Diarmuid Murphy
By John Harrington
One Dublin player has occupied the thoughts of the Kerry management team more than any other ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland Semi-Final – Stephen Cluxton.
The Dublin goalkeeper’s laser-accurate distribution from kick-outs is a huge element of Dublin’s game plan and a massive challenge for every team that faces them.
Current Kerry selector Diarmuid Murphy won four All-Irelands and three All-Stars as a goalkeeper himself, and acknowledges that the Dublin custodian is a master of his craft.
“Huge,” said Murphy. “He has really taken it onto another level over the last three or four years with the kick-outs, never mind the regular goalkeeping of high balls and shot-stopping which he is excellent at too.
“With regard to the kick-outs, he has taken it onto another level. He is absolutely fantastic, one of the best around in the last 20 years, without a doubt. He seems to be going from strength to strength. He seems to be enthusiastic. He seems to be enjoying his football. I know myself, it can be hard to keep the hunger going year in, year out for a guy that has been there since 2002.
“Their kick out is a huge part of the Dublin game. What are you going to do with it is a huge part of our game-plan. It has been a platform for their success over the last number of years and they will be looking to maximise their opportunities of that on Sunday.”
It’s not just Cluxton’s accuracy that makes Dublin’s restarts so formidable. He also has a great understanding with his outfield players who make all sorts of intelligent runs to open up the spaces he can kick into.
Stephen Cluxton continues to impress for Dublin.
“It’s important for the goalies to get the chemistry going with the lads out the field as well, which is what our opponents the next day are very good at,” said Murphy.
“It’s a question of getting a feel for the goalie. He knows that a fella is going to make a break left or right. It’s almost like the quarter-back in American Football – he’s throwing it and he’s depending on your man to make his run, the wide receiver, and he’s trusting that he’s going to be in the position. So he’ll throw it there. It’s something similar.
“It’s easy to make calls from the sideline and say ‘this fella is at fault or that fella is at fault.’ But sometimes it can be just that the chemistry isn’t great between the fellas involved. It’s complex, it’s a complicated racket now. The days of just putting it down and putting it out to your two midfielders outside are gone. You don’t see a lot of aerial contests anymore, in a lot of the big games there are very little.”
If Kerry are to disrupt the Dublin kick-out tomorrow, they’ll have to do a lot better than they did against Clare in the All-Ireland Quarter-Final when they won only two of 21 opposition kick-outs.
“We wouldn’t be happy with that kind of outcome really to be honest,” said Murphy. “It’s a case that the kickers are so good and sometimes you could have a mismatch numbers wise between backs and forwards.
“They might have more backs than you have forwards in there just to try create the extra man. Teams are very good at it, but by the same token we’d hope to do better, absolutely.”
