The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
It’s starting to feel like ’09 again
Expert analysis from All-Ireland winner Sean O’Sullivan
IT’S not often a Kerry team are labelled as underdogs heading into an All Ireland semi final but if you combine the recent history between these two and compare their run of form coming into Sunday then you can see why Dublin are hot favourites to take on Mayo next month.
I must say that the way this championship season has gone so far that it has a real sense of déjà vu about it. In 2009 Kerry were written off by everyone including our own!
After a poor Munter Final defeat to Cork, we stuttered and stammered our way through the qualifier route, a road we had travelled with great success in the past. I remember getting back into training after that Cork game and Jack sitting us down to try and see how we could turn this around.
Maybe we were a little complacent, but we always felt that once we got a good run of game in the qualifiers that we would be back in the mix and in good form come the quarter-finals and let’s face it that’s where the real business happens.
It didn’t quite work out as easy as that though. Sligo could and should have beaten us in Tralee in what would have been the shock of the century! Okay that’s the scare we needed.
Who’s next? Antrim? Ah ya we’ll hit the ground running against them. Didn’t happen. We scraped to a win after being put to the pin of our collars by a Division 4 team. And the obituaries came out. We were done, finished. Great players were being retired along with the management.
And then something happened. We drew Dublin in the quarter-final in Croke Park. I will never forget the scene. We were on the train on the way home after that Antrim game and somebody had the radio on with the draw being made live.
We were feeling a little bit sorry for ourselves it has to be said. We were questioning each other as to how we could turn this around. When we were matched with Dublin the mood in that train carriage just changed.
It’s hard to explain. I could see the likes of Darragh Ó Sé, Tomás and Declan Sullivan talking and grinning. At the management table there was an Ipad produced and pieces of paper flying!
We should have had our heads in our hands, right? Here
we were, a team who struggled to beat Sligo and Antrim, more or less punching the air because we had drawn the most in form team at that time on their home patch, but then it hit me. This was the perfect draw because Dublin always bring the best out of Kerry and that’s exactly what we needed.
The rest is history as far as 2009 is concerned, but when you look at how this season has panned out it has its similarities. Okay so Kerry have not struggled to beat Clare (twice) and Tipperary, but they have done so playing fairly mediocre football.
The big difference is that Eamonn Fitzmarucie has always had a likely meeting with Dublin in the back of his mind and has been able to plan for that. Dublin to their credit are still the form team in the land.
They have just brushed aside any challenge that has came their way and that fear factor they might have once had of Kerry has well and truly been buried.
And yet, if there is any team left that will give Jim Gavin sleepless nights it’s us. The huge advantage Kerry have going into this game is the fact that we have not hit the peak of our powers this summer...yet.
It sounds strange and maybe that’s why there is a sense even in Kerry that we are going to be beaten Sunday, but the fact that we have been below our best going into the game will work in our favour.
Dublin will throw out the usual sound bites that this is Kerry and they are a very good side etc, but we haven’t seen that so far in the championship.
I firmly believe, like ’09, that the Dubs will bring the best out of this Kerry team and we will get a performance. Will it have to be a top notch one to beat them, you bet it will, but it is in this team and I feel we will see it Sunday.
For me the winning of the game for Kerry comes up front. That sounds like a simplistic statement, but I’m not talking about the scores that they will need to put on the board.
I have no fear that Kerry have the fire power to trouble Dublin especially close to goal. The forwards can set the tone the nest day by stopping Jim Gavin’s men building from the back as they love to do.
A lot of the talk down here over the past few weeks has been about what system or plan Eamonn and his management team will come with. Before any system or tactics are implemented though they have to built on a foundation of hard work, unselfish hard work.
That has to come from our attacking unit the net day especially around our half forward line. We can’t allow Dublin to build from that area as that is where they can rip you apart.
Westmeath in the first half of the Leinster Final worked tirelessly to deny Dublin the room and time to do that as much as they would have liked and it frustrated the Dubs. Kerry must bring that the next day but obviously at a higher intensity and for a longer period. Easier said than done!
Overall I think it is a very even match up and that on Sunday we are looking at the two best teams in the country. I am really looking forward to the first 20 minutes as I expect it to be played at a ferocious pace by two supremely fit teams.
Two teams that bring the best out of each other and I have a sneaky feeling that Kerry’s best might just see them through.
Dublin will throw out the usual sound bites that this is Kerry and they are a very good side, but we haven’t see that so far