Darragh Ó Sé: There's an air of finality around Kerry after losing to Meath

Irish Times

6 hours ago

In
Kerry
, there's a sense of finality about the place this week. When it comes to football, you can't fool the people down here. You can't be going around explaining the
Meath
defeat away because we were down a few bodies. Call us pessimistic or realistic but whatever way you want to look at it, the mood isn't great.
Meath are improving, there's no doubt about that. But if you stand back from it, they're still a Division Two team and they were missing a few of their best players too. That's a team you should be dealing with if you have intentions of winning the
All-Ireland
. The final is in five weeks – if you're not able to beat an understrength Meath now, how are you going to deal with the bigger tests ahead?
Kerry didn't take this game seriously enough. I don't just mean the team and the management either – how the county board ever allowed the game to be played in Tullamore was ridiculous. It was as if their attitude was, 'Sure look, we're going to win anyway so we'll go wherever we're told'. Outside of a hardcore of support, Kerry would be known to be bad travellers so maybe they just decided it wasn't worth having the row.
That tells you a lot about the state of things in Kerry at the moment. Everything is starting on the wrong foot. Most people think there's an air of inevitability about what comes next. We'll beat Cavan on Saturday and then Armagh will put an end to it the following weekend. I met one fella on Monday who said, 'Isn't it a pity we didn't draw Galway and have done with it?'
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Kerry weren't just beaten by Meath, they were rightly hosed. If it was matchplay golf, they'd have been picking up their ball on the 12th green and heading in. Take the 15 minutes before half-time – they went from being two points up to six points down in a game where there was no wind. They lost the second half as well.
Some Kerry people say Jack O'Connor hasn't looked enough to the future. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho
Obviously, you're going to lose something when good players get hurt. Paudie Clifford, Paul Geaney, Seán O'Shea and Diarmuid O'Connor are major losses. Barry Dan O'Sullivan was having a good season too. That night in Cork when they started going down like skittles, nobody was under any illusions – this was going to mean trouble somewhere along the way.
But the killer problem isn't the injuries. Every team is picking up knocks and losing players. As soon as the GAA compressed the season to make way for the concerts in Croke Park, that was always just going to be a fact of life. The job of managers all over the country is to build a panel that can cope.
That's the biggest criticism Kerry people have of
Jack O'Connor
. He hasn't future-proofed the squad during his time in charge. The Kerry team now is very similar to what it was when he took over at the end of 2021. In that time, he has won an All-Ireland and lost a final so there's an argument to say he didn't go too far wrong. It's totally his prerogative to focus on winning now and letting the next lad worry about the future.
Time moves on though. Teams have to evolve. Look at the winners of the last three All-Irelands – Kerry, Dublin and Armagh. Who has the best squad?
Armagh
, no question. Kieran McGeeney nearly has two players for every position now – some of the lads who won them an All-Ireland last year can't get back in.
Who's next? Dublin, without a doubt. Dessie Farrell brought players through during their transition period. They're not as good as what was there before but they have a lot of experience at this stage. Dessie wouldn't have Armagh's competition for places but they've had injuries to Con O'Callaghan, Paddy Small, Eoin Murchan and Lee Gannon and still kept the show on the road.
What can Kerry people learn now about Paul Geaney that they don't already know? Photograph: Tommy Grealy/Inpho
Now go through the Kerry bench for the Meath game. Dara Moynihan has been a regular for a number of years. Dylan Casey has come into the reckoning in the last two seasons and has had a decent bit of exposure at the top level. Conor Geaney and Seán O'Brien have played a fair few league games. But the other six outfield players listed have very little senior experience.
Is that their fault? Or is it down to the management not being willing enough to properly blood new players? I'd say it's a bit of both. Jack doesn't like losing and he knows well that a chunk of Kerry supporters will think the sky is falling in if they get relegated from Division One. But every one of the other All-Ireland contenders has spent a bit of time in Division Two. They blooded players along the way and now they're in much better shape.
You have to evolve. Even when you win the All-Ireland, everyone knows you have to improve by 15 or 20 per cent to go again the next year. You need to test the next wave of players to make sure they're ready. There's a difference between being very good club players and being up to the standard of intercounty. The only way to find out if you're able for the big step up is to be exposed to it.
You're not going to do that when your response to losing a couple of games in the league is to bring the Cliffords back early after they've had a long club season. Paul Geaney is nearly 35 and still he played in every league game this year. Why? What do Kerry need to find out about Paul Geaney that we don't already know?
It all came home to roost against Meath. Okay, there were injuries. But when people go on about it being a panel game nowadays, this is what they mean. You have to be able to go up the country against a coming team and suck it up when you're missing a few key men. It can't be up to Paudie Clifford and Seánie Shea and Paul Geaney to keep the standards up – that's everybody's job.
But they can't learn it overnight. This isn't like cramming for an exam. Whether Kerry get their players back in time for the quarter-final, it already feels like they're too far behind to be able to catch up.