Philly McMahon: Kerry have upped the physical stakes

Dublin defender Philly McMahon reckons Kerry may have taken a leaf out of Mayo’s book and decided to increase their physicality in an effort to reel in the back to back All-Ireland champions.

Experienced McMahon compared last month’s Allianz league clash with Kerry in Tralee, a spiteful game containing 13 yellow cards, eight of which were dished out to Kerry, to last season’s drawn All-Ireland final with Mayo.

Dublin manager Jim Gavin has referenced the ‘off the ball activity’ that went on in Tralee while Sky Blues legend Paul Curran went a step further last week by claiming that Kerry should be ‘ashamed’ of how defensive and negative they’ve become.

Kerry dominated Dublin for over 30 years in the Championship and won by 17 points when they met in the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-finals though have lost 10 of their 13 competitive encounters since then.

They did draw with Dublin in that group game at Austin Stack Park though also coughed up a two-point advantage entering injury-time.

Asked if Kerry perhaps felt compelled to replicate the in your face tactics employed by Mayo last year, McMahon said it’s possible.

“It could be, yeah,” said McMahon.

“Mayo definitely, there’s definitely a similarity. A lot of people would have said they were kind of boring tactics but I don’t know, I think they just brought a physical (edge). Why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t they try and be more physical? It’s something we’re not complaining about.

“It just gives us another challenge of trying to adapt to the game and trying to be smarter footballers.

“Certainly Mayo in the first All-Ireland final last year, there was similarities between that and the game in Tralee.

“There was a lot of talk after it. I was surprised by the talk after it. What are you expecting?! We’re playing Kerry down in Tralee. There’s talk and hype about this unbeaten run. The Dublin fans all travel. The atmosphere is electric.

“Kerry got a good start and there was always going to be that physicality. If that’s the way they have to play to beat us, that’s what they have to do. We can only control what we do. That’s the way it is.”

Curran claimed that Kerry have become ‘obsessed’ with beating Dublin and McMahon admitted he noticed a shift in approach from Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s men.

“They were certainly more physical in the last game in Tralee,” the Ballymun man continued. “There was certainly more pulling and dragging on both teams. It’s probably not the orthodox way Kerry are known for but if that’s the way they have to play to win games, that’s up to them.”

Dublin, who have claimed three of the last four All-Irelands, regularly come up against defensive and counter-attacking strategies and McMahon was open minded about them.

“It possibly means they’re thinking more about you than about themselves,” he said. “So I don’t know if it’s a positive or a negative (for Dublin). We’ve never set out to do that.

“As a collective, have we gone out to contain teams? I’d be lying if I said we wouldn’t be working on things like that but it certainly wouldn’t be to that (Kerry’s) extent.”

McMahon shrugged when asked if he felt that the ‘off the ball activity’ that Gavin referenced was a sign that Dublin have spooked Kerry and have gotten inside their heads, as Curran believes.

“It could be, I don’t know, you’d have to ask Kerry but there was certainly a bit of off the ball stuff (in Tralee) but again, what’s why the game is so exciting,” he said.

“I’m not saying I commend off the ball stuff but so what, let’s get on with it. If it’s something that’s really bad then let the officials deal with it but let the two of us go at it and see who comes out the victors.”

As for Curran’s claim that Kerry should be ashamed of themselves, back to back All-Star McMahon shook his head.

“That’s Paul’s opinions. My opinions on the way Kerry played in Tralee (is) that’s what they had to do and it’s down to me to judge that, I’m a player.

“It’s down to the officials to police that, and that’s it. Why would you be ashamed to want to win a game?

“What way you try to win is irrelevant.”

Dublin have shown a remarkable ability to come from behind and snatch draws or wins in this year’s league, battling back against not just Kerry but Donegal, Tyrone and, most recently, Monaghan.

McMahon kicked an important point in Clones on Sunday when Dublin turned a six-point deficit with 49 minutes on the clock into a three-point win.

“I think mentally we’re tough,” he said ahead of Sunday’s league decider.

“We know that we can’t stop. We’re going to play right until the end. We played Monaghan on Sunday and when they scored their goal you have players running up into your face celebrating and you think, ‘hold on a second, they think this game is over’.

“And they’re probably thinking in their head, ‘when is this going to be over?’ For us, it’s not like that. We nearly want the ref to play 10 minutes more.

“Whether we’re winning comfortably or it’s a tight game, that’s the way I look at it.”