Kingdom is now a realm of mere mortals

Tradition cannot prevent Kerry sliding back to the chasing pack

GODS made mortal is one of the great mythical themes. And like the best stories, it recurs in every age.

A deity losing their power can serve as a cautionary tale, or a metaphorical lament for a once-mighty force reduced to the status of the rest of us.

It echoes in Brexit, with some in British politics convinced the grandeur of the days of empire can be reclaimed. American anxiety about its diminished status led to the choice of president, with people willing to elect someone like Donald Trump on the strength of his promise to make them great again.

Accepting that the old days are gone, that the feats of yore are no more, can’t be easy.

Those few Kerry fans committed enough to wend their way north to Clones this afternoon have no choice.

Win against Monaghan and Kerry should be confident about making an All-Ireland semi-final. Lose and their Championship will end on a lonely northern field, hours from home.

But whatever the result, Kerry’s place in the footballing order is now clear. They are no more and no less than one of a handful of counties in desperate, probably forlorn pursuit of Dublin.

That seems obvious today, but up to a week ago, the young team nurtured by Éamonn Fitzmaurice was fancied to run the champions closer than anyone else.

Their failure to seriously compete against a Galway team that is regimented, committed but developing still itself, means the reassessments have been swift and not especially merciful.

Fitzmaurice has faced heavy criticism before, after losing a miserable 2015 final to Dublin and when Kerry were trounced by Mayo in a semi-final replay last August.

The gruesomeness of those postmortems will be as nothing compared to what will happen should they lose in Clones.

If the nature of last week’s defeat was shocking for a Kerry support lifted by the dash of their wins against Clare and Cork, however, ambitions for Kerry as potential champions relied mostly on blind hope.

Not only was the young side untested by a pitiful Munster Championship, but more importantly Kerry have been slipping back into the chasing pack for three years now.

One of the tangential consequences of Dublin’s dominance has been to reduce their oldest rivals to simply one more underdog.

The loss to Galway only made that new reality vivid.

Hope is not lost for this generation, or for Fitzmaurice, but it is a question of patience and perspective now: are Kerry fans, and the officials who govern the game in the Kingdom, willing to accept the new dispensation?

Mickey Ned O’Sullivan was a typically reasonable voice amid the squalls of unhappiness after the Galway defeat, differentiating between what should constitute failure and experience for a young, untested side. He would know, having captained the most famous group of greenhorns in football history to the Sam Maguire in 1975. That is unlikely to happen this September, but his point holds: a new side has to be tempered and shaped. The time when a young team like the one led by O’Sullivan, the one that heralded the Golden Years, could emerge fully formed is now passed. Absorbing that lesson will not be easy for proud Kerry supporters, but it is the truth. In this new age, standards are decided by Dublin and everyone else tries to catch up.

Kerry have won one All-Ireland since 2009. Their 2014 triumph has tended to be weighed too lightly. Their pragmatism in the final against Donegal cannot be denied, but that was proof of Fitzmaurice’s nous as a manager.

And if the semi-final replay win against Mayo is often celebrated as one of the best days the latter enjoyed in their resurgence over the past half-decade, then Kerry’s feat in beating them that unforgettable night in the Gaelic Grounds should be celebrated accordingly.

They have touched greatness under Fitzmaurice, but they have not been able to touch Dublin.

In that, they are simply another frustrated challenger. Nothing but their glorious past distinguishes Kerry from the rest.

Fitzmaurice has understood this for quite a while, but hope was recast after the impressions left by Sean Ó Sé and David Clifford in the Munster Championship.

Here, it seemed, was another young team emerging, schooled in the principles of Kerry football.

However, they were not tested by a Clare team out of their depth, or a helpless Cork side.

Some feared that such a callow group would be exposed, but few expected Galway to be responsible.

The Kingdom is a realm of mere mortals now, one more county struggling under Dublin rule.