Tony Leen: Kerry searching for that late summer tidal surge
CARPET BALL: Dublin danger man Cormac Costello challenges Kerry defender Paul Murphy for the loose ball in Sunday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final at Croke Park. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho
An intriguing characterisation of Kerry, the defending All-Ireland champions considered a sure thing a short while ago to rack up a 40th title, is that practically no-one – not least themselves – is really certain whether they're rising or ebbing.
There are low-hanging reasons Kerry have not been quite on point and razor-sharp this summer, albeit set against their exalted standards. Jack O’Connor employed one of them in the wake of Sunday’s edgy semi-final win over Dublin, pointing out that a handful of his players are still searching for their game-day sweet spot after returning from lengthy injuries – Sean O’Shea, Paudie Clifford, Gavin White, Brian O’Beaglaoich, Paul Geaney et al.
And yet. The quarter-final win over Tyrone, when they conceded 27 points, offered a two-week window to prepare for Dublin and clearly informed the decision that Sunday couldn’t be a balls-out shootout, irrespective of the conditions. That in itself is quite telling – that at a point when the game-state facilitates inventive, cascading attacks, the All-Ireland champions would eschew tempo and play as conservatively as they did against a dangerous underdog.
Getting beyond a semi-final was the only show in town, O’Connor acknowledged afterwards. “Semi-finals are about getting over the line and getting to a final. We lived on a knife edge there at times.” Though they did, it's not that strange to have a defending champion reaching for form. With the exception of Dublin’s group for the ages, back-to-back All-Irelands are very hard to secure. The stomach isn't as taut, the dread not as great. Often the experience of before compensates. "The only thing probably in our favour," suggested O'Connor Sunday, "is we have a bit of experience than some of (Mayo's) younger players."
Dublin are Dublin of course, but Kerry looked nothing like watertight and laboured under the terms and conditions of combat with Ger Brennan’s momentum machines. Save for a relatively brief second half spell when they grabbed a fortuitous goal to draw them level, they looked nothing close to imperious.
Former Dub Ciarán Whelan parsed it succinctly on RTÉ’s Sunday Game review. “Sometimes you reflect and say you were beaten by a better team, I just think Dublin supporters will feel a bit hurt. The chances Dublin had, the good stuff they did, and Kerry probably weren’t at their best,” he said. “They were there to be caught.”
There were moments of desperate, last-ditch defending demanded by Kerry’s set up being pulled around and about by Dublin finding pockets of room, often centrally. Too often, the individual match ups were a struggle for Kerry defensively. Shane Murphy’s All-Star form isn’t all about his restarts.
This problem will have a major bearing on their selection and shape for Mayo on July 26th. Éamonn Fitzmaurice wrote here the morning after Kerry’s quarter final win that defensive shape and match ups would be a pre-requisite for the semi-final. It will be on the first page of Things To Do for the final too.
This might work to Kerry’s advantage. O’Connor, with a vault of these situations to draw upon, enjoys the battlefield manoeuvres ahead of the big day and it’s 20 years since his plot to go in over the top to Johnny Crowley torpedoed Mayo’s All-Ireland ambitions. These days, there are few to no nasty surprises on an inter-county sphere hard drive, but more than once Sunday post-game, Jack O’Connor talked up Mayo’s inside threat of O’Donoghue, Beirne and McDonald, pre-advertising the primary area of concern to his own constituency as much as anyone else.
This has become a key stratagem for inter-county management, much as Andy Moran weaponised a question about Mayo hype to address the natives directly after their semi-final victory on Saturday.
O’Connor is one of the masters. He also has Tom O’Sullivan, Evan Looney and Brian O’Beaglaoich in his back pocket, and it will be no great surprise if at least one of them starts the final, possibly the Gaeltacht man. Both are excellent man markers, notwithstanding their respective injury lay-offs.
Any betting docket will advertise Kerry’s final favouritism, but getting a proper handle on a reliable formline for them and consistency over 70-odd minutes has been complicated by circumstances – a half time sending off against Donegal (little learned thereafter), a freakish Paul Geaney goal on the half time hooter against Armagh (ditto re second half). Kildare offered token resistance in Newbridge, and Tyrone razed their backline at Croke Park with Darren McCurry pocketing ten points in 25 minutes. It offers an interesting counterpoint to the lazy consensus it was only a question of picking up the cannister at the end of July.
Talking the respective finalists up or down, just like the hype train, is a red herring with minimal traction inside the respective Kerry and Mayo set ups. It’s entertaining nonsense. Andy Moran says Mayo should go nuts and embrace final fervour. He’s right. Jack O’Connor acknowledged that Kerry have used their lucky card and need to be better defensively ahead of the final. He’s right too. Hype and truth needn’t be parallel lines.
The drill-down into shapes, structure and match-ups is already underway. The watching Andy Moran was offered an interesting (mob-handed) template Sunday for ushering David Clifford into pockets that didn’t suit him. Moran also had a premium level view of the Paudie Clifford conundrum and the question of whether to give up a defender to go one v one. Mayo’s modus operandi is such, but Kerry have exceptional weapons to force a change up? Does Donnacha McHugh take David Clifford and utilise auxiliary help? Or David McBrien? Will Moran deploy Enda Hession on Paudie Clifford, or perhaps the rapid, flexible Sam Callinan? It won’t do any harm either that Paddy Tally, the former Kerry coach, oversees Mayo’s defensive set up.
Kerry are well-versed in circumventing such inconveniences but it’s been a while since their issues have been as stark at the opposite end of the pitch.
Whereas Mayo like to go after opposition forwards individually, Kerry normally will set up with a set shape and box off one v ones as they see fit. Mayo present a number of individual conundrums, which is why specialists like O’Beaglaoich and O’Sullivan are under live consideration. Paul Murphy had his hands full with Cormac Costello on Sunday, and before that in the quarter-final, but he has been favoured by management with Jason Foley when it comes to shutting down the key forwards on the other side.
In their League tie in Tralee last March, Kobe McDonald played in a more withdrawn role and Foley picked up Darragh Beirne, with Ryan O’Donoghue tagged by Dylan Casey. That arrangement will change for Kerry, unquestionably.
In that Division 1 meeting, Kerry put 2-29 on Mayo but the sense underneath the main stand afterwards listening to the Mayo manager was that the visitors to Tralee bagged plenty to take home with them. In the report of the game, one of Kerry’s most fundamental and prized assets – game intelligence – was referenced. They will need it all and then some. Tempo and backcourt control are primary work-ons in the interim if the 40th is to be reached.
Few do Broadway big days as well as Kerry. There is a tide etc. The reviews will not be forgiving if their Atlantic neighbours crash in over the Kingdom’s seawall.
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