Kerry find spring in their step

The conversation with Eamonn Fitzmaurice runs for almost 19 minutes, and on only one occasion talk turns, briefly, to relegation.

And in truth, the possibility of the Kerry footballers dropping to Division 2 is put to the Kingdom manager more in jest as no top flight team finishing on six points has fallen through the trap door since the league was split into four tiers back in 2008 and, also, because Kerry’s recent run of victories lies in stark contrast to the stuttering campaigns of springs past.

It is a rather strange phenomenon for Fitzmaurice to be looking towards the possibility of the semi-finals at this juncture. Past campaigns have been all about scrambling for points over the closing fortnight to avoid the drop.

Granted, Kerry avoided relegation during each of Fitzmaurice’s three years in charge, but boy did they cut it fine in holding on.

In 2013, they entered the final two rounds languishing at the bottom of the table, alongside Down, and with only one win to their name.

A year later, Kerry sat one place above relegation five rounds in.

2015 saw fair improvement as Kerry held down the last of the four semi-final berths turning into the home straight. Successive defeats, mind you, saw them relegated to sixth after round seven.

Today, Kerry lie third in the table following victories in their last three outings. Relegation fears are off the agenda and the focus is now on making a first league semi since 2012. Fitzmaurice says he’ll be disappointed if they don’t make the cut.

“We would [be disappointed] because it would mean we would lose one, if not both, of our two remaining games. If that was the case, that would be a disappointing end to the league after coming good in March.

“It would be good to keep the momentum. We are in a position where we can try and drive on. We’ve had enough of the other caper of the last few years where we have been scrapping up until the last day to make sure we stay in Division 1. It would be a more positive situation for all of us if we were driving on.

“In the 2014 league, we won three in-a-row and played Cork at home in the last game. There was an outside chance of getting to a league semi-final, but we were so poor it wasn’t funny. It wasn’t a good way to finish the league with a long break before championship. It concentrated minds and we got our heads around it, but it is not the way you want to go about it.

“Even in last year’s league, losing to Monaghan and going up to Tyrone, we drew but had we won we would have been in a league semi-final. The draw wasn’t a great way to be going into your preparations for the championship.

“If we could keep our winning run going on Sunday, that’d be great. Get to a league semi-final and you get additional games, especially when you are in Division 1 and every weekend is a huge match, it would be great preparation for championship.”

Nailing down a semi-final spot wouldn’t be an easy task. Cork, and Kerry’s opponents this weekend, Monaghan, each have four points; Kerry and Donegal have six; while Roscommon, courtesy of their four wins, have eight.

And with Dublin (10) already through, there is only room for three of the other five.

"You can predict after Sunday if eight points will be enough. Cork are playing Down this weekend and you’d expect Cork to win that. Mayo are playing Down in the last game so you’d expect them to win that. It can get very tight very fast. Monaghan will be looking at our game as an opportunity to get to six points and be level with us. It will mean that all bets are off with regard to league semi-finals going into the last weekend. If you didn’t get into a semi-final on eight points, you’d be unlucky.”

Monaghan derailed Kerry’s knockout chances on this very weekend last March when claiming a first win over the Kingdom in 27 years.

Given Malachy O’Rourke’s side enter this fixture off the back of three successive defeats, there’s bound to be some sort of backlash from the Ulster outfit.

Look to last year where after suffering a 3-15 to 0-11 trouncing against Mayo, the Farneymen went back out a week later and held Donegal to 1-4.

“The nature of the beast is that when you are playing Kerry, especially when Kerry are in town, everyone raises their game. Monaghan really enjoyed the win here last year and they were delighted with themselves. Conor McManus kicked a couple of good points [last year], but other Monaghan players also contributed. Rory Beggan kicked a huge point into a very strong wind and Darran Hughes got a great goal in the second half. That was the difference. We were very disappointed with our performance that day. It kind of typified our year, there was no consistency there, we were either very good or very bad, and that continued into the championship.

“We are trying to build consistency, we have won three in a row, we want to keep it going and if we do, things are very much in our own hands. If we don’t, there will be pressure on our game at home to Cork the following weekend.”