Concerns still persist

Group 1

Galway Monaghan broke near enough even with Monaghan in terms of primary possession and kickouts won, but the perception to the naked eye was that Niall Kearns and Darren Hughes dominated David Moran and Jack Barry, the latter of whom appears to be suffering a worrying dip in form.

Over the last two Super 8 games Geaney and James O’Donoghue have been indifferent, while Peter Crowley and Stephen O’Brien haven’t produced the sort of performances we know they’re capable of.

Is it down to individual players in a trough of poor form - and if so should some of them be dropped for the Kildare game - or is management not doing enough to get a better collective performance from the team.

At 5.35pm last Sunday David Clifford cashed in the greatest ‘get out of jail free’ card a Kerry team has played in a long time, and time will tell if they’ve used up all their luck now for the season.

On the other hand the optimist might see shades of 2009 when Kerry spluttered their way through the Qualifiers (remember Diarmuid Murphy’s penalty save against Sligo) before Kerry unleashed hell on Dublin’s ‘startled earwigs’ and then going on to win the All-Ireland that September. Or 2014 and the Donaghy-O’Donoghue goal against Mayo in Croke Park that sent everyone to Limerick for the replay and then back to Croke Park to finish the job against Donegal.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice said after Sunday’s result that even as the added on minutes ebbed away that he still believed. He said he trusted his players and felt there was always a chance of a goal as long as the clock was ticking.

We’re not so sure. To be in Clones last Sunday and to witness those last two or three minutes was to witness pure desperation on the Kerry players’ part, and sheer terror on the Kerry management’s faces as the realisation was dawning that careers and positions were mere seconds from ending in ignominy in a south Ulster market town.

Cooler heads and a clearer plan will be the minimum requirement if this Kerry team is to have notions beating Dublin in a semi-final.

That is, of course, if Monaghan oblige again to get Kerry there.