Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Dessie's Dubs need to bring the pain to Tralee

Dublin’s Brian Fenton tries to escape from Armagh’s Ben Crealey during the Allianz League match at Croke Park last weekend. Dublin will have a point to prove after that defeat. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

We expect a reaction from both Dublin and Kerry tonight in Tralee. Neither will be happy with last week’s results or performances, though they both will probably have had a little smile to themselves when they saw subsequent commentary, after one game in January.

Question marks hang over Kerry, and Dublin are being written off.

First things first. It is important to give some context with regard to where the top teams are at right now as they focus on the big picture. Both Kerry and Dublin have designs on the All-Ireland and will have worked their training plan backwards from July to ensure they are peaking when it matters most.

What that means for their training at the moment in such a condensed season I’m not sure, but both teams looked as if they have done a block of work recently. The panel is tight at this time of the year with some players club-tied, injured, or returning late. Sigerson Cup is also a factor for Kerry. The Sigerson players won’t have been training as they were playing games midweek. It won’t affect their individual preparation but it does affect the collective session.

Throw in the few knocks and bruises and sessions can be seriously compromised. Numbers will be well down and playing full football to work on match-specific aspects, which is exactly what is required, can be challenging. Finally with a tight squad, a lot of the players have played a huge amount of football in January. For many of the Kerry players, this evening’s Division One game will be their fifth in six weeks. When players get back to playing matches after a lay off they are mad for road, are fresh and hungry.

However, playing this volume of games so close together without being up to full fitness dulls the appetite. This is why I never liked the McGrath Cup as a manager. That new season bounce and mad hunger for football had often dissipated by the time the league came around and players were a bit jaded when it mattered most. For all these reasons there will be little or no panic within either camp. That doesn’t mean that anyone gets a free pass this evening as both managers and sets of players will be really up for it and will be anxious to win. To lay down a marker if nothing else.

Dublin have come back to the pack and it means that this year’s league and championship are as open as they have been in quite some time. However, they are still well capable of winning the All-Ireland, if and when they get all their key players back on the pitch together. On the evidence of last Saturday, they have plenty to be working on.

They are a distance away from the swashbuckling Dublin that I remember coming up against, where you had to be right at the top of your game to beat them. With that group, I think of how good they were all over the field and on the bench, their power plays when the crowd got behind them and when they did serious damage on the scoreboard. I can recall the excellence of their manager and his selectors. Most of all I remember a determination and bloody-mindedness that meant they were never beaten and this set them apart. That is what I grudgingly admired the most about them and respected them for.

Last Saturday night in Croke Park, with the ball they were passive and unimaginative, without it they lacked structure and their work rate all over the pitch was conspicuously absent. Rian O’Neill’s goal was a perfect illustration of all that is currently wrong with Dublin.

After a period of ineffective handpassing in the final third Niall Scully recycled the ball to Brian Howard who in his attempt to play Scully in handpassed the ball straight to Rory Grugan. He was able to take three solos at his dead ease without a hand being put on him before he popped the ball to Aidan Nugent in space in front of the Cusack Stand. Nugent in turn was able to give a great diagonal ball to take out Davy Byrne and put O’Neill through.

After the initial turnover Dublin’s reaction is shocking. No one tries to get to the ball to put heat on Grugan. There is no attempt to tactically foul to get back in shape. There is zero reaction to the turnover with none of the players between Grugan and their own goal sprinting back to help Byrne. There isn’t a pre-planned solid structure in place to deal with this exact eventuality. Nugent has time to get his head up and make the pass. Byrne is playing from way out in front even though there is no pressure on the ball. Of course, the initial turnover came from a static attack that they had bored themselves to death with, by the repeated recycling of possession with no one coming on the burst in support to break the line. There was so much wrong and un-Dublinlike about the whole move.

Dessie Farrell won’t be able to click his fingers and get all this right in a week. So what exactly can he do in seven days to get a tune out of his team and at the very least make them harder to play against?

As outlined Farrell has a lot to think about but to improve for tonight he will focus on a couple of key areas. Long term his biggest challenge is to find a way to attack and defend with intent as a group, again. For Tralee tonight, the biggest changes will come in terms of attitude, shooting accuracy, and tackling. I’m sure the video session after last week’s game was an uncomfortable experience for many of the Dublin players.

Mistakes on the ball may have been illustrated but it is their attitude and workrate off the ball that Farrell will have highlighted and gone after by calling players out and wondering what in the name of God they were doing. He would have plenty of ammo by just showing the O’Neill goal and nothing else. He will demand that they tackle hard and aggressively tonight and I expect them to. He may make personnel changes to bring a bit of a physical edge to them. He will get plenty of bodies into their own half when they don’t have the ball.

The last thing he will want to do is give confidence to the Kerry forwards and allow them to grow. They will also have spent plenty of time on their shooting as their accuracy against Armagh was way below the normal level. By simply improving these couple of areas they will be a different prospect. They may also look to go long more often from their kickouts. The constant chips short are no longer effective and by going long to Brian Fenton it may allow them to play some front-foot football.

Meanwhile, on the Kerry side, Jack O’Connor is getting to know his players. He has seen plenty of them already but to really get to know a player you have to be in the trenches with them. He is looking for men that he can trust on the big days in Croke Park. That trust is earned on nights like tonight with a big home crowd watching every move closely. He will expect much more from his forwards, will want them to be way smarter in possession and cut out the fatuous and costly turnovers.

They should have more space to operate in Austin Stack Park and he will expect them to move the ball on quicker. He will have spent time on his inside forwards this week and will demand that they secure the ball when it is put inside and go from there. He will be happy with the workrate in general and the shape at the back in particular. Dublin will provide a different test in this regard and it will be interesting to see how they free up Tadhg Morley to help on defence.

Jack felt last year with Kildare he had the blueprint in the Leinster final to beat the Dubs.

He will feel he has the players to do just that now.