Kingdom kaput? Or is criticism ‘comical’?

Carney: Years at the top have taken their toll

RTÉ Gaelic football pundit Martin Carney believes Sunday marked the end of an era in Kerry football.

Elaborating on his live commentary remark that the defeat to Cork was “the day the music died” for some of Kerry’s established players, the former Mayo and Donegal player saw a untypical lack of ruthlessness in their performance.

“I said what I said at a stage in the game when it was there to be won and Kerry failed to respond to the invitation to go and win it. Cork have this fatal flaw in that they let teams back into games. It’s most likely why they haven’t won as much as their talents deserve — they leave the door open.

“But Kerry didn’t go through it and I put that down to just a long shelf-life and the absence of marvellous players.

“They were only two points back, the energy level and drives that characterised their display in the last number of years against Cork were absent. I think they have played so much football and given so much to football it has taken its toll. The drive, energy and passion we associated with them wasn’t there and they weren’t able to reel Cork in like they would have.”

Kerry have yet to lose an All-Ireland qualifier and have reached the final on all four of their previous ventures through the backdoor.

However, Carney said parallels can’t be easily drawn between their last All-Ireland title in 2009, which was won via the second chance route, and now.

“The difference is that when they won in 2009 they had Murphy, Griffin, Kennelly, Walsh, O’Sullivan but particularly DarraghÓ Sé.

“He was the real leader of the team. He reinvented the team when things weregoing badly or reinvigorated them and gave direction during the game whether it was putting in a hit or fetching a great ball. He could press the right button. You can’t lose that quality of player and expect to keep up those standards. I believe the cumulative effect of 10 years at the very top of the mountain has wearied them a bit.”

Carney thinks Kerry now have to give the younger players their head but wouldn’t rule out a former player or two being reintroduced to the panel.

“The one guy that gave them the drive was James O’Donoghue, one of the new guys. He had that bit of devil and drive in him to take Cork on.

“Giving the younger lads like Patrick Curtin their chance might be the way.

“I don’t know how Tommy Walsh’s season in the AFL will go but would Jack try and spring him if they get to latter stages or Tadhg Kennelly who’s retired from Australian Rules.I’m not sure what Jack’s thinking is but they need to reinventthemselves quickly.”

Irish Examiner columnist Ray Silke is also convinced Kerry’s time at the top has come to an end. “Life moves on for everyone,” said Galway’s 1998 All-Ireland winning captain. “’The older gentlemen on the All-Ireland winning Kerry teams from 2009, ’07, ’06 etc — key leaders most of them — had given wonderful service.”

Silke insisted he wasn’t dismissing Kerry entirely, but doubts they will be walking the Hogan Stand steps in September.

“Nobody is writing Kerry off — I just don’t think they will win the 2012 All-Ireland.”

Griffin: People just jumping on a bandwagon

Former Kerry defender Tommy Griffin claims people are queuing up both in and outside the county to write off the team.

The Dingle man described criticism of the team on The Sunday Game as “comical” and predicts Kerry will prove their knockers wrong later in the championship.

“People are just waiting to write them off. They’re all trying to jump on the bandwagon now. There’s definitely another kick if not a couple more in them before the year is out.

“Cork are a serious outfit and yet as bad as Kerry played they had four or five goal chances and were still in it going into the last 10 minutes.

“It was a fairly disjointed effort but I still wouldn’t be too dramatic about it. Páirc Uí Chaoimh is a hard place to win at the best of times and I was often involved there when we got a fair dusting and came back from it.”

Griffin, who retired last year, said there’s an appetite in some quarters both within and outside of Kerry to see the current team’s dominance come to a permanent halt.

“When any team is on top you just want to see a change. People forget Kerry lost last year’s final and they’re always there to be knocked.

“Within the county you can see a lot of it, people waiting to have a go at management and players.

“Darran [O’Sullivan] was talking about it last week after the Tipperary game. It’s par for the course in Kerry.

“Some of the criticism after the game was comical on TV and I think it could backfire on a lot of people yet. They were always going to struggle in Páirc Uí Chaoimh but if they can regroup and iron out a few problems they’ll be in the shake-up in high summer.”

It’s Griffin’s assertion the qualifiers might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Kerry.

“It will possibly suit Kerry and allow them to re-jig things. If they had got one of those goals and scrapped through would they have learned what they learned?

“It would have only papered over the cracks, which has happened to Kerry before. But now there is a chance to get some freshness and there’s time for guys to regain form.

“They’ve three games to get to an All-Ireland quarter-final but you would going to be training anyway. If it wasn’t a qualifier it would be a league game in Kerry. It won’t flog fellas too much. The younger lads will benefit from the extra games away from Croke Park where there’s not much hype.”

Kerry goalkeeper Brendan Kealy, for one, is looking towards the qualifiers with optimism.

“You can come back stronger from this position. The qualifiers can help a team to iron our creases, it gives young players the chance to get a few games.

“They were fresh from the few weeks’ break, we had a game — maybe that was a problem, I don’t know.

“They look good and they’ll be there or thereabouts at the end of the year.”