Can Kerry get creative without being careless?

WITH the parameters of what Kerry has to do on Saturday evening very clear – beat Kildare by five points or more – you’d imagine that there’s little, if any, scope for Éamonn Fitzmaurice to get cute with his team selection or tactics other than put out his best settled team and get the job done. Imagine the horror, the sheer horror, if Galway were to do the needful by beating Monaghan only for Kerry to come a cropper and not beat Kildare by enough, or not beat Kildare at all? The fortress-like walls of St Finian’s Hospital would hardly provide safe sanctuary for players and management alike.

Were the unimaginable to happen more reasonable men and women might simply surmise that this group of Kerry players are simply not good enough this year, as the collective Super 8 results would bear out. Whether or not the public or, indeed, the king-makers would feel the management were complicit in or totally responsible for the failure of the team to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals would be another matter for another day, but the very least that will be expected of Kerry on Saturday – if it is to be their last outing this year – will be to win and to win well.

The expectation all around is that Kerry will beat Kildare, not just because Kildare are already a beaten docket as far as the Super 8s are concerned and the game is in Killarney, though neither of those things will do Kerry any harm. Fitzmaurice, however, cannot take victory for granted. Indeed, he is on record as saying it will be dangerous to even consider much the five-point target his team must chase, preferring to run a line about making sure Kerry win the game first and foremost and letting the finer details of winning margins take care of itself. Of course, that can’t be entirely true because if Kerry are four points up as the clock heads into the ‘additional time’ they absolutely must go after another point unless word filters back from Salthill that Monaghan are trailing Galway by a large margin with little time left.

Having a real-time link to events in Salthill is something the Kerry manager hinted at, but is that about as cute as Fitzmaurice can be on Saturday? If Kerry are going to beat Kildare then they’re going to beat them with any number of teams they could line out on Saturday, but one of the questions for the management is can they use this game in any way to advance what they and the team are trying to do in advance of an All-Ireland semi-final?

The first obvious dilemma the selectors face is what to do with the players returning from injury and suspension, not least Jason Foley (pictured), who has been the go to full-back since February. Ditto what to do with Tadhg Morley who is back available to play after a Championship lay-off through injury. If Morley starts we assume Killian Young – suspended for the Monaghan game – doesn’t get his place back.

Who gets dropped to accommodate Foley is a little trickier, but on the basis of the Monaghan game (and given the small window of opportunity for training form to change much) Mark Griffin is at most risk. Tom O’Sullivan has to be a locked-in starter and Ronan Shanahan did little wrong in the full-back line, so Griffin might have to make way. But does that have to be all the way to the bench? There remains a small, but vocal, contingent who feel Griffin has plenty to offer the team further out the field, with some suggesting he could be moved all the way out to midfield to good effect. With Jack Barry’s form not the best right now, and David Moran lacking that explosion of pace necessary around the middle, Griffin is the type of dynamic player who could give Brian Fenton plenty to concern himself with on Saturday week. This Saturday could be as good a time as nay to road test that tactic unless, of course, it’s being kept under wraps for a first airing against the Dubs.

The other big questions are whether or not to retain Brian Kelly as goalkeeper, and whether or not to retain Donaghy in the starting attack. Shane Murphy’s confidence probably took another hit after being benched in Clones, and one has to imagine that whoever starts with the gloves on Saturday will remain there until Kerry’s Championship in done.

As for Donaghy, the question is really more about O’Donoghue. The Legion man is clearly low on confidence or spark or something, but what the management need to know before Sunday is will he respond best to the stick or the carrot? Start him in a game that he is likely to thrive in or keep him in reserve in the hope that hell will have no fury like an O’Donoghue unleashed on Dublin in Croke Park.

In time-honoured cliché it’s one game at a time, so getting the win on Saturday has to be the priority. But Kerry must also lay some plans for a possible semi-final meeting with Dublin seven days later or they could just be prolonging their exit from the Championship by just a week. Fail to prepare and all that...