Can Kerry turn Galvin into a centre-back?

INSPIRED move or an act of desperation? Only time will tell whether the idea of turning footballer of the year Paul Galvin into a centre half-back for Kerry will become a timely problem-solver or a misguided notion that will cause more trouble than it’s worth.

What are we on about? The grapevine apparently travels well, all the way from the Algarve, where the All-Ireland champions’ five-day warm- weather camp featured a re-draw of the traditional positional boundaries for key players. Unquestionably the most intriguing was the move of Galvin to centre-back – it’s also the most pressing, with Mike McCarthy’s inter-county future still up in the air, Aidan O’Mahony suspended and no one too keen at the moment on the fall-back of switching Tomás or Marc O Sé to the central defensive pivot.

It’ll come as no surprise to anyone who recalls Galvin as a county championship-winning tearaway wing back for UCC a decade ago to learn that he took to the experimental role last week like a duck to water. That UCC half back line also featured Limerick’s Damien Reidy and one Eamonn Fitzmaurice. Makes you wonder where this germ of an idea began...

With David Moran fracturing his thumb in Portugal – ironically blocking down a kick from Galvin – the possibility of showcasing the Galvin experiment will have to be shelved this weekend, when Kerry will need all their frontline forwards against Monaghan to ensure Division One survival. But it is now a live option for the first round of the Munster Championship against Tipperary next month.

The bottom line is that Kerry are struggling for a dominant No 6 heading into their All-Ireland defence. Mike McCarthy bailed them out last season, and if he was inclined to leave it at that, frankly, no-one could blame him. However ruling him out of the Kerry equation is premature: I understand Jack O’Connor met him again upon the squad’s return from Portugal, and there is a more optimistic outlook regarding McCarthy’s return to arms than heretofore. Some of the squad who would be close to the Kilcummin man are now confident he will return for the Championship.

Sources in the Kerry camp also say Rathmore’s Aidan O’Mahony has that desired focus back in his game, but many remain to be convinced of same on the evidence of the league. That sending off in Omagh was precisely what you don’t need from your defensive anchor.

Galvin is an intriguing character at the best of times, but no less so than the thought of him being faced with a completely new challenge. He has the football nous, he has the aggression and the physique. But what about the temperament? Such an attribute is critical for a centre back, and I don’t necessarily mean the ability to hold your head. There are occasions in every season when the best centre backs are over-run and exposed by stuff going on elsewhere on the pitch and Galvin will undoubtedly experience that humiliating feeling at some stage. How will he handle that? A notoriously short fuse won’t help, that’s for sure. But Galvin embraces a challenge like few others I know, and at 30 and after four All-Ireland medals, his appetite for another campaign of scrapping for 30-70 balls around the midfield fringes has to be a legitimate question.

Of course, not every switch works as spectacularly as Kieran Donaghy’s move to full forward four years ago, something that not only redefined his career, but essentially redefined forward play and provided a ring route around the infamous ‘blanket defence’ which Armagh and Tyrone perfected (and Kerry subsequently aped). It would also remove another piece of Kerry’s attacking arsenal after the loss of Tadhg Kennelly, Sean O’Sullivan, Eoin Brosnan, Mike F Russell and Tommy Walsh in recent seasons. Crucially Galvin is also the best exponent of that diagonal crossfield ball that Donaghy thrives on at full forward. And after all that, at wing forward, he was the best possible deterrent for over-lapping opposition wing backs.

Over the past few years, Kerry always seemed capable of pulling a rabbit from the hat, whether it was the return of Kennelly from Australia or Mike McCarthy from retirement, or the unexpectedly rapid development of Tommy Walsh and the staying power of Darragh O Sé. At the moment though, the cupboard is as bare as it has been for some time – hence the continuing efforts to get McCarthy back – and the management must be praying that some of the Under 21s accelerate their development. However losing a Munster final at home to Tipperary was a sobering wake up call for everyone concerned.

It means that the Galvin experiment is as much a child of necessity as it is an exercise in curiosity. Nobody is writing Aidan O’Mahony out of the equation, but the Kerry management will be wowed by a number of beguiling visions of Galvin at No 6. Let’s face it, the move ticks a lot of boxes.

There were a few other notable inclusions in the Portugal training squad. Kerins O’Rahillys keeper, David Hennessy – more noted for his shot-saving abilities with Lisselton Rovers FC – was given his chance after Ger Reidy’s decision to quit the panel and Tomás Mac an tSaoir’s unavailability due to U21 commitments. Tomás O Sé is reportedly in good shape too, ready for his first start at home to Monaghan, but Padraig Reidy is struggling with the hamstring injury picked up in the defeat to Tyrone.