Kerry players still reaping benefits of the Buckley way, says Brosnan

It wasn’t just Mayo who benefited from Donie Buckley’s expertise last Sunday, according to Eoin Brosnan.

The Dr Crokes man saw in the performances of his club-mates Johnny Buckley and Fionn Fitzgerald the hallmarks of the Mayo coach’s work, Donie having trained the Kerry and Munster senior champions last season.

“The one thing Donie always impressed on fellas was when you’re running beside a fella use your near hand rather than your far hand to tackle. Use your far hand and it tends to look like you’re fouling.

“Certainly, you can see the ball skills of the lads are quite high and that’s a combination of what they’ve been doing from under-age with Crokes to senior where they’ve tweaked a few things.

“In the first-half Johnny was Kerry’s best player along with David Moran, not just because of what he did on the ball but he made a lot of dispossessions as well as catching a few balls. He had a great Munster final as well so he has to be happy with his form.”

Even for a player not yet 12 months out of the panel, Brosnan has been surprised by the progress made by Kerry this summer.

“Earlier on in the year there had to be doubts. Cork had been promising a lot going into the Munster final, Kerry went into it as underdogs and bar probably the fellas inside the camp what they did surprised everybody. But the one thing I knew from being involved with the group last year was that they were going to be well prepared and conditioned and we’ve seen that.”

Brosnan can understand why Eamonn Fitzmaurice refrained from starting Kieran Donaghy tomorrow.

“He had a huge impact the last day but in reality the whole basis of how this team plays is without Kieran at No 14. It would be asking too much of the team to change the dynamic of the way they play in just six days.”

Brosnan predicts Kerry will zone on in the areas where they were found wanting against a 14-man Mayo in last Sunday’s second half. “I think Kerry will focus on what didn’t go well for them and I’d be quietly confident enough that they will prevent Mayo dominating in midfield where they did in the second half last Sunday. Kerry will have concentrated on ensuring Mayo don’t get as prolonged a grip on the game as they did.”