No points but no panic for Fitzmaurice’s experimental Kerry

For Kerry, tomorrow is another day, another gambit. Eamonn Fitzmaurice will entrust the No 14 jersey this time to Darran O’Sullivan for the daunting trip to Ballybofey to meet All-Ireland champions Donegal.

And he insists that the likes of Paddy Curtin, James O’Donoghue or even Kieran Donaghy are not just keeping the jersey warm for the return of Colm Cooper.

“I don’t agree with that scenario,” Fitzmaurice said yesterday. “We are not thinking in terms of the championship yet. Darran O’Sullivan starts at full-forward on Sunday; again it is something that we are trying.

“When he came on last Sunday in Newbridge, we tried to play him inside, but his natural game is to come out. But if Darran gets ball inside there, he will be very dangerous, and hard to stop, so we will see how it works out. It might be something that we will change after 10 minutes if it’s not working, we are completely open-minded. This formation we have just announced is for Donegal the next day, no more, no less.”

Kerry may be pointless after three games but the new management team is dry-running a number of options in various strategies and formations. Some things look set in stone — Aidan O’Mahony at full-back for instance — but everything else still seems in a state of flux.

Natural defender Jonathan Lyne at wing forward?

“Jonathan has been playing well in a lot of the games, he has been one of more consistent performers going back to January 5 and the McGrath Cup game against UCC. Though he was selected at wing-back against Kildare, he played at wing forward and he did a good job there for us. We just want a lot of options come championship time, and we are trying things out at the moment.”

Dr Crokes midfielder Johnny Buckley has certainly put his hand up for a midfield berth and given Kerry the option of floating Kieran Donaghy between midfield, wing forward and full-forward.

Kerry make four changes for the trip to the north-west, but continue without a phalanx of front-line starters.

“There is no hiding place — at this stage now we need to start getting points. But Donegal need the points as well, so it’s going to be a seriously tough game. However I think we’re going in the right direction and any of five teams, including Kerry, could go on a winning run and turn the threat of relegation into a semi final spot.”

Declan O’Sullivan, Anthony Maher, Colm Cooper, Paul Galvin, Bryan Sheehan, Paddy Curtin and Dingle’s Paul Geaney are out this weekend, while David Moran is hoping to get further game time with his club, Kerins O’Rahillys, this weekend.

Firies’ Jack Sherwood will travel to Ballybofey though, looking to re-ignite what was a promising start to the season before being injured.

“The most pleasing aspect of last week’s performance in Newbridge was that we created plenty of scoring chances. Kieran [Donaghy] won a fair amount of ball when he went in full-forward for us, but the quality of the delivery could be described as fairly marginal,” said Fitzmaurice.

“It’s very early days to be setting things in stone. I also think that it’s good for Kieran himself at the moment, to be out around the middle of the field.”