‘We’re getting to know each other a bit better and that kind of chemistry is starting to come’

THE captaincy of Kerry is a lovely honour.

It gives the holder the chance to walk the steps of the Hogan Stand to collect the old cannister if – big if these days with Dublin in their pomp – the Kingdom are successful on the first Sunday in September (how times change!).

What the captaincy doesn’t do is come with a guaranteed place on the starting fifteen. If Fionn Fitzgerald is to nail down one of those back six defensive positions come championship he’s going to have to earn it and even then he can take nothing for granted.

Saturday evening was only his second start of the campaign, only his second chance to stake a claim. Granted he was taking a well-earned break for the first couple of rounds of the league, but limited gametime meant that the pressure on him to deliver when he had the chance was ratcheted up considerably.

It speaks well of the Dr Crokes man that when he did get the chance last Sunday he grabbed it with both hands. He gave probably the defensive performance of the evening, including subs and including the opposition.

The one thing Fitzgerald is and always has been is a clever footballer. He reads the game exceptionally well. Vitally important in the second half when the pressure came on in a major way. Under the cosh the Crokes man thrived, playing a leading part in a much improved defensive performance.

“Probably the first half we were a bit more together,” he surmises.

“There was a massive onslaught in the second half. We were against the wind as well and they threw everything at us, they threw the kitchen sink and why wouldn’t they? We probably had to batten down the hatches for a little while and they did get a few good long range points, ones we wouldn’t have been as happy about.

“They didn’t really have any goal opportunities I think and that was a positive. We’re far from the finished article, but it was definitely a positive bounceback from last week.”

That defeat last weekend cast something of a pall over the entire county – and possibly even the entire country given the dominance Dublin displayed – making it doubly important for Kerry to put in at least a performance.

“Happy with the win anyway and the bit of the fight we showed,” was Fitzgerald’s assessment.

“We needed a bit of a bounce back or a reaction from last week and I suppose not just last week, but the last couple of games. We came for a win number 1 and number 2 to kind of lay down a little bit of a marker.

“I don’t think we were at our best today, we’re definitely going in the right direction. The important thing was to get the win and the way we got it was good for the whole team and hopefully we can keep that going next week and that’ll be our last competitive game then.”

With a young team these sorts of ups and downs are to be expected. Consistency takes time, as the Kerry captain explains.

“The dynamic of the team is new,” he says. “We had a great start to the league and maybe we hit a bit of a lull for a couple of games. That happens when you’ve got new players, some of the older players coming back and I think it’s starting to come together a little bit better now, but it’s going to take time.

“We haven’t had an opportunity yet to all train together or anything like that, but slowly but surely we’re getting to know each other a bit better and that kind of chemistry is starting to come together. “I thought Dáithí [Casey] was excellent, Kevin McCarthy was excellent as well. I think it was a very mature performance from the forwards. I thought they were very composed, they mixed it at times, they linked well, they took scores at the right times, they worked very hard.

“It was a really good, solid shift by the forwards. That’s what we wanted. They set the scene for us, they went after his kick-out at times as well and it definitely gave us a big impetus in the game.” The big question now is whether this new Kerry team can cohere in such a way as to challenge come championship.

“It’s hard to know exactly where we are,” is Fitzgerald’s straight up assessment. “I suppose for my end coming in the last few weeks back training to the game situation I’ve been very impressed with the young fellas, how mature they are and how they go at it. I think a lot of them are in a very good place. “It’s just going to take a while having the confidence, playing league football, the pace and the intensity has gone up no end since I started playing and as a result of that it’s not a million miles away from championship pace. “So getting exposed to as much of that as possible is what you want and I think we’ve got a nice spread of guys getting that. [They’ve] made mistakes along the way and done very well other days and that’s what you want to see how you react and respond and I think it’s a positive anyway.”