Kerry have League boxes ticked - do they leave March like a lion or a lamb?

ALL SMILES: Kerry manager Jack O'Connor shares a joke with David Clifford before the decisive victory over Mayo at Austin Stack Park, Tralee, Kerry

THIS is Kerry’s moment for pause. There may be a round of the Football League left in Armagh next Sunday and a potential Division 1 final at the end of the month, but they’ve ticked their priority boxes.

No relegation anxiety? Check. A handful of spring finds to replenish stocks? Check. Playing Donegal in a league decider before April 1st? Hmm, let’s have a think about that one.

It’s facile to trot out that every one of Jack O’Connor’s Kerry All-Irelands has been preceded by a League title, but each is different in its context. Going into the equivalent penultimate round last year, the Kingdom were only on four points playing Armagh and looking over the shoulder. This time around they’ve nine Division One points and can approach the Athletic Grounds any which way they please.

Either way, they have a camp in the Algarve over the Easter for five days, so whether they go as Division 1 champions or not won’t make any material difference to their countdown to and periodisation ahead of their first Munster SFC outing on April 25 in Ennis. In many ways, it will be up to how the players see it, the Kerry manager indicated after Saturday’s thumping 2-29 to 0-16 win over Andy Moran’s Mayo.

“We put up a great score,” O’Connor agreed, “the lads were up for it this evening, and it was mainly driven by themselves. We weren’t sure what way they would approach the game. We weren’t in relegation trouble, so it was nice to see how they’d approach this game when there wasn’t the same pressure on them. I’m glad they put in a big performance and expressed themselves.” 

He added: “The big thing is we want ferocious competition for places, the lads are champing at the bit, that’s what you need. We still have a few lads to come back and lost (midfielder) Mark O’Shea with a twinge. Paudie (Clifford) did a bit of damage to his thigh in the Monaghan game, and will be out for a couple of weeks.” 

That bit is important. Kerry aren’t overly concerned whether the Fossa playmaker makes the Athletic Grounds but they absolutely will want him in The Campus at Quinta do Lago come April 6th. O’Connor and his coaches will lay the ground work for the summer there, and they want all their frontliners involved.

“How sure are you of that?" O’Connor smiled when asked whether being in the League final driving seat was where Kerry wanted to be right now.

“The main priority was not to get into relegation bother and to blood some players. The players are going to drive this, they drove the performance today. They all realise there is no resting on their laurels, we want squad depth. I’m blue in the face talking about the amount of club football lads play down here, and then they pick up injuries. We had a lot of lads played late into November, the likes of Tony Brosnan, Evan Looney, Gavin Whitem, Shane Ryan, and Mark O’Shea – all injured now, and that’s no coincidence. It’s very hard to pick it up in January, and remain injury free. That’s something that’s going to have to be looked at, I don’t think you can keep that going year after year,” the Kerry manager said.

Across the tunnel, Andy Moran’s glass was still half full, leaning on the sagacity of it’s never as good as it seems, and so it’s never as bad either. He had a choice of sobering moments to select from but he was bang on identifying the second quarter, when his players went from 0-9 to 0-4 up to 0-12 to 0-9 down – that’s eight unanswered Kerry points on the bounce.

“You’d have to be very disappointed the way we faded away after what we did in the first 15-20 minutes. We take some hard lessons, it’s not going to happen overnight, but better to see it now than in a couple of months’ time,” Moran reasoned.

“I don’t think I was (that) happy with how we were playing anyway when ahead early, we were kicking the ball too straight, there was no angles to our attack, so even though we were five in front, I’m not too sure we were that good.

“You give Kerry chances, they are going to take you on. We know what they can do, some of the best players in the game are in that dressing room across the hallway. We need to look at ourselves, the heads went down after the first goal. But the second quarter was (especially) disappointing, we tried to fight back but every time you press on Kerry, they are going away and kicking two pointers. You try to close the gaps and the spaces, but then you go behind and you have to leave those gaps. If you are chasing a game against Kerry, they will exploit you.”