More to come from this team, say Kingdom legends

DON’T rush to judgment on the future for Kerry football following the weekend failure to end Down’s significant record against the Kingdom in the All-Ireland football championship.

The future is far from bleak, insist former greats Eoin Liston and Seamus Moynihan, with the ‘Bomber’ adamant that even in the absence of leading players Tomás O Sé and Paul Galvin, a favourable call from the referee on the ‘goal’ scored by Killian Young before half-time could have produced a different result.

Liston rejects the notion that it marks the end of an era for Kerry, responding: “I wouldn’t see it as a watershed. We were down six players from last year. It would have been great for Kerry football if you could win an All-Ireland down that number of first-team players, but it would have been a bad reflection on the state of football everywhere else.

“This Kerry team has given us massive entertainment over the past decade. Last year, we were All-Ireland champions. This year we were very competitive when we beat a very good Cork team and I just don’t believe in reading ‘everything’ into one match.’’

While remaining optimistic, he accepts cracks are beginning to appear and the management will be seriously looking for defensive cover going forward.

Pointing out that they’re still going to have four of the best forwards playing in Ireland today – Galvin, Declan O’Sullivan, Colm Cooper and Kieran Donaghy – he added: “It’s a great to be able to build around that.’’

“It’s very easy to say there should be change of the guard, but you were missing Galvin and Tomás O Sé, Declan O’Sullivan got injured at the very start and Seamus Scanlon has been carrying a back injury all year. You could say that if they got that call from the referee they would have been a point up with about eight minutes to go after a terrible start.

“Darragh O Sé’s loss has been huge, but if you had a fit Scanlon – the Scanlon that you had last year – if Declan hadn’t got injured and if you hadn’t lost the two lads, you would have been very competitive. It isn’t all doom and gloom for Kerry.

“They came up against a team which got the start they were looking for. They were sharpened from the three (qualifier) matches and you can’t recreate that type of intensity in training.”

Moynihan agrees that it doesn’t make sense to start writing Kerry off. “You just can’t judge the future on one game.

“It was very disappointing, but Kerry performed very well in the provincial championship. It’s just unfortunate the way the system is at the moment – it goes against provincial winners. We have often gone through the back door and it suited us – like last year when Dublin capitulated in the quarter-final against us. The system is wrong. It’s no advantage winning a provincial title. The weekend is total proof of that – the GAA need to have a serious look at it.’’

Moynihan agrees with Liston that it doesn’t make sense to brush off the team’s defeat as the end of an era, explaining:

“If you look back, it was the end of an era back in 1986 when Kerry ‘finished’ and you saw movement of management and movement of players.

“If you look through the present team, you still have the four best forwards in the country and with Darran O’Sullivan and Donncha Walsh, all six are still very young. Obviously you have boys in the defence over 30 but they played brilliant stuff up to now.”

Moynihan also hopes that Jack O’Connor will stay on, appreciating that it will depend on him having ‘the time and the commitment’ to give it another year. “He has done an excellent job and he won’t be judged on Saturday’s performance,’’ he added.

“It wasn’t Jack’s fault that the team was flat. It’s the structure. The provincial winners are absolutely sitting ducks. You saw Down play three games before they played Kerry. They hammered Sligo the previous week and couldn’t have come to Croke Park better prepared. With fellows playing club football and so on, Kerry’s preparations were disjointed and you had two of the best players on the bench.”