Confident Kerry have the quality to keep on rolling

THERE could hardly be a more distinct difference in Kerry’s build-up to tomorrow’s All-Ireland football semi-final meeting with Meath in Croke Park from their game a month ago against a Dublin side which had performed impressively on the way to a fifth consecutive Leinster title.

Then, they went in as clear outsiders, based as much on their poor form against Cork in their Munster semi-final replay as their unconvincing wins over Longford, Sligo and Antrim in the qualifiers.

What happened almost defied belief – a virtual collapse by the home team (even worse than what happened against Tyrone last year) and a truly magical display from the Kingdom. Instead of being ‘yesterday’s man’ – as would certainly have been the case if the game had worked out as expected – Jack O’Connor re-established his reputation as a coach and even before half-time, the players had won back their pride and their self-respect.