A chastening start but Kerry and Mayo can recover

The difference between Kerry and Mayo’s defeats this past weekend was three points but let there be no equivocation that both were tanked.

For Kerry, Saturday evening’s six-point loss to Dublin was their third biggest defeat on Division 1 opening day since 2005 when Cork taught the then defending All-Ireland champions a lesson to the tune of seven points. Mayo humbled them by the same margin in Killarney last year.

But for David Moran’s late free, Saturday may well have matched it but instead it is now ranked alongside that infamous day in Castlebar three years ago when Kerry didn’t trouble the scoreboard in the second half.

Not surprisingly, Mayo have to go back further to find as poor a start to Division 1 as Sunday’s nine-point reverse against Cork. In late October 1991, they travelled to Tyrone and were beaten 0-18 to 1-5. More disappointment followed at home to Cork and then away to Galway. Their losing run continued after Christmas, a closing win over Armagh not enough to keep them up.

There are the usual grains of excuses behind the counties’ latest performances. It was January. It was away from home. It was one game. Between them, the two teams had almost 30 players unavailable. It was uncharacteristic.

That last one may just be their most salvageable point from the weekend. No two teams have retained the top flight status longer than Mayo and Kerry: Mayo this year are in their 18th season in Division 1 with Kerry enjoying their 14th. They are natural-born survivors.

Nobody should even utter the word “relegation” but it was interesting to say the least the schadenfreude on social media as defeats dawned on both of them, particularly in Mayo’s instance where the players’ ousting of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes was linked to their failings in Páirc Uí Rinn.

For Kerry, Saturday serves only to prove they can’t push the jackboots off their necks. That will have to be addressed another day. For now, there is some solace in knowing few if any in recent seasons have finished the league proper as strongly as they.

After going pointless for the opening two rounds in 2013 and 2014, Kerry won three of their next five games. When Mayo lost their opening two games in 2014, they returned revitalised, winning four of their next five round games and drawing the other away to Dublin.

As indifferent as Kerry’s league performances have been under Eamonn Fitzmaurice, in March his record reads eight victories in 12 games. Since James Horan revitalised Mayo in 2011, Mayo have claimed wins in 11 of their 20 March matches and drawing one other.

The chances of Kerry bouncing back this weekend with points if not in style against Roscommon look to be greater than Mayo’s of avenging last year’s defeat to Dublin in Castlebar.

At the same time, Kerry have encountered difficulties with improving teams coming their way in February: In 2014 they lost to Derry in their second game as they did to Armagh in 2012.

Warnings of seasons past but they, like Mayo, need only look back for inspiration of times when they didn’t start as they meant to go on but went on as they meant to finish.