RAY SILKE: Kingdom overhaul will take time
“To put a greater emphasis on underage football and development squads.”
Based on their second half performance, which for this columnist, was the most ragged 35 minutes of football I have seen from a Kerry senior team, Sheehan’s wish list needs to be implemented. Immediately.
Kerry were shockingly bad in the final quarter. Headless, low on confidence, and inept. They were in trouble by half-time despite James O’Donoghue’s superbly taken goal.
The sides were level (1-6 to 0-9) but Mayo were going to have the considerable wind at their backs and they were hunting in packs.
Once Anthony Maher was red-carded, there was far too much to be done by the impressive Johnny Buckley and Mayo lorded possession from there to the finish. After the game, the few Kerry supporters I spoke to, were scratching their heads trying to remember the last time their county did not score in a second half, or if it had happened before? Based on the performance, and the lack of penetration by the Kerry front-line, Eamonn Fitzmaurice has a huge job on his hands. And one that will take time.
Kerry youngsters like Michael Geaney, Patrick Curtin, Conor Cox and Micheal O’Donoghue all found Mayo’s greater intensity, work-rate, defensive organisation and power far too much to cope with.
Kerry supporters can point to the return of the Dr Crokes players, plus Tomás Ó Sé, Kieran Donaghy, Declan O’Sullivan and Paul Galvin, as a reason for some optimism, however there are still reasons for genuine concern.
They started the second half with Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony in the key central defensive positions. Both had the cut of two very frustrated men and the contagion effect of wasted possession and kicking the ball away even hit the normally unflappable Ó Sé by the final whistle.
Those men owe Kerry absolutely nothing and yesterday was Ó Sé’s 68th league game and O’Mahony’s 67th. Kerry supporters must wince to think about their defensive capabilities when those two and Tomás Ó Sé are not around the place.
This league defeat was not pretty from a Kerry perspective but Mayo and James Horan were rightly pleased with a very impressive start to their 2013 league campaign.
The home side were very organised, disciplined and worked really hard all over the field. On numerous occasions they crowded out and out muscled their direct opponents, especially the light Kerry forwards. Ger Cafferkey, Colm Boyle and Chris Barrett all caught the eye.
Mayo used normal wing-backs Richie Feeney and Lee Keegan in their half-forward line with a work-alcoholic Feeney given licence to drop back to support his half backs and midfield. It was a tactic that worked and he got on an immense amount of ball and used it shrewdly.
Both their inside forwards, Jason Doherty — who shot the first four scores for his team — and Michael Conroy, were very lively and impressive. Conroy hit four from play and all were high quality scores.
Mayo were incredibly hard-working, efficient and pretty impressive with big Aidan O’Shea a work-horse at midfield. They hit 0-15 without Alan Dillon, Cillian O’Connor and Andy Moran in their starting line up while regular number six Donal Vaughan was also unavailable. They take on Tyrone next Sunday at home and based on this performance, they will do so with confidence. Having been Connacht champions for the past two years, winning is something they now expect, more so than hope for.
Kerry face Dublin at home next Sunday and after seeing Jim Gavin’s side first hand on Saturday night they look like they will be hard to beat in the league. We expect a Kerry backlash after yesterday’s horrid display, nevertheless Dublin have a serious panel to pick from.
In their win over a rigid Cork outfit they had superb performances from young Jack McCaffrey at wingback, John Cooper behind him, and up front Paddy Andrews shot 0-5 from play and Bernard Brogan seems to have regained the form that lit up the capital in 2011.
Kildare and Kieran McGeeney will be pleased with the display of their young guns, Niall Kelly, Paddy Brophy and Daniel Flynn. However it was the old-stager Johnny Doyle who still plucked their strings when they needed tuning.
