Kerry must dictate tempo

It’s a mark of Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s leadership that, at least up until the team was released on Thursday night, nobody made a big deal of their being so many final debutants in his group.

Only seven of the side that lost last year’s semi-final to Dublin feature from the outset tomorrow but inexperience isn’t considered a potential downfall of theirs.

If they are to lose to Donegal it will be because they allowed the game to be played on their opponents’ terms. That much was evident in Donegal’s win over Dublin towards the end of the first half when Jim McGuinness’s side had succeeded in slowing the game right down, punctuating it with the occasional burst forward.

Kerry can play and enjoy half-tempo too but it’s those injections of urgency where they will have to make it count. Donegal are a more evolved species now but the formula to beating them remains the same: constantly change the point of attack, make full use of the pitch’s width and shoot from distance. As Dublin showed in the first half, it can be done and Kerry are blessed with more long range bombers. It can be sustained too.

Just look at how Monaghan finished last year’s Ulster final with scores struck from deep as they had been doing earlier in the game. Fitzmaurice will aim to attack Donegal’s pillars just as McGuinness has made a career of bombarding the strengths of others. That will mean Paul Durcan’s kickout tactics, his signals etc, will be studied intensely. That will mean Ryan McHugh is tracked but not so much as the half-back line lose shape. That will mean Michael Murphy is stuck to like a fly on the proverbial.

On the Donegal side, McGuinness knows Neil McGee will at least limit some of the damage James O’Donoghue can cause. If, as expected, the Kerry half-back line set he can exploit that rigidity by pushing Murphy forward and pumping in long ball against a full-back line that has had difficulty with the type of delivery. The positioning of Kieran Donaghy is the real poser. Eamon McGee will surely follow him if he wanders out the field, but then Donegal must mind the gap.

Midfield looks an even enough battle but Kerry will have to change how they feed their inside line. If they can’t get through or around the formidable Donegal cover, then they must go over them. When Mayo jettisoned their sweeper Kerry kicked a lot of ball literally in front of O’Donoghue and Paul Geaney in the expectation they would win the foot races. Tomorrow we may see them suck their markers further out the field with ball being dropped over their heads in the hope they’ll win sprints to the ball.

Just like in 2012, Kerry will be primed not to let Donegal get too far ahead. That sense of inevitability they developed back then returned last day out against Dublin. Yet Kerry have looked so composed even in arrears. In both games against Mayo, they trailed by large numbers yet never lost their way.

On two occasions already this year, Kerry have proved us wrong — the Munster final and the All-Ireland semi-final tie. We don’t want to be caught out on a third occasion.

The confidence beating Dublin will have brought Donegal can’t be understated, but the value of the titanic battles with Mayo has given Kerry not only a belief but a readiness. It can be their final by the bare minimum.

* Verdict: Kerry