Where will Kerry's improvement come from?
If the itch needed scratching last Sunday afternoon, it was nearly as bad Monday evening. I’d love to have been in the Killarney meeting with Eamonn and the group. After the pool session and the recovery, the debrief. On days when it doesn’t go 100% right, you’re thinking about it all the way back on the train Sunday night. Why didn’t it click? Was our movement good enough? Why didn’t we test them more?
By Monday evening, we all have our own answers. And some of them are thrashed out. I wondered who was being called out. Who was hearing Eamonn enquire why he didn’t do what they’d discussed. Who was having to swallow his indignation and resist the urge to march off in a hump.
There’s a widespread assumption that Kerry have more improvement in them than Mayo for today’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay. I’m not sure that’s fair on Mayo, who will have posed their own questions this week. But if Eamonn Fitzmaurice has come up with the right answers, where is Kerry’s improvement going to come from?
It will amaze me if Fitzmaurice goes man for man in defence again today. Though he didn’t change things after the Galway game, when Kerry also struggled as defenders became isolated.
Sweepers are the fashionable solution to every problem, but I would prefer a zonal defence. Like Kerry put out against Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland final. Two lines of three, stationed deep. The wing backs staying at home to deny space. The last day, Kerry’s flooded midfield was set up like a rugby line, a string of bodies across the field. Easiest way past that is over it. The kick over their heads into acres of space around Cillian O’Connor and Andy Moran. Mayo never found it so straightforward getting ball to their shooters.
I don’t care who the defenders are, a good forward feels invincible in that scenario. It’s heaven sent. O’Connor and Moran are clever players. Most of their scores came on the loop. But there was such space for the loop. They had free rein. I know myself, when you run a loop and take a handpass back, with a deeper six there is always someone coming in to get a block on you. That didn’t happen for Kerry last Sunday.
Certainly, there’s more in Shane Enright, who couldn’t pin down Andy Moran, but it’s a lot to expect of any defender. And even when the ball was kicked in, I didn’t see many Kerry players sprint back to help out, to get close and squeeze the space. Kerry were staying man for man and it didn’t work.
Hold their shape and I think it causes Mayo problems. They are a good team running at you too, but I’d take that. Force Colm Boyle or Tom Parsons or Jason Doherty to carry past you, to beat you. Can Diarmuid O’Connor and Kevin McLaughlin and the midfield come up with enough scores from range? I wonder.
Couple of downsides. When your backs are stationed close to goal, any missed tackle is a crisis. Alarm bells. But Kerry shouldn’t be missing as many tackles as last week regardless. Do that and they’ll struggle whatever way they set up.
And you mightn’t dominate the ball. You may have to survive on less than 50% possession. You invite Mayo onto you. But if you turn them over, and counter with a quick kicking game, which Kerry are good at, you’ve lot of pitch for your own quality and pace to work in. Stephen O’Brien, James O’Donoghue, Donaghy, Geaney, maybe Darran. You’d back them to make use of that space.
In no game this year has the management teams been so important. Big calls will likely tip the balance. At least three of Fitzmaurice’s match-ups didn’t work last Sunday. Maybe four. Mark Griffin was gone before half-time. Killian Young struggled with Cillian O’Connor, who got three points from play. Andy Moran got 1-5 from play off Enright. Tadhg Morley, who has been Mr Consistent, had one of his poorer games for Kerry.
Two out of six ain’t good enough in an All-Ireland semi-final, yet Kerry are still in the championship.
The personnel may not change radically but the match-ups will. Jack Barry, Darran O’Sullivan and Jonathan Lyne will be in the mix to start. Does Jack Savage come into it? Barry John Keane always comes on and scores. Is he due a chance?
Tadhg Morley might go back and do a marking job on O’Connor or Moran. And despite his struggles last week, I think Shane Enright will get another posting.
If Kerry play an extra man, it will be Killian Young or Paul Murphy - probably Killian - because Murphy has such a job to do on Lee Keegan. Unless they decide to give that job to someone else, which would be dangerous, given how successfully Paul did it the last day. Keegan had very little influence on the game, but neither did Murphy, though he showed what he’s capable of when he kicked what might have been the winner. If they can get him on more ball, he’s a very clever player.
As for Stephen Rochford, Paddy Durcan is good enough to be in the Mayo team, but where to play him? It seems to be standing order that Colm Boyle comes off after 50 or 55 minutes, when Durcan comes in.
The Aidan O’Shea thing? Not for me. Kieran Donaghy only scored a point, but how much was he involved in, how much time did he have on the ball? But if they move Aidan now and Donaghy grabs two high balls for goals, what then? Stick or twist? Is there a sense too that if Aidan is out the field, Mayo run the ball too much? Is it easy to target him at centre forward, when he’s in the thick of it?
I’d be surprised if they do it again, but why would I be surprised because Mayo always throw a curveball. No doubt Rochford will be on the mound, winding up another.
He’s the most laid back lad you could meet. He’s cool as a breeze. Donaghy was the same way when he came in first. But it comes to everyone’s door at some stage, a loss of confidence. I mentioned earlier in the year, his search for consistency. There’s always brilliance in there, but it’s about getting to that 8/10 level most days.
He suffered an injury after the Munster final. He has missed quite a lot of training. A block of training. That was very evident against Galway and it’s still visible in him. The difference between kicking a pile of points against Clare and Cork to taking an extra touch, needing an extra yard. That sharpness drops. Maybe he needed that game as much as Kerry needed it.
It’s not for lack of effort. Maybe he’s trying too hard. I thought he was taking fellas on a lot. In general, the Kerry forwards took wrong options last Sunday. Too many hops and solos. Running into blind alleys when shots were on.
As a unit, they played with their heads down too often. Particularly when Mayo have a spare man, you need to get your head up and play the ball to the other side quicker. In Maurice Fitzgerald, they have no better man to spot that and make improvements.
That said, they hadn’t come up against a backline as good as Mayo’s or as intense as Mayo’s. Maybe James needed this reminder of what it’s like in Croke Park in the white heat of battle, especially when you consider what he’s missed in the last two years with injury.
But this is the test. If you want to be among the top, top players who perform day in day out, this is where you will be judged. Two early points today could settle that guy and he could do anything. I wouldn’t worry too much, given his talent.
Generally with replays, the team with the most stubbornness comes through. Hard, stubborn, thick people. People who can find it within them to prove a point. Who can draw on a deep hunger inside them. I’ve been on both sides of that. Whichever team can get 12 players playing up to standard will win.
It will be ferociously physical. I’d be surprised if both teams finish with 15. There’s a bit of needle developing. Replays inject their own bitterness. ‘I owe you one from the last day’. It was there in 2014.
Kerry’s analysis will have highlighted the lack of contact there last week. I’d expect to see a different level of physicality from Kerry from the outset.
The game was played at Mayo’s tempo last week, on their terms. Mayo were bouncing off Kerry fellas and Kerry fellas took it. I’ve mentioned before about the heat of battle. Sometimes, you can’t gauge the depth of your hunger until the day.
Maybe the Kerry players could do with a little help too. I tweeted during the week about the need for more support. I wasn’t having a go at anyone. It’s just a fact. Mayo fans outnumbered Kerry four to one last Sunday. Whispers are it will be more today. There are reasons. The cost. The Rose of Tralee. A Saturday game doesn’t suit everyone.
On Twitter, the Mayo lads were hopping the ball. ‘We have the Gooch rattled’. Maybe Kerry are entitled to be rattled. I’ve been in Croke Park before when we were outnumbered and know how it feels. And I also know the energy it gives you, a roar from your own people.
Whoever is there today, brace yourselves for an epic. Forget Mayweather and McGregor, Croke Park is the only place to be this weekend. Put on your seatbelt for a hell of a ride.
