Kerry no longer regal but ever so real
“You see I do believe that there is a Down way of doing things and sometimes this has been lost in translation and has become a subject of ridicule. The fact of the matter is that each county has indeed their own way of doing things. In Kilkenny that will be different to what they might do in Cork and in Galway different to what they do in Antrim and that is right we are not all cloned.”
McAteer expanded on the “Down way” to the county’s brand of football, one that has long been known as one of open and swashbuckling.
“The Down way is how we pride ourselves as to how we do things. There has to be a Down way of playing football, a way that reflects our tradition of style and flair if we lose that we lose our soul.”
If the same belief was applied in Kerry, they lost something of their essence in 2014 but as a result gained an All-Ireland title. Mirroring Donegal the way they did with a minor tweak here and there, they paid the ultimate respect to the opposition, bowing lower than arguably any other Kerry team has genuflected before.
Éamonn Fitzmaurice has deservedly earned praise for turning transition into triumph but there’s a perception that inside the county he’s never been fully credited for transforming Kerry into a team rooted as opposed to mired in realism.
There is a small minority who, while acknowledging Fitzmaurice had to cut his coat according to the cloth he had, feel he has moved too far from the Kerry ideal. Then there is a larger group who simply ignore that he has overwhelmingly changed their county’s means to give them the best chance of achieving that familiar September end. For them, success has clouded judgement.
But the pretence is gone now. Since the round three game against Down, Kerry have operated with a brilliant defender in Paul Murphy at centre-forward.
Of course, Murphy’s brief extends far behind the opponent’s 45-metre line and his starting spot is often filled by Colm Cooper, Darran O’Sullivan or Stephen O’Brien who have alternated between there and the inside line.
After Sunday’s game, Roscommon joint-manager Fergie O’Donnell was asked if he was surprised by how Kerry’s defensive play.
“I was surprised actually when we hadn’t the ball. Someone said to me that we were quiet even bringing the men back but we actually weren’t. Like, when they hadn’t the ball it was something you were looking at in the second-half, when we attacked.
“Even in the first-half, they invariably left two players inside. It was their ability to transition compared to us, that when they get back so quick they can then come up the field. Like, Kieran Donaghy can float in at 14 and next minute you look and he’s back in the full-back line. That’s something we have got to look at.”
Total football? Call it what you want if it means players are doing more now when they don’t have the ball.
On Radio Kerry’s Terrace Talk last night, John Evans gave dues to Fitzmaurice for making Kerry into a “workmanlike sort of phalanx where every line from the 70-yard line back you are working and you are closing down the space”.
He also credited the strength of Kerry in body-checking Roscommon players. High praise indeed but for the purists listening in it may have rankled.
Contributors to Terrace Talk the last two Monday evenings have bemoaned the free totals in Kerry’s matches, which have regularly counted against them.
Although, many of the fouls committed have been intelligent ones where either an opposing defender’s drive out of his half has been thwarted illegally, committed in areas of no real consequence or done so to snuff out a potential goal. Nothing condonable, of course, but perfectly understandable.
Dublin’s football may be easiest on the eye but there is almost a refusal in their ranks to accept a lot of what they do is artisan.
Last year, Jim Gavin said he could never countenance playing as defensively as Derry but there have been several occasions albeit fleetingly where they have had retreated vast numbers behind the ball.
Donegal in 2014 made them think again. Paul Flynn’s form mightn’t have been great last year but playing deeper than usual he probably sacrificed another All-Star for an All-Ireland medal.
Fitzmaurice isn’t so proud to believe his team’s proverbial doesn’t stink. If there was a Kerry way, they lost it and beat another track for themselves. Down should take note.
We’ve always figured referees, in general, to be the sentimental kind. Before you cry foul, ask yourself why the men in black are so disinclined to show red cards in All-Ireland semi-finals.
Or why former referees chief Pat McEnaney wanted one-match cumulative bans to be wiped out so that they wouldn’t apply to All-Ireland finals.
Recent events have strengthened our belief that deep down referees don’t want to be the bad guys. Take Pádraig Hughes, for instance, on Sunday where he clearly felt the concession of a third goal was punishment enough for Roscommon than losing goalkeeper Geoffrey Claffey to a justified black card for bringing down Darran O’Sullivan. Might it have been a form of compensation for allowing Donnchadh Walsh all those steps for Kerry’s second goal?
Or the Sunday previous when Diarmuid Kirwan looked ready to show Clare’s Ciarán O’Doherty a second yellow card only to let him away with a warning for what appeared a clear-cut cautionable offence?
Or the Sunday before that when David Coldrick did not issue a black card to Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan when he took down Kerry’s Paul Murphy for a penalty. Did the referee want to avoid insult to injury?
Or even the Sunday prior to that when Fergal Horgan seemed to overlook the overstepping of John Conlon after he had been fouled.
McEnaney once said the advantage rule and black card would be more tools to referees. Instead, they’re more like weapons for some match officials who are afraid to use them.
It wasn’t Donegal’s fault that they found themselves in a Division 1 semi-final after losing four games. Nor should they be blamed for deviating from their plan to be right for the Ulster championship.[/timg]
Their provincial quarter-final against Antrim or Fermanagh in June mightn’t loom on the horizon as forebodingly as the visit of Tyrone to Ballybofey did last May, which prompted their indifferent approach to their Division 1 semi-final against Cork.
Nevertheless, neither Dublin nor Kerry are presented with the gauntlet that Donegal must begin from early summer where every team is sized up for a coffin.
Roscommon, to a lesser extent, simply aren’t in a position to devote themselves to dual missions as Dublin and Kerry.
That doesn’t excuse their naivety on Sunday but the prospect of playing a league final then flying out the day after for a Connacht opener in New York the following weekend didn’t appear ideal.
It’s too simplistic to dismiss Rory Gallagher’s revelation that he gave his Donegal players the week off training prior to losing to Dublin as a ready-made excuse for the 10-point loss.
Even before the game, Eamon McGee was claiming they were targeting the gap between the league and championship to improve.
In Ulster, the battle chooses them. It’s only outside the championship where that relationship is reversed.
