Antrim win puts Kerry in a better position to challenge Westmeath in Austin Stack Park

FINTAN O’Connor and his management team would probably blanch at the suggestion if you put it to them, but after last Saturday afternoon the Kingdom have one foot in the league final.

In a division as tight as this one, a victory for one of the three main contenders for promotion over another puts them in a powerful position to drive on and claim a league final spot.

It doesn’t make it automatically so, a lot can happen over the space of the four remaining rounds – it might even go to score difference if all three finished level on points (which is more than possible) – but if Kerry can win their final three games (regardless of what happens this weekend against Westmeath) they should, more than likely, be in the final at the end of March.

All three games are winnable, Kerry would be favoured to win all of those games. They’re not gimmies or dead certs or anything like that (at home to Mayo and Meath, away to London), but defeat in any of them would have to be considered a major disappointment.

It’s around now that Fintan O’Connor would remind us that with so many players involved in Fitzgibbon and Ryan Cup action that he can’t be sure of what players he will have at his disposal on any given weekend, especially not for the trip to London, which clashes directly with the finals weekend for both competitions.

That’s certainly a concern, but the longer those competitions wear on the fewer of his players there are likely to be involved. Certainly at this stage it’s a decent bet that Shane Conway will be involved on finals weekend and that would be a big blow, but maybe one Kerry can weather for a game against the English capital.

Victory last weekend gives Kerry that little bit of breathing room. Yes it means a little bit of pressure now to go on and finish the job, to make sure that they make use of the advantage they accrued last weekend, but having their fate in their own hands is precisely where they wanted to be.

It means that they can view this weekend’s game with Westmeath as something akin to a free hit. Had they lost in Belfast on Saturday afternoon, they would have been under immense pressure to take the two points here.

Failure to beat Westmeath under those circumstances would have almost certainly put a place in the league final beyond the Kingdom. Kerry had to win one or the other of the opening two games and now that they’ve won one of those, it gives them a much better chance of winning the other.

O’Connor’s side can tackle Westmeath uninhibited. They can go out and hurl and express themselves, knowing that defeat isn’t the end of the world, or at least the end of the road, for them.

That’s not to say they don’t have something to play for. They do, they absolutely do. Defeat Westmeath this weekend and Kerry would be all but guaranteed a place in the final.

It’s a game this bunch of Kerry hurlers should be relishing. Twice last year when the fat was in the fire Westmeath bested them, in the final round of the league and in the McDonagh Cup in Tralee.

In both of those games Kerry will feel they should have been a lot closer than they ended up being – sendings off for Jack Goulding (in Mullingar) and Seán Weir (in Stack Park) cost the Kingdom their best chances of getting something out of those games.

Westmeath went on to contest both the league final and the McDonagh Cup final and, despite losing out in both, showed what they’re all about. They’re a quality side and, despite a change of management, they would still be considered ahead of Kerry in the pecking order right now.

An eight point victory over London in Mullingar showed they’ve lost little since last year. Their star men are still their star men. Niall Mitchell and Allan Devine both bagged goals against London, while guys like Robbie Greville, Jack Galvin, Darragh Clinton and Derek McNicholas all got on the scoreboard.

Westmeath are a quality, quality side, but not one Kerry should be fearful of. In both of those games last year Kerry were able to mix it with them up until they lost a man and in Mullingar it wasn’t until injury time at the end of the second half that Westmeath really put the game to bed.

This is a glorious opportunity for the Kingdom to prove they’re on the same level as Westmeath. Westmeath will be the bookies favourites and rightly so. We just feel that last weekend’s victory in Belfast will give Kerry the confidence and the freedom they need to finally put one over on Westmeath.

Verdict: Kerry