Poverty of Kerry’s display in Dublin demands a response against the Red Hand

ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 1

IT was, it’s fair to say, one hell of a scotching for the Kingdom.

Looking back through our mental rolodex – the only kind anyone has these days we’d wager – we can’t think of too many defeats like it for the green and gold in the last decade or so.

We’re reliably informed that the Kingdom haven’t conceded a tally as high as they did on the weekend since the 2013 All Ireland semi-final, when they conceded the same total to the same opposition.

You can skirt around it all you like… it’s only the league… it’s still the month of February… but that was pretty damned close to the Kingdom’s strongest fifteen (Tom O’Sullivan, Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Paul Geaney aside).

Certainly you could make the case that it was closer to Kerry’s strongest side than Dublin were to theirs and the Sky Blues were streets ahead of their oldest and dearest rivals. If you’re not at least a little bit worried by that, you’ve got a stronger constitution than us.

Okay, there’s a half decent chance that Kerry are in a particularly intensive period of training, but if they are, chances are so too are Dublin. Both teams have exactly the same destination in mind after all.

Might it have been a blip? A one off, to coin Jack O’Connor’s phrase, malfunction?

Certainly it could and probably it was. If we were a betting man, we’d wager that it will easily be the low point of the Kingdom’s season.

Still there were certain things about it that leave us more than a little worried. The Kingdom’s performance at midfield especially would give one serious pause for thought.

Do Kerry have a midfield good enough to win an All Ireland at the moment? And if not, can it be improved sufficiently between here and next July and All Ireland Sunday?

If it is to be, then this combination is going to need more games together, more potentially tricky days at the office and the visit of Tyrone to Fitzgerald Stadium certainly falls into that category.

Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick are proven commodities at this level – Cormaic Donnelly has also been featuring around the middle for the Red Hand of late – so will test Diarmuid and Joe O’Connor.

The Tralee namesakes have did well enough against Mayo in the round before last so there is a certain amount of potential in that partnership for sure. They’ll rightly need to rattle into this one, though.

To be fair pretty much everyone involved last Saturday evening will and for that reason alone you’ve got to have the Kingdom installed as favourites for this game. They simply need to find a response.

Remember too Sunday is the first time the Kingdom have played in Fitzgerald Stadium in a competitive game since they surrendered their unbeaten championship record on Lewis Road to Mayo.

How much that will factor into it we can’t rightly say, probably not that much in all honesty. What happened in Dublin 3 last weekend is sure to be a much more pressing concern than something that happened last May.

As for team selection, we suspect O’Connor might go for something close to what he selected for Dublin rather than making wholesale changes. Giving the players a chance to redeem themselves.

For their part, Tyrone will be coming to Killarney on something of an upswing, putting an end to a run of disappointing defeats with a handsome victory over Mayo in Omagh last Saturday evening.

At any given time it’s hard enough to put your finger on where Tyrone stand in the pecking order, save to say that when they perform up to scratch they’re as good as what’s out there.

Niall Morgan, Pádraig Hampsey, Michael McKernan are proper footballers, while the likes of Peter Harte, Darragh Canavan (1-3 from play against Mayo) and Darren McCurrey (0-8 off the bench) can punish even the best defenders.

Still for all that, so many Kerry players performed beneath themselves last weekend that there’s bound to be a positive response from the green and gold. Will David Clifford be as passive two games in-a-row?

Will Tadhg Morley and Jason Foley allow themselves to be exposed as they were last weekend in front of their own fans? Will Dylan Casey want last weekend’s game to define his league campaign, or will he want to leave a better impression?

We think we know the answer to all of the above and it’ll be in the affirmative. The fact that the malfunction was so complete last weekend means it’s really not a case of tweaking here or there, tidying this or that up, it’s simply the case that everyone must up their level.

After the frustration – and probably some embarrassment – at how easily the Dubs triumphed, pride demands a response.

Verdict: Kerry