In Croke Park, Kerry haven’t been living up to their side of Dublin rivalry

James McCarthy of Dublin in action against Jason Foley in the 2023 All-Ireland final. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

In the mid-2000s, Barney Rock was at the stage where he could no longer class Dublin-Kerry as a rivalry.

Tommy Lyons and Paul Caffrey had reignited enthusiasm and competitiveness in the capital but the supporters’s diet remained songs and stories.

Before the startled earwigs of 2009, there was Caffrey smiling at the futility of trying to get the ball back from Kerry at the end of the ’07 All-Ireland semi-final. Prior to that, there was a disconsolate Lyons knowing the seven-point spanking in the ’04 quarter-final was the end of the line for him.

Rock himself had been a member of a Dublin side that were twice cast aside by the second act of The Golden Years. In 34 years, nine times Dublin tried and failed in championship before Stephen Cluxton’s cloudbursting free in 2011.

In the latter third of that dominance, the league told a similar tale of woe. Between 2000 and ’09, Dublin and Kerry met seven times and the latter won five, drawing two.

But 2011 was seminal. Kerry required another six SFC attempts until they eventually beat Dublin in 2022. From 2010 to ’19, Kerry’s league record was almost as poor as Dublin’s had been the previous decade – played 12, lost seven, drew one.

Their return of one win from five league meetings since 2020 isn’t much to shout about either but where Kerry really haven’t kept up their side of the rivalry is in Croke Park. Two wins in 14 meetings since 2013 – three in 17 going back to Cluxton’s winner – is a sorry story.

Years can often inflate a statistic – Dublin and Kerry only met once in championship between 1985 and 2001 – but The Kingdom have lost all five of their previous round clashes with Dublin in Croke Park.

Three of those encounters have been Division 1 openers. In the search for mitigation, dirty diesel would be the first port of call but Dublin were reigning All-Ireland champions on each occasion.

In 2014, then manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice was fuming with referee David Coldrick’s display when they went down by a point. “He got a lot of calls wrong. We found it very hard to get frees in the second half close to goal. Dublin didn't.” 

Two years later, his team’s “disappointing” performance was his bane, while in March 2018 he acknowledged there was a gulf in class when Dublin won by 12 points in a rough baptism for teenagers David Clifford and Seán O’Shea.

As Dublin began life after Jim Gavin in 2020, Peter Keane’s side couldn’t make a numerical advantage count for a good portion of the second half and needed a Clifford stoppage-time point to deny Dessie Farrell a win his first debut as manager.

Two years ago, Jack O’Connor said Kerry had to go “back to the drawing board” when they were left chasing shadows after a dismal first-half that left them nine points in arrears. Con O’Callaghan struck hat-trick of goals on a rare off-day for Clifford.

As O’Connor insisted, it was not a fatal result. A week later and Kerry were back to winning ways against Tyrone in Killarney and only that Dublin result denied them a Division 1 final berth (Farrell’s men claimed it on the head-to-head differential). In 2014, Kerry may have started their season in defeat but finished it in triumph.

The bookmakers have made Kerry extraordinary favourites to end this run of round defeats to Dublin. If not for that bit of history, it’s peculiar that a team who failed to win at home last weekend are odds-on against a team who did at this very venue.

Dublin may have plenty learning the ropes, but then so do Kerry, and they remain Dublin. And in Croke Park they bite best.