What options have Kerry to spring a surprise on Dublin?

IT’S normally a rumour about some training ground bust-up that surfaces at this time of year, but it seems as if it’s all peace and harmony at Kerry training right now. Whether that’s a good thing or not is another matter, but in lieu of a good in-fighting story, the chatter about Bryan Sheehan playing in goals is as good as it gets right now.

It’s a great yarn to fill the void between an All-Ireland quarter-final and next Sunday’s semi-final with Dublin, but does anyone really expect to see Sheehan between the sticks at the weekend?

In an era when everything about inter-county football is micro-managed to within an inch of its life, do we really expect Eamonn Fitzmaurice (a conservative enough manager by any yardstick) to stake his reputation on putting a player who hasn’t played in goals for about 14 years in goals?

It’s a novel notion that Sheehan, who was a Kerry minor goalkeeper for two years, would be redeployed as the team’s goalkeeper because (a) his kickouts might be more advantageous to the team than Brian Kelly’s or Brendan Kealy’s and (b) it would get the St Marys man on the field for free taking duties without him taking up a forwards jersey better filled by another.

But think about it for a moment and look at the pros and cons and which outweighs which.

Placing a ball and kicking it 40 to 55 metres at a stationary target (the posts) is somewhat different to putting the ball down, at speed, and looking to find a moving target (a team mate) moving toward or away you. That’s before we get to the matter of actually making saves from the Dublin forwards, of which there will be several to be made.

Kelly and Kealy have spent years working on their reflexes, their knowledge of angles, their diving, not to mention building up a relationship with the full backs that simply cannot be honed in a few weeks.

The vote of no confidence that Sheehan’s use in goals would send out to the two incumbents is obvious, but more than that, anything other than a clean sheet and six converted frees for Sheehan and a Kerry win would be used as a major stick to beat the Kerry management in the event of Kerry losing on Sunday.

It’s not a risk they need to take, and they won’t.

Nevertheless, the management will probably need to come up with something new and daring if they expect to dethrone the champions.

Fitzmaurice has already stated that Stephen Cluxton’s kickout continue to be a conundrum that Kerry haven’t fully cracked with complete success. Do they push up or drop back? It’s never quite as simple as doing one or the other, and Kerry will have to mix it up sufficiently well enough to keep Cluxton second guessing them.

Don’t be surprised to see Paul Murphy - even if named as a wing forward - to play most of the game as a defender.

Expect to see either Darran O’Sullivan or Colm Cooper play as a very orthodox no.11 and make an honest defender out of Cian O’Sullivan rather than allow him be Dublin’s libero as so many teams have done.

If Kerry are going to pull a rabbit from the hat it could be a more advanced role for Mark Griffin; either at centre back or even midfield. He would certainly give Kerry more pace and ‘go forward’ impetus, which will be required to keep Dublin’s half backs on their heels.

And there’s the ‘back to the future’ tactic of playing Kieran Donaghy at full forward and going the old Route One to test out a Dublin full back line without Rory O’Carroll.

Expect something new from Kerry to get at the Dubs, just don’t expect to see Bryan Sheehan to have No.1 on his back.