsequent matches with regard to team selection and/or methodology. Of course, we expected nothing other than the stock ‘one game at a time’ answer, but the question is still valid: has those wins against Donegal and Mayo afforded the Kerry management a little leeway to try a few other things that two defeats might have closed off to them? The answer probably lies in what happens next Sunday in Inniskeen.

In what will be another uber-competitive Division One campaign, it will take six points – at least – you’d imagine to stay safe from relegation. Kerry have four points; do the math. Fitzmaurice is absolutely correct not to be counting any chickens yet, but that’s exactly why next Sunday’s fixture against Monaghan could be a hugely defining one. Win and Kerry are as good as safe from the drop, with one more point from their four remaining games surely enough to secure their status. Lose, and Kerry are back in the mish-mash of a moveable table, where a team can have one foot in a League final and one foot on the relegation trap-door.

If one was to be clinical about it, this fixture is probably the one ‘away’ game Kerry would have been targeting as a must win, allowing for the fact that Castlebar, Croke Park (v Dublin) and Omagh (v Tyrone) could hardly be viewed as easy games. Not that going away to Monaghan – remember, they beat Kerry in Killarney last year – is anything like a banker, but it would have been seen as the away game to try to mine a point or two to go with at least a couple of home wins. Last weekend’s win in Castlebar shouldn’t change Kerry’s ambitions for Inniskeen next weekend, if anything it should make them more determined to get that prized third win and six points to allow them the breathing space as the intensity of league ratchets up.

It remains to be seen how much or little Kerry’s starting team changes for next Sunday. With David Clifford and Gavin Crowley understood to be injury concerns, that might necessitate two enforced changes, while Sigerson Cup action this week might throw up further issues for all concerned. If one can assume anything at all with regard to second-guessing a team selection, it might be that Dáithí Casey and Killian Spillane (both unused subs last weekend) would start in the forward unit, while Éanna Ó Conchúir should also see more game time having come on late against Mayo.

With Jack Barry and Barry O’Sullivan expected to play for UCD today (Wednesday) and with a potential Sigerson Cup semi-final the following Tuesday, the Kerry management might be tempted to start Brendan O’Sullivan in place of one or the other. Of course, the same could apply to Seán O’Shea, Jason Foley, Killian Spillane and Andrew Barry who are all in action for UCC this afternoon with a Sigerson semi-final next week if they beat NUI Galway.

It’s a conundrum for all intermanagements whether to stick or twist with the third-level students on their panel, but one they must manage carefully: having started Clifford in Castlebar last weekend – after he had travelled from Tralee to Belfast earlier in the week to play for IT Tralee – the Fossa man tweaked his hamstring and might serve neither college nor county this week or next as a result.

Monaghan, we can be certain, are in the same predicament, but we can also be certain that Malachy O’Rourke’s team will be hell bent on building on last week’s one-point win over Kildare, having lost by the same margin to Mayo the previous week. A win for Monaghan would bring them level with Kerry on points and would be a huge fillip to the Farney men who are surely entering a real make or break season in terms of this particular squad of players and their manager.

Conor McManus was back in the fold last weekend against Monaghan, coming in for the last quarter of the game, and he has the potential to cause any Kerry full-back line serious headaches if he can find his form. McManus and Jack McCarron would be the ideal test for, say, Jason Foley and Cormac Coffey or Ronan Shanahan on Sunday, while Darren Hughes would ask questions of either of the two O’Sullivans at midfield.

With two wins from two there’s less pressure, naturally, on Kerry to get the win on Sunday, but by virtue of that bright start there is a certain pressure to add a third straight win and put themselves in a great position to get back to the League final to defend the title.

Promoted Galway’s two wins against Donegal and Tyrone perfectly illustrates the unpredictability of this division so it would be a brave or a foolish man to make any predictions with any confidence. Suffice to say Kerry are capable of a third win on the spin.