Kerry are still the benchmark

IN ALL FAIRNESS

There weren’t many tipping Kerry to beat Armagh on Sunday, but I was one of the few that felt they were going to win the game.

There were some raised eyebrows at Kerry players putting the call out for their supporters to get in their cars, busses, trains, walk if they could, and get to Croke Park for last Sunday’s quarter final.

Kerry supporters are notorious for their reticence to make the trip to the capital, outside of an All-Ireland Final or when they are playing Dublin. Geography doesn’t help but even their home games in the championship this year against Roscommon and Cavan were poorly attended for a so-called football stronghold.

However, that can work for and against a county, as we know ourselves in Tipperary. It was less than six months ago that Liam Cahill put the call out for supporters to get behind the team when coming in at a low ebb after a disastrous 2024. Yet, next Sunday, they will be in Croke Park in their tends of thousands now that the team are performing and winning again.

However, in Kerry, performing and winning aren’t enough, it’s an All-Ireland or nothing, and doing so in the Kerry way, and last Sunday was winning in the Kerry way.

They have the best set of forwards in the game and in a devastating second half spell of fourteen unanswered points in fifteen minutes showed that their best is still the best of any team in the country.

There are many strands to modern Gaelic Football, kickout strategies, defensive systems etc…but it is still remains largely a game of outscoring your opponent and this is where Kerry have no equal.

For too long, Kerry supporters have focused on defensive problems and midfield issues, but when you have forwards of the calibre of the Clifford brothers, the Geaney brothers, Sean O’Shea, Tony Brosnan, Micheal Burns, Killian Spillane etc… the focus should be about getting them the ball.

Yes, there will be games where the radar is off but more often than not their ability is such they’ll take their chances, even off limited possession.

At all levels of team coaching, there is too much focus nowadays on what a team cannot do instead of what they can do. What is Kerry’s strength? Their attack, so the focus should be on getting them the ball. Yes, by all means work on defending as much as possible but in the end the outcome of a match is who scores more and Kerry have that trump card over everyone else.

If they were motivated to play Armagh after being dumped out of the championship last year by the Orchard county, they won’t lack for motivation either for a semi-final against Tyrone whose three championship wins over the Kingdom in the noughties, two in All-Ireland Finals, still grate the mind. Then there was the 2021 All-Ireland semi-final which was delayed by a week by Covid in the Tyrone camp, much to Kerry’s chagrin.

Too many teams when they crash out of competitions regret they didn’t play to their strengths and Galway are that this week. Take nothing away from Meath and their victory on Sunday, but the outcome was as much about Galway’s shortcomings as the Royal county’s good play.

Galway manager Padraic Joyce was one of the great forwards, yet his team plays a little too conservatively, despite having forwards such as Shane Walsh, Rob Finnerty, Damien Comer (when fit), and rising star Matthew Thompson to play the ball into as early and regularly as possible.

On Sunday, Galway showed a notable lack of urgency in their attacks, not getting from A to B in the shortest time, instead almost allowing Meath to get their defence in place and then picking their way through it, and to be fair they did it well.

However, when they put pace on the ball, they scored 2-3 in four second half minutes to go from six points down to three points up. That they couldn’t hold on from there highlights the shortcoming of why Galway are falling short with the talent at their disposal.

On the other hand, Meath have been the story of the football summer. Their run through to the semi-finals is reminiscent of Tipperary’s in 2016, playing care-free, free-flowing football that took everyone by surprise. There will be pressure on Meath in the years to come but they might as well keep doing what they are doing in the coming weeks.

However, the draw they didn’t need in a semi-final was Donegal. Jim McGuinness is the best footballing mind in the game at the moment and with two weeks at his disposal, he will put a plan in place to pray on the naivety of Meath in some elements of their game, despite them getting to this stage playing the same way.