Moynihan: Kerry look jaded outfit

The post mortem continues in Kerry after Sunday’s defeat to Cork.

Rarely has a provincial semi-final loss generated such reaction but with the football obit writers preparing their farewells for Jack O’Connor and his men, this Munster championship exit is now ranked as a crisis in the Kingdom.

Gaelic football legend Seamus Moynihan is better placed than most to assess the situation, having played under O’Connor and witnessing first-hand the momentum a qualifier run can generate. But first things first.

The manner of Sunday’s defeat is good reason to set alarm bells ringing, according to Moynihan.

Moynihan said: “Kerry were certainly flat on Sunday. There is no panache, there is no champagne football at the minute.

“The Kerry team look like a side that are not enjoying their football. We still have some of the most talented footballers in the country and we could only kick 12 points on Sunday.

“If you were picking a team in the morning, you would still be picking Darran O’Sullivan, Colm Cooper, Declan O’Sullivan, Paul Galvin and Kieran Donaghy, they would make any team in the country. But now we are not getting the best out of them and it seems to be very flat at the minute and it’s hard to put your finger on it. They look like a team that is jaded or tired or there appears to something seriously wrong with things.

“In fairness you won’t get any bigger carrot than trying to beat Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh; that is why Sunday was most disappointing.

“Having said that, we have lost before to Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Kerry teams have come back to haunt teams again in September.”

Whether that will be the case again in 2012 remains to be seen. But Moynihan points out that O’Connor has form in dragging teams from the depths of despair and turning them into All-Ireland champions.

“Absolutely. Jack has done it before in 2006 and in 2009. Back in 2006, I remember being well beaten down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the Munster final replay and people said afterwards that Kerry were finished. Then we came back and breezed through the qualifiers winning the All-Ireland after we made a few changes. We came back refreshed for the qualifiers and Jack reinvented Kieran Donaghy and we created the monster that was to become one of the most terrifying full-forwards in the game. He put Mike Frank Russell to corner forward, Sean O’Sullivan to wing forward and played Tommy Griffin at midfield.

“Those changes energised the Kerry team at that time and in the space of a couple of weeks after losing to Cork, we were into a quarter-final against Armagh in Croke Park, and after that, there was no looking back.

“It was the same thing in 2009. We had a fantastic league campaign but then we went through a serious lull around the same period as the current squad were hammered by Cork after a replay in Cork. Then after scraping past Longford, Sligo and Antrim, we got to Croke Park where we had Dublin beaten out the gate after 20 minutes.”

Moynihan believes the return of his former defensive colleague, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, to the Kerry coaching ticket is a massive shot in the arm to Kerry’s chances of proving their doubters wrong.

“Eamonn will make a difference because he knows the players, he was there before and he is very much a hands on fellow. But when you are on the outside you just do not know what goes on in training. We definitely need to change things right now, because we have fantastic footballers.”

Despite the defeat, Moynihan saw positives in Kerry’s display against Conor Counihan’s side. He explained: “We missed three goal chances on Sunday — if anyone of them were scored, it could have been the turning point. If Bryan Sheehan was playing, he would scored those two 45s and another free that Gooch dropped short (all proved costly).

“But our shape in attack is not right as our half-forwards are too deep and our full-forward line is being drawn too far out the field. We don’t need Colm or Kieran too deep, they must be inside the 20-metre line and allowed go out no further. Inside is where they will hurt teams.

“We lack shape at the minute and it cost us against Mayo when we beat ourselves and last September against Dublin, it was a similar story with players playing too deep and players playing the ball latterly. That’s not Kerry football. Maybe you need a kick up the backside and when Jack sits down and reviews last Sunday, no better man to change things around.”