Thickness and conviction? Can Kerry lean on parallels with 2006?

Before the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final with Armagh, Jack O'Connor's Kerry were also being written off.  Seán O’Sullivan traces the similarities.

Kieran Donaghy, Kerry, gestures to Francie Bellew, Armagh, during the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final. Picture: David Maher, Sportsfile

“I find myself in an unfamiliar position today as I’ve never tipped anything other than a Kerry victory,” wrote Kerry great John O’Keeffe in his Irish Times column the morning of their 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh.

“I can’t remember a time when they arrived at this stage of the championship as outsiders. Yet, on merit alone, I must be true to the evidence in front of us all.”