What the next Kerry manager must do

Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s successor will have a big job on his hands to improve the Kingdom’s performance in the backline, writes Paul Brennan

IN less than three weeks, all going to schedule, the next Kerry senior football team manager and management team will be in situ. The same could be said of every managerial appointment since Mick O’Dwyer’s successor, Mickey Ned, in 1990, but there is a real sense that County Committee chairman Tim Murphy and the selection committee have to get this decision spot on. After six years in the hot-seat Éamonn Fitzmaurice stepped aside last month, but while there was a growing and, in the end, irreversible mood for change among the Kerry supporters, replacing him cannot be done just for the sake of change.

The job of managing the Kerry footballers always comes with a huge responsibility, but seldom, if ever, has that been more true than now. The undeniable reality that Dublin have been and continue to be the strongest and best team/ county in the country by quite a distance rankles more in the Kingdom than anywhere else, and the growing impatience for Kerry to add title no.38 to its roll of honour will – whether he likes it or not – will press heavily on the shoulders of the new manager.

On the evidence of their latest All-Ireland Championship title win Dublin look like remaining the pre-eminent team for the foreseeable future, but for many, Kerry look like the best chance of relieving Dublin of their now fourth successive All-Ireland title. On the emperical evidence of this year’s Championship, and a hugely disappointing Super 8 campaign, that would seem a tad optimistic right now, but the reason why Kerry is seen as the best hope of toppling the Dublin dynasty is predicated on enough talent coming from those five All-Ireland Minor Championship winning panels to form an winning senior team. And that’s why getting Fitzmaurice’s successor right is so important.

Kieran Donaghy is the first of this year’s squad to announce his retirement from inter-county football, but he’s unlikely to be the last. Without handing out P45s here it wouldn’t be a stretch to believe at least two more players will call time on their Kerry careers, and that number could easily rise to five in total. And that’s before the new manager instigates his own changes to the squad, with a few more players deemed surplus to his requirements before some new players are called in for trials and training. In the shake-up we should expect a few more from the minor teams of 2014 to 2017 to be invited in, especially if the job goes to either Peter Keane or Jack O’Connor, the two men who have managed those players to All-Ireland Minor titles.

But assembling an extended panel over the winter will be the easy part. It’s getting what you want and expect out of them that’s the difficult bit. And in Keane’s case, if he is the manager-elect, he will be doing it while also finding his feet in what will be much deeper water than anything he will have experienced before.

There’s no doubt that the attacking talent the new manager will have to work with is up there with any other county, including Dublin. Paul Geaney, James O’Donoghue, David Clifford, Sean O’Shea, Stephen O’Brien, Kevin McCarthy and Micheál Burns are superb footballers. There’s another half dozen who have caught the eye in the early rounds of the county championship and who would certainly be deserving of a call-up to winter training at least.

The quality of forwards coming through has been borne out by the big scores being registered across all games in the recent county championship games, but there is, of course, a corollary to this: capable defences and quality defenders seem to be in short supply.

Very few of the current Kerry defenders have really stood out in the county championship so far, or at least in terms of proper defending.

Mark Griffin has been eye-catching for South Kerry but more so in that attacking role he seems to prefer, rather than a nuts-and-bolts defender.

Tom O’Sullivan scored three points for Dingle last weekend, and one the previous week, but hasn’t exactly been anchoring the defence there. Same goes

for Brian Ó Beaglaoich with An Ghaeltacht.

Shannon Rangers early exit hasn’t allowed for Jason Foley to build on his summer’s work with Kerry, and the same can be said for Tadhg Morley with Kenmare District.

Rathmore had to shift Paul Murphy from centre-back to centre-forward to try and rescue them against South Kerry last weekend.

Peter Crowley was typically forceful in the Mid Kerry defence, and Ronan Shanahan has been steady in the Stacks rearguard, but neither could be said to have been head and shoulders above those around them.

Gavin White was excellent at no.6 for Dr Crokes at the weekend in his first county championship start, but he’s also more of an attacking half back than an out and out defender.

Quite what the next manager thinks of the current crop of Kerry backs or what he has in mind for the defence is anyone’s guess, but in this era of studiously honed defensive systems and kick-out strategies it would seem that some serious work is needed there over the winter.

The routine concession of goals through the National League earlier this year was an issue that was never fully resolved when you consider how Cork opened Kerry up in the early minutes of the Munster Final and then how Monaghan and even Kildare carved up a Kerry defence that looked more a disparate bunch on individuals rather than a cohesive collective.

Whether it’s Keane or O’Connor or someone else who takes over, it would seem that he will either need to re-programme the incumbent defenders to, ah, actually defend, or he will have to scour the county for personnel whose first instinct and desire is to defend rather than go on the offensive.

Jack McCaffrey might be the marquee defender in the Dublin team, but the All-Ireland champions have proper orthodox defenders in John Small, Johnny Cooper and Philly McMahon who first instinct and job is to man mark their opponents.

The same goes for Chris Barrett and Colm Boyle in Mayo, Ronan McNamee and Michael McKernan in Tyrone, and the Wylies in Monaghan.

More crucially, however, is that those players operate within a defensive structure in which all moving parts work in synch with each other, including the goalkeeper. Could the same really be said about the Kerry defence this year?

Every inter-county player now wants to be a ‘baller’ and has to be one, but that doesn’t mean that the basics can be ignored. I’m reminded of an old player from my home club years ago who was bragging after a game that he had played a brilliant game, ruled the centre of the park and had scored eight points from midfield. All well and good until a team mate reminded him that his direct opponent had scored nine points from play.

It’s of little use to Kerry if a corner-back or wing-back is getting forward to score a point or two if the man he’s assigned to mark is scoring or assisting three or four points.

The way the game has moved on, and the way Jim Gavin and others are now coaching and setting up teams, means that a reliance on the old ways is no longer good enough. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for good old-fashioned defending and unearthing a couple of stay-athome backs – or re-purposing a few of what’s already there – would be a good start for whoever is handed the manager’s bib.

It’s an old maxim that the defence form of defence is attack, but in Gaelic football that’s not always true.