Kerry selector Diarmuid Murphy, left, and manager Jack O'Connor before the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Kerry football team selector, Diarmuid Murphy, believes the Kingdom have a stronger deck to deal from this year than they did last year.
They come into Saturday’s Munster SFC semi-final against Cork on the back of a solid League campaign that saw them win five games from seven matches despite putting a focus on giving game-time to as many players as possible.
“Yeah, I think from that side it's worked well for us,” says Murphy.
“I think we've used 32 players or something so far. I think that was one of our priorities at the start of the league was to get a good bit of game time into our squad players and to see how they progress.
“Really and truly with lads you don't really know until you give them a chance in the games.
“It's only fair to fellas to give them a bit of game time as well, so that they could show what they're made of. In that regard, so far, so good.”
One of the narratives around this Kerry team is that they lack true strength in depth, and that their bench isn’t as impactful as some of their rivals.
Does this put some added pressure on fringe players to show they’re good enough to force their way into the starting XV or at least buttress it from the bench?
“I don’t think so, really,” says Murphy. “I’ll be quite honest about it, any time you’re playing in Kerry there’s pressure and I think it’s important for the newer players that are coming in to learn how to deal with extra pressure that comes with it.
“Expectation levels go up and I think it’s a huge part of being a Kerry footballer, that you can deal with that, that you learn to deal with it and most fellas do, some fellas don’t.
“If you can’t cope with it, really, you’re probably not going to get to where you want to go. I don’t think it puts any increased pressure on those lads. They’re coming into a team there surrounded by good experienced players as well which makes it easier to blend new fellas into the team as well but they seem well able to handle it.
“Any new lads that are there this year seem well able to handle anything that’s been thrown at them.”
Cillian Burke of Kerry is surrounded by Dublin players, from left, Theo Clancy, John Small, Seán MacMahon and Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Glass half empty Kerry supporters might reflect that their heavy defeat to Dublin in the League this year suggests they’re not quite poised this year to close the gap and overtake the 2023 All-Ireland Football champions.
Murphy admits the 10-point loss was a tough one to stomach at the time, but believes both players and management took some lessons from it that should stand them in good stead in the coming weeks and months.
“For us on the night, it was a very disappointing performance from our fellas,” he says. “We wouldn't have been happy with the way we played at all.
“Just weren't at the pace of the game. Just weren't at the pace Dublin were playing. If there are any benefits to be taken from it, you would be very much looking at what you are doing from a coaching and management side, and casting a very close eye on what you had been doing up to that. It might be no harm, at times, to get a shock to the system like that early in the year because it gives you a chance to improve and to change what are you doing and see can you do some things better.
“It was early in the year, it was a setback to us. I think we responded well the following weekend against Tyrone in Killarney. Played quite well in that game. Got a good result out of it. Good to get a response out of it anyway. Hopefully there are more lessons to take from it down the line.
“You would think that there might be a bit of an edge there for a team that were beaten the year before, but I don't know is the modern inter-county footballer wired the same way as in the past. So much goes in now to preparing for games and performing and what you are doing yourself that that kind of emotion doesn't seem to be as big a part of it as maybe it once was in the past.
“Of course, any time you play any of your rivals, it is going to be a big game. Early in the league is probably the one time that maybe things can go against you and when they do go against you, you probably don't have a big chance to recover. Definitely lessons to be learned.”