End of year revision – whither the Kingdom in 2010?

December 24th, 2009 by Kevin Egan

Unlike the hurling championship where Kilkenny have been the undisputed kingpins for the bulk of the past decade, the football championship has been considerably more open, and despite the record books suggesting that Kerry have been the dominant team, that opinion is not universally held. Of course Kerry supporters are entitled to ask what more can they do, since appearing in six consecutive All Ireland finals and winning four of them is a pretty outstanting statistic.

That this current crop of Kerry players is unlikely to be remembered in the same vein as the golden generation of Liston, O’Shea, Nelligan, the Spillanes and all the other legendary names is perhaps not even their fault, since their record is likely to be judged in the light of the big games for which they will be remembered – and unfortunately, most of their big successes came in games that were important, but not memorable. Where the games caught the nation’s eye, Kerry too often came out on the wrong side.

The 2005 All Ireland semi-final against Tyrone remains the defining game of the decade for many reasons, even if the football itself was anything but distinguished. Since Kerry have failed to balance the books against Tyrone ever since that suffocating encounter, they remain damned by the ineptitude of their rivals in All Ireland finals. Of course it’s hardly their fault that Mayo failed so utterly to contain Kieran Donaghy in the opening stages of the 2006 decider, or that Cork performed so poorly in the latter half of this year’s final and the entirity of the 2008 showpiece. Nonetheless, the disappointing nature of these games, combined with Kerry’s poor record in Munster games against Cork and against Tyrone in the All Ireland series will be held against them, at least until those records are addressed.

Oddly enough, this is not why they represent very poor 9/4 shots to complete three-in-a-row in 2010 – in fact it is one of the few positive factors. Until these questions are suitably addressed, they will retain the hunger to prove themselves as a fantastic team by any measure, and to move out of the shadow of the legendary names of the seventies and eighties. Instead, it is a quick look at their All Ireland final team that illustrates their biggest problem.

Quite simply, this is an old team, and one that has not done enough to bring younger players up to the standard required to win an All Ireland championship. That the talent is there is without doubt – however last year all bar one of their single digit jersey starters was well into the Autumn of their playing careers, while up front, star men like Paul Galvin, Colm Cooper and even Declan O’Sullivan have miles on the clock that would be more commonly associated with players staring retirement in the face. The constant grind of spring to Autumn without a summer off is hugely tiring, and much like Europe’s pensions time bomb, there is no easy solution.

Those with long memories will recall how Kerry rejigged their team hugely for the 1975 season and defied all expectations with a famous All Ireland win, but it’s hard to see Jack O’Connor putting too much faith in youth as Mick O’Dwyer did then. He knows that for the purposes of his legacy, he doesn’t need another All Ireland – he has proven that he can win Sam Maguire cups. What he needs is an August or September championship win over Tyrone – and young unproven players are unlikely to fit the bill when he looks to put together a team to tick that box. Why would he work on successors to players like Tomás Ó’Sé, Aidan O’Mahony and Dara Ó’Sé when he knows that these are exactly the type of players he’ll need to outgun Mickey Harte’s men?

Kerry’s win this year came from a very unlikely place, but there still were a lot of key ingredients in situ. Many of those ingredients will be absent in 2010, and for that reason, the Kingdom are best swerved in antepost bets for the season ahead, for now at least.

Tags: All Ireland, Kerry