Have a focal point?

improvement in front of us but this is an area that has been a concern now for quite some time.

Shane Walsh’s goal was a prime example of where we struggle. Walsh is a superb player and has that ability to cut through any back line, but Kerry stood off him and allowed him to dictate to them.

Could we have held him up or been a bit strategic in our defending? Would the concession of a free in those circumstances been a better option? Again a bit of leadership and game management needed to come into play here and this time I’m not just talking about our backs.

We were a point up when Tommy Walsh had a good goal chance turned away. Galway quickly moved the ball without any great heat on them with it eventually landing in the hands of Shane Walsh who did the rest. Again here we maybe have to learn sometimes momentum has to be halted by whatever means are deemed necessary to cut out a clear counter attack.

The positive is that the league is a great learning curve and if we take lessons from these games they will be worth their weight in gold come the summer. Our attack was motoring well with David Clifford and James O’Donoghue picking

ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 1

Donegal Dublin Kerry Monaghan Tyrone Galway Mayo Meath

Round 2

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8 Dublin v Monaghan SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9 Tyrone v Kerry Donegal v Galway Meath v Mayo up where they left off against Dublin.

James was replaced at half-time and hopefully it’s nothing serious. Paul Geaney was also causing problems for Galway. Even without Seán O’Shea Kerry looked dangerous and built up a decent lead without ever getting too far out of sight.

It goes without saying that our forwards are the envy of most of the country with Dublin being the possible exception. The three already mentioned are household names along with O’Shea and Stephen O’Brien.

The interesting thing for us as Kerry fans is who is pushing these guys and knocking on the door for a starting berth. Micheál Burns replaced the injured Seán O’Shea and did okay notching two points.

Gavin O’Brien is an interesting one for me. He is a big unit and brings huge physicality to the middle eight. I’m still not convinced whether he has a future in the set up come championship time and the fact that he didn’t feature last summer after a decent league suggests Peter Keane is not sure either. For now O’Brien is doing fine but the jury is still out.

Tommy Walsh came in at the break for James O’Donoghue and contributed well.

PWD 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 0 2 1 0 2 1 0 2 0 1 2 0 0

L1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 +/- 10 6

1

3 1 0 -6 -15

Pts 3 3 3

2 2 2 1 0

I still think Tommy offers more coming into games as he showed last year. He obviously is eyeing the number 14 jersey, but I think he makes a bigger impact when introduced into games.

Killian Spillane is the one for me who could really breakthrough in 2020. I felt he should have seen action sooner than he did on Saturday night and really played well when he came in. Of course he kicked the winning score which will do his confidence the world of good and I really hope he uses that to push on.

He proved in the drawn All-Ireland Final that he has the ability to fit right into this Kerry forward line. With Kerry at the moment using Paul Geaney in a more withdrawn role I feel its tailor made for Spillane to form a good partnership inside with David Clifford and O’Donoghue. It goes to show the quality that Kerry have at their disposal.

The tests keep coming for these quality players with a tough trip to Tyrone on Sunday. Kerry never relish going to Omagh, but have ground out some decent results there of late. Improvement is needed particularly at the back.

If lessons are learnt and learnt quickly then we have the artillery to punish Mickey Harte’s men.