Fitzgerald believes Kerry can meet the challenge of Dublin down the track

DEPARTING St Marys team manager Maurice Fitzgerald spoke after his side’s success in last weekend’s South Kerry SFC decider about his upcoming involvement as part of the Kerry senior management team, which will begin in the new year, and offered his opinion on some current issues and topics in the game.

“I think it’s very exciting to get involved with Kerry. They’ve a fantastic backroom team already in place, there is a fantastic bunch of enthusiastic young Kerry men that want, I suppose, to really raise the bar and set the standards as high as they can. I am hopeful we can be a help in that direction, and you know it’s going to be exciting, and I am really enthusiastic about the job, and feel just privileged to get the opportunity to just work with these lads.

“To be honest I haven’t focussed that much on the rule change (the mark) because of what was happening here, but I think, look the reality is that type of DNA is in every Kerry footballer. Good fielding, and I think it’s more natural to our game than anybody else because we like to move the ball, and we like to kick the ball so I think in many respects it won’t certainly hamper the Kerry style of play.

“I suppose there’s no doubt but that they (Dublin) seem to have stolen a march on everybody but, look, there was only two points between Kerry and Dublin last year (2016 All-Ireland semi-final). They had a drawn All-Ireland final with Mayo then after, so I think maybe four, five or six teams, there isn’t a whole lot between any of those, albeit Dublin are champions for the last two years. I don’t think they are unassailable.

“They’re obviously there as the standard bearers, but at the same time we have asked them a lot of questions just this year gone, and I am very hopeful and very enthusiastic that we can meet the challenges that are coming down the track. “All Championships are what they are, once you go past and into the quarter-final stages that’s knockout, that’s what every player lives for, to be involved at that stage, so I think once you get up to that level you’re in the mix. You have to produce it on the day and that’s it. I think from where we are at with the group now I presume that it (National League) will be something we will be going out trying to put in strong performances in each game, and hoping it will take you into the knockout stages. That would certainly be part of my desire, that we would compete well in the National League and hopefully find ourselves in the latter stages.” In relation to the changing face of football and the complexities of the modern game Fitzmaurice was typically Maurice: “The goalposts are still the same”.