Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Kerry must subdue Donegal's restart threat
Kerry goalkeeper Shane Murphy must be on point with his kickouts if his side are to beat Donegal. Pic: Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile
AHEAD of Donegal hosting Down in Letterkenny in the Ulster championship, Jim McGuinness had sent word to the match day stewards. He wanted his players off the pitch as quickly as possible at the final whistle. He didn’t want anyone lingering on the pitch unnecessarily afterwards.
The reason? Everyone was to be on the bus and back at their training base in Convoy as quickly as possible. The recovery protocols for their battle with Armagh the following weekend were immediately to kick in. Predictable levels of military planning from the Glenties man but he hadn’t factored in Down’s outstanding performance. A Minsky moment of sorts for Donegal.
Instead they were presented with an unexpected and at the time unwanted sabbatical. On reflection McGuinness may have realised that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to happen. Instead of battling their way through an ultra-competitive Ulster championship they got to reset, refresh and take stock for an assault on Sam. Of further consequence is the fact that the hype that had built around them after their League final hammering of Kerry has evaporated.
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They are still considered serious All-Ireland contenders, but no longer viewed as shoo-in champions. That can be a hard tag to carry, particularly for a group that has only one All-Ireland winner in their ranks. Because of the early draw they have had three weeks to focus their sights on the All-Ireland champions for a bona fide heavyweight clash in Killarney on Saturday, even with absentees on both sides.
A genuine rivalry has built between these two over the last 15 years, coinciding with McGuinness’ first coming. There were plenty of spicy encounters along the way. The day the redeveloped pitch was opened in Austin Stack Park in 2016 immediately springs to mind. We had a great win but the stand out memory is, when the normally quiet Alan Fitzgerald got a red card for breaking Neil McGee’s nose. In that context I imagine Michael Murphy’s poke at Dylan Casey will have been mentioned in the Kerry dressing room this week.
Saturday marks the teams' fifth meeting in 15 months. Donegal have won three of the previous four. Of course Kerry won the most important one last July but it emphasises how little is between the sides. It will be a fascinating contest on so many levels.
In the last two games of significance - last July's All-Ireland final and the more recent Division 1 league final - the victors got nearly everything right to win comfortably on the day. Both sides were extremely patient in possession, and I expect Saturday to be no different. I was surprised with how much Donegal showed in the league final, in their obvious determination to address some of the hurt from their previous Croke Park encounter, and, of course, secure national silverware.
Many of their improvements were direct responses to what happened last summer. Remarkably, considering some of the distance shooters at their disposal, in that final they failed to raise an orange flag. Kerry had five. In the league final that tally flipped, four to one, in the Ulster side's favour.
They defended the 11 v 11 very well. They were willing to push out more. Even though he didn’t play they refused to allow the Paudie Clifford situation to develop again, with any of his deputies. They used Gavin Mulreany to mark one of the decoys close to goal to allow an extra defender to push further out. They forced turnovers, which led to goals, while also refusing to turn the ball over themselves. They only had five turnovers in the entire match.
Finally, and most importantly, they dominated both sides of the kickout battle, which was the hinge point on the All-Ireland final encounter. They blunted Kerry’s vaunted attack by starving them of ball. They attacked Shane Murphy’s restarts with gusto. Last July Kerry won long kickouts, breaks and crucially used chipped kickouts to the corners to get their rapid backs running into the space to receive them. They ran the legs off Michael Murphy in the process. Get hands on ball while getting one of Donegal’s key men burning energy chasing. Two for the price of one. Donegal were chasing shadows while Kerry were building attacks and getting shots off.
For the league final, rather than allowing space around the arc for the Kingdom backs to bunch and break into space, McGuinness placed four lively players in their full forward line to rule out easy shorts. The O’Donnells, Ryan McHugh and Peadar Mogan all filled these slots at different times. Murphy went out to the middle to contest many of the kickouts where he was highly effective in breaking them back in, often off Mark O’Shea freeing up either Jason McGee or Hugh McFadden to contest with Joe O’Connor. Rather than chasing, Murphy was dictating. Donegal were excellent on breaks. For a period in the first half Kerry went over 15 minutes without a score. They only won seven out of their 15 restarts. The Ulster men scored six of their first half total of 13 via this method.
In general terms when McGuinness finds something that works he tends to stick to it. He reps and reps it to polish it, in the pursuit of perfection. For this reason I expect them to borrow extensively from the League final playbook again. His only issue, if the rumour mill is to be believed, is that some important players will be absent. I will be interested to see if he has anything further to add to their repertoire as Kerry have worked diligently on their league finale shortcomings in the meantime.
So what can Kerry do? Variety at kickout time will be critical. Predictability and persistence with the long kickout to the five and ten side was their undoing in Croke Park. In the interlude they have worked on short kickouts as we saw in the Munster championship. It is the mid-range restarts that could be key in this one. When Donegal put four runners in the inside line and when they flood bodies to an overload in anticipation of a kick to that box, there will be space for mid-range kicks over the first line of the press, and away from that overload.
Ronan Burns did this to great effect for Down, utilising pacy players as his targets. The beauty of this is if you do get out and go fast from there it is one of the few times that Donegal will be open and vulnerable. Down repeatedly got positive outcomes from this. These sort of kicks may require last-second adjustments and decisions from Shane Murphy, meaning he will really earn his corn. Conditions will be perfect and he should view it as an opportunity to show off his technical excellence.
Additionally, Kerry will be much more careful in possession. They will be extremely conscious of not giving ball to Donegal as they know they might not get it back again until it is on the kickout tee. As per iGaelicCoach, they had 31 shots from 33 possessions in the league final. Kerry will be careful in possession and will try to create two point opportunities. It will be interesting to see if McGuinness once more sends Caolan McColgan after David Clifford. McColgan got plenty of credit for his league final performance. I would argue that while being somewhat justified, it is worth stating that David was starved of possession. The praise McColgan got won’t have gone unnoticed in Fossa. If I was the Donegal man, I would be worried.
I can’t wait to see what Kerry will have up their sleeves for the 11 v 11 attacks. It was pleasing to see them innovate in the Munster final. They moved away from solely loading up the inside line with decoys to create space on the arc to a setup where they created one-on-ones all over the attacking space.
Cork obliged and got engaged, which led to situations that allowed David a clear run on goal for his goal after performing his back-door cut. No other Cork defender intervened to bail out Daniel O’Mahony, as they were occupied with their own men. Donegal won’t be as accommodating. Kerry can move between those two setups depending on how the visitors are defending. When the home side are loaded up inside, and if Donegal use keeper Mulreany as a defender, expect a floater or two inside around the square. The Kingdom almost got a goal right at the start of the league final when Mulreany got caught out of position, on a two point shot that dropped short.
Killarney may be the big one but it's not the only championship show in town. In each of the other three ties, teams have questions to answer. Can Cork recover the in-game consistency that earned them promotion back to Division One during the league? It has been absent so far in championship with a good first half against Kerry and Limerick and a strong second half against Tipperary. To win from now on they will need consistency across the entire match, as well as getting their attack firing again. Will Meath stay loyal to their attractive gung-ho football? And if they do (hopefully they will) can they improve their one-on-one defending at the back?
Can Roscommon flourish outside of Connacht? Their game and players are built for the big days from now on so there is no reason they can’t. Their passionate home support will help. Which Tyrone will we see? The league version that was a shadow of their potential selves, or the version that rocked up at the Athletic Grounds to rattle the eventual Ulster champions in an arm wrestle?
Will Galway push up through the gears for the All-Ireland series? They have the pedigree and experience but have they the energy and appetite to go to the well again? If so, they can start with fixing their kickout press. Finally, can an individualistic Kildare compete at this level? They were relegated to Division Three but pushed eventual Leinster champions Westmeath all the way in their extra time semi-final clash.
Plenty of questions there. We should have answers by Sunday evening.
