Top four finish a fitting reward for a promising year

THE question you have to ask is whether Kerry would have taken fourth spot in the group before the competition began?

They absolutely would have done. These were shark infested waters, four of the six teams in the group finished ahead of the Kingdom in the National League, and with a young team Kerry might have been expected to have a job on their hands to stay afloat.

That Fintan O’Connor’s men have managed to retain their status – avoiding both the relegation drop door and the play-off spot – and have managed to do so with a game to spare is grounds for celebration.

It’s a real achievement and, yet, we suspect that such is the ambition of these hurlers that they’ll feel a little annoyed not to have gone a little closer to a place in the final of the competition.

Their failure to beat Carlow in the opening game from a very promising position could haunt them in the weeks and months ahead. On top of that they didn’t quite perform as well as they can against Westmeath (who to be fair didn’t allow them to).

All of which is to say that it wouldn’t have taken much for Kerry – a point or a goal here and there – to have put themselves in a position to challenge for a final spot going into the last weekend.

Instead they travel north to face Antrim with nothing at stake, from their perspective at least. Results last weekend – Laois’ defeat to Carlow especially – mean that no matter how well Kerry do at the weekend they’re destined to finish third or fourth.

A win for Laois over Meath (which would normally be expected) and they finish on four points. Even if Kerry lose to Antrim and finish on the four points they have now, Kerry’s win over Laois in Tralee means they’ll finish ahead of Eamonn Kelly’s men on a head-to-head basis.

It’s a similar situation should Kerry defeat Antrim this weekend. A win would put the Kingdom on six points and even if Westmeath were to defeat Carlow to leave the Barrowsiders also on six points, Carlow would finish above Kerry on a head to head basis. The best Kerry can do is third place.

Again as we say, they’d have taken it before the competition began.