Four things we learned...

The kids are alright

An obvious point to make, perhaps, but one wor th making never theless – the kids are alright.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice put his trust in youth and it repaid him in spades. With seven debutants on the team Kerry played much better than any of us had reason to expect. Take the case of young Gavin White as an example.

The Dr Crokes man never played senior inter-county football before last Sunday afternoon – no McGrath Cup, no National League football – and he slotted into the side seamlessly (it no doubt helped that he played such high level football with his club in the last eighteen months).

None of the debutants let the side down. They all impressed. That’s hugely encouraging. No question too that the fact Kerry were debuting basically a new team last weekend is what encouraged so many fans – and probably neutrals too – to Fitzgerald Stadium.

The crowd of 16,729 was much bigger than what we’ve seen for this fixture in recent seasons. So much for there being a disconnect between the Kerry team and the Kerry public.

Defensive work bearing fruit

Throughout the league people had reason to fear for Kerry’s defence, but against the Banner it was much improved.

Obviously a lot of that was surely down to how well Kerry did at midfield – cutting out the supply of ball to the Clare forwards – and to how poor Clare were in the game more generally, but some of it had to have been down to work done on the training ground in recent weeks.

David Moran played deeper than he normally would and it just seemed as though the Kingdom were set up that bit more cautiously in defence. The return of Tadhg Morley was a big boost in that regard as he brings a great sense of calm and assurance to the number six shir t.

Murphy makes his mark

Of all the new players on view last weekend, Shane Murphy could potentially have the greatest impact on how Kerry play this year.

Having a goalkeeper with the ability to deliver the ball as accurately and with as much distance as the Dr Crokes man can greatly expands the range of attacking options. It puts opposing teams on the back foot straight away – they can press, but if they do Murphy can (as he did on a couple of occasions on Sunday) simply loft it over them.

Against Clare, Murphy played his par t as the Kingdom retained a whopping eighty percent of their own restar ts. That’s great. The only real shame – although not really a shame given that Kerry needed to tighten up their defence – is that he didn’t get a chance to make a meaningful save in the game.

Who dares to speak (or not) of ‘92?

This is a little bit of a silly one in a way, but given that it’s generated so much discussion since last Sunday afternoon it would be remiss of us to ignore it.

In the match programme – under the headline, Kerry v Clare Munster Senior Championship meetings – local stats man Tim Slattery made no mention of the Banner’s famous win over the Kingdom in the 1992 final.

A little bit of a faux pas we’re sure you’ll agree. Except that it turns out his brief wasn’t all the championship meetings between the sides it was just the semi-final meetings (we should note, however, that no mention was made in the programme of Clare’s victory over Kerry in the 1949 semi-final).

All the same Clare peoples’ annoyance is understandable. When you’ve only beaten Kerry twice in 130 years you want to make damned sure those wins are acknowledged. Still though we all make mistakes. To err is human. Slattery made an honest mistake. No more than that. Give him a break.