Kerry’s best years are ahead of them

I don’t know if Beckett was right or wrong, but he’s been on my mind a lot lately.

Samuel Beckett that is. To paraphrase him — if such a liberty is permitted — he said that whilst his best years may be gone, he wouldn’t want them back, not with the fire that dwelt in him when he coined this phrase in middle age.

I think I get him. But I don’t think I agree with him. Hearing about this Kerry team perform — I can’t come to watch them just yet — the poignancy of Beckett’s words came to mind. The defiant, bold, irresistibility of youth mixed with the even more defiant, bolder irresistibility of the middle-aged on this Kerry team is both poignant and potent.

And inspiring.

For me, there was a certain inevitability to the Mayo All-Ireland semi-final result before a ball was kicked and though I know (or I heard) Kerry looked beaten for long stages in both games, I know also that at the root of the collective Kerry psyche, there would have been a cold, plain expectancy to win those games all day long.

Marry that expectancy with the killer momentum picked up when they started the premature demolition of Páirc Uí Chaoimh in July and I held little hope for Mayo. How much hope Mayo held for themselves is another interesting matter. I’m sure they carried buckets of it. Plenty of expectancy perhaps under an impressive general in James Horan but how much hope and how much expectancy? Maybe hope was their problem and their undoing. Too much hope. Kerry wouldn’t have carried any of that in their buckets. Just expectancy.

People are saying (I hear) that this Kerry team has overachieved this year. I can’t agree with that. They haven’t. They’re doing what Kerry football teams routinely do; achieving. Eamonn Fitzmaurice is doing what Eamonn Fitzmaurice routinely does; achieving. Albeit in trying circumstances earlier on in the year, but that’s two seasons ago now. Late winter and early spring don’t weigh too heavily on a Kerryman’s mind come mid-autumn. They travel light. Eamonn travels light. There’s a few more fellas listening for the cuckoo around the beginning of May these days. Just like Páidí used to.

This Kerry team are championship animals. Cian O’Neill is seeing to that. And if they have impressed you this year with their power, their hitting power, their running power, their staying power, wait until you see them next year. Better and better they’ll get.

They’ll go the distance alright. Granted, they have plenty to work on, considering they conceded 4-29 over two semi-finals but that will be addressed. Eamonn will see to that. I expect, or maybe I just hope, they can do it this year. The danger is the adaptable, unpredictable nature of Donegal. People say you know what to expect with Donegal. Defensive, men behind the ball, counter attack, blah, blah, blah. They’re much more sophisticated than that. You only realise that when you’re out there amongst them trying to do the maths. Dublin would actually have been a more straightforward proposition for Kerry. There’s no telling with these Donegal lads, which is the ultimate advantage on All-Ireland final day.

If Kerry don’t manage it this year, I have no doubt they will next year. They’re too good, too focused, too well conditioned, too pacy, too sure now, not to. James O’Donoghue is the leading light amongst the young lads. There are a few more ready to join him. All they need is the stage. Fionn Fitzgerald has equivalent class as a defender. He will win All-Irelands and All-Stars. Paul Murphy won’t shy away from it. David Moran stuck at it when the going was tough. Like I say, staying power. He’s getting his rewards now. The beauty of it is that their purpose has breathed new life into the old guard. They’ve breathed new life into a whole county, a county that even when it doesn’t expect much, still expects a lot.

That’s a great gift for Kerry footballers. It brings assurance. Why are we expectant of success if we are not also assured of it on some deep-seated level?

They’ve breathed new life in me too. Their best years are ahead of them. For that reason, I have to disagree with Beckett.

I’d love my best years back.