Road trip offers relief to Kerry

Cork and Kerry are on the road this weekend which may be just as well.

Kerry will welcome the opportunity to get away from the growing gloom in the county after Wednesday night’s defeat to Cork at U21 level while Cork, having beaten Dublin away a fortnight ago, will take to the road to see if that signpost of progress is real or imagined. What better way to find out than with another tough assignment away to Mayo in Castlebar?

It’s becoming an annual event in Kerry in mid-March. An U21 defeat followed by a period of deep introspection, followed by unsolicited advice from countless sources outside the county: Kerry should invest more time and energy in underage structures; Kerry should become more aware of modern tactical systems; Kerry should have developed their centre of excellence years ago; Kerry should put a greater emphasis on strength and conditioning programmes and not always be reliant on superior football skill. And on and on it goes until unfavourable comparisons are drawn with neighbours Cork, who, as is nearly always noted, “produce more physically imposing footballers” in almost every area of the pitch.