Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
POWER & THE GORY
Keane admits his young guns were no match for Mayo strength in NFL
PETER KEANE admits Kerry must find a way to cope with Mayo’s power game – as he waits to find out how good his side really is.
Keane is not sure where his Kerry team are as they welcome Mayo into the Killarney cauldron.
But the Kingdom supremo concedes his young side were out-muscled when the sides met in Tralee in a League thriller in March – the first of two beatings dished out by Mayo so far this year, the second coming in the League final in Croke Park.
Seen off by Roscommon in Connacht, Mayo have once more emerged from the backdoor route.
“Mayo were very impressive against Galway, they were very good,” Keane.
“They were tough and sure we were hearing about all these injuries but they were all there and available. So yes, very impressed by them and we’ll have to be at our best to have a chance. It’s the only show in town.”
For the hosts to prevail, this young Kerry side will also have to bring a physical edge that hasn’t been a feature of their play.
Keane acknowledges that it’s an advantage that James Horan’s side will look to exploit.
“If you were to look at Mayo for the last eight to 10 years, there are a lot of seasoned campaigners there,” he said. “They’re physically in good, strong shape and they’ve a lot of conditioning done. So they have a lot of physicality and that is something Mayo use.
“If you look at the night in Tralee, physically they won out. Conditions weren’t great on the night and that didn’t help anyone.
“It certainly didn’t help a lighter and inexperienced team like Kerry.”
The Kingdom were criticised despite producing winning performances in Munster against Clare and Cork. Their defence was lambasted for being badly exposed in the provincial decider in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
Since then Cork have made the Super 8s courtesy of the hammering dished out to Laois, while Clare came up just short in their bid against Meath.
“I’m not sure where it leaves us to be honest,” he said.
“You don’t know where you’re at until you right in the middle of it – we’ll know more on Sunday evening.
“I was here talking to the media before the Munster final, I don’t think you believed me that I would take your hand off for a one point win.
“Subsequently we were being criticised because we didn’t win by more, yet
I had said that Cork down in their home patch was going to be tight. But I’ve no control over that narrative.
“I also said before we played Clare that playing them up in Ennis is never easy, over the years it has been tough for Kerry teams to win there.
“So both turned out the way I had anticipated and both those teams have franked the form since. But where that leaves us in the greater scale of things, I don’t know.
“All I can say is that we had two tough games in Munster and we got through them intact, and we’re still standing and hopefully ready to kick on again.
“It has landed us with a big game in Killarney on Sunday and that was our aim.”