Kerry boss not lowering sights

As Brazil were labouring to victory over Croatia on the opening night of the World Cup, the current steward of another storied green and gold brand was holding court in Killarney.

Despite the seemingly endless list of impediments – injuries, retirements, an 11-week break since the end of the league, four years since an All-Ireland was won – Kingdom boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice presented a positive outlook.

In Kerry, expectations can never be allowed to dip below the very highest level.

“The ambitions are the same regardless who is missing,” he said. “You don’t downgrade your ambitions, now ye think that when I trot this out that I am talking rubbish, but we are taking it one game at a time and that is the way it has to be.

“We will just have to try and get over Sunday first and if we win, we will more than likely playing Cork, in Páirc Uí Chaoimh two weeks later, and after that then who knows?

“We had a few retirements, we have a few injuries, but I think that if we can get through this phase of injuries, I think that we will have a very strong squad.”

Kerry’s last competitive outing was the disappointing defeat to Cork at the end of the league, when a win would have given them an outside chance of making the semi-finals.

A warm-weather training sting at the Amendoeira Golf Resort in the Algarve Portugal after that loss quickly focused minds, but the gap between then and now has been troublesome at times, especially as Kerry didn’t know until last week whether they would be playing Clare or Waterford.

“We were lucky in that the Cork game happened on the Sunday, and we went to Portugal the following Thursday,” Fitzmaurice said. “We trained the Tuesday night, we had a chat about it. We then went to Portugal and by the time, we got back from Portugal, it was over with and dealt with. We were lucky to have Portugal on the horizon, because if we didn’t, maybe a bit of scar tissue might have hung around for a bit longer, but it was well and truly parked up by the time we got home.

“It’s an awkward break, 11 weeks is a long time without a game.

“There has been a good bit of club activity, but it’s a difficult one to balance because obviously we are trying to focus on getting ready for a Munster championship and clubs have their priorities and they would like access to the players more often.

The bookmakers have Kerry as 1/20 favourites for tomorrow’s trip to Ennis and are offering a handicap of eight points.

Complacency is a risk, but Fitzmaurice doesn’t believe that Kerry can afford it.

“I just think that in a particular environment,” he said, “if you are winning year-in, year-out, winning All-Irelands and coming off the back of winning trophies, it can seep in.

“Kerry hasn’t won anything major, bar Munster finals, since 2009, so there is no room for complacency. We all know it in sport, that if you are off it and you are trying to address that midway a match, it can be tough, particularly, away from home, when the crowd can get behind a home team, and maybe if you have a volatile referee, so a lot of things can enter the mix then.

“If you are professional, it makes all the difference. Last year in the Munster championship, we played Tipperary and Waterford and we were very professional in those games and we did not take them for granted, there was no complacency and it’s going to be the same this year.”

As such strong favourites, the prospect of having to unlock a massed defence is a possibility. It is something which Fitzmaurice is prepared for, though.

“Looking at Clare, they appear to be quite defensive when they do not have the ball, but when they have the ball, they attack in numbers,” he said.

“We will be ready and we will be ready to impose our game on them. There are different ways of piercing a blanket defence. If you push everyone up, you could have 20 bodies inside in a small area, trying to get a score, so it can be difficult as well.

“We have done a good bit of training over the past year and half, on how you deal with it. We trust the players to make the right decisions when they go out on the pitch, and regardless of the what the opposition throw at you, you try and deal with it the best way you can.”