Still playing with handbrake on
FROM my position high up on the terrace in Clones on Sunday I watched James O’Donoghue’s floated delivery towards Kieran Donaghy and it honestly felt like slow motion. I recall thinking ‘is this it’? Is Kerry’s Championship going to end in July at the home of Ulster football?
Ever since Conor McManus had taken advantage of a slip by Mark Griffin and given Monaghan the perfect start we had been chasing a game that we never looked like catching up with.
It was the last roll of the dice by a team that, for some reason, have been playing with the handbrake on since the Super 8s commenced. It took a bit of fight and know how from the timeless Kieran Donaghy and a piece of audacious, out of this world finishing from young David Clifford to save our summer.
I’ve watched David’s goal back numerous times at this stage and it still baffles me how he put the ball through all those bodies and hit the one part of the net available to him. If Donaghy represents all that has been great about our past, then Clifford is an example of an exciting future.
The most worrying thing for me though is besides Clifford and our young brigade, our team is really struggling for form. I was, alas, wondering after the game was it a confidence issue, but I don’t believe it is.
I know a lot of these guys from playing with them and coaching some of them and they have a huge belief in themselves that they can beat anyone at any time. That’s not a cocky attitude. That’s a Kerry attitude.
It comes from our history. It happens every time you pull on that green and gold jersey. You feel bigger, stronger and better than your opponent because you are Kerry.
Right now, in my opinion, it just comes down to form. Look at our consistent performers over the past three or four seasons. Paul Murphy, Peter Crowley, David Moran and Paul Geaney are for me the driving force behind this group of players.
All confident guys who have put in some fantastic displays in the Éamonn Fitzmaurice era. Right now they are just all struggling a bit with their game and it’s obvious that for us to be in the mix come September they need to turn their form around. It happens to all players, but unfortunately it seems to have hit that core group all at once at the worst possible time of the year.
On Sunday our biggest area of concern was the middle eight. Bar Gavin White, Seánie O’Shea and Micheál Burns – when introduced – we played second fiddle in there all day. We never got any foothold from our midfield and our half backs struggled with Monaghan’s movement.
From a defensive point of view we actually did okay. McManus, as he so often does, caused us endless trouble which will lead to questions as to how we were set up to limit his influence. Look
, McManus is one of the finest inside forwards ever to lace a pair of boots and has made a career out of terrorising defences, but Kerry know that and surely had a plan in place to try to frustrate him.
Mark Griffin was detailed to pick him up. That surprised me as I felt McManus would be just too slick for Mark, which was what happened. Griffin needed protection, but for some reason it wasn’t there. Early on it looked like Kevin McCarthy was dropping back in from wing-forward, but that didn’t continue.
We played Peter Crowley as a sweeper against Galway last week when we possibly didn’t need to but with McManus being Monaghan’s scorer in chief then maybe this was the day to do it.
That didn’t happen either, however, and at times it was alarming to see acres of green grass in front of McManus and Griffin, which, of course, is a forward’s dream. The problem for Monaghan was that they kicked some poor wides, especially in the first half. It’s safe to say that Kerry should have been put the sword by half-time had Monaghan been more accurate in front of the posts.
Because of our struggles around the middle of the park our forwards were living off scraps. I refer to Paul Geaney not being at his best right now but it has to be said he’s not seeing a whole pile of the ball in the areas we need him in.
Against Galway he spent a lot of time away from the goal, which is not where he will do his damage. On Sunday although he played deeper his usual unnerving accuracy deserted him and we need him to get that back as soon as possible.
Kieran Donaghy was deployed on the edge of the square to be the target for other forwards to feed off, but he ended up having to come out the field to help to win some ball.
The aforementioned Clifford just continues to show why he is being touted as a future great. He finished with 1-3 to add to his 1-5 against Galway. Imagine if we could get a more consistent supply to not only him but the rest of our dangerous forwards.
Right now it’s just not clicking and with a must win game against Kildare it’s possibly time to look at changing up some personnel.
The most worrying thing for me is besides Clifford and our young brigade, our team is really struggling for form. I was wondering is it a confidence issue