Engine room set to provide a spark

GAELIC GAMES:THE DEPTH of the Cork football squad has been rightly noted, but this weekend's Munster final will offer a stern examination of Kerry's overall resources.

It is difficult to think of any other county which could cope with the number of losses that the Kingdom have shipped in recent years – Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh lured back to Australian Rules, Darragh Ó Sé retiring, Michael McCarthy retiring (again), Diarmuid Murphy retiring – one-fifth of the team that won the 2009 All-Ireland final gone.

Most other counties would enjoy the “in transition” tag after a mass departure like that, but not Kerry. Their quarter-final exit against Down last summer was regarded internally as a sore and unexpected disappointment and tomorrow in Killarney, on what promises to be one of the high points of the football summer, there is heavy home expectation that they can set the world to rights.

And this despite the fact Tomás Ó Sé, who has all but rivalled Colm Cooper for consistency and influence in the past five or six years, will be missing through suspension, as will Paul Galvin, who was not named in the match panel.

So almost half a team down (Tommy Griffin, a long-term casualty, also played in that September defeat of Cork) from the last bunch to claim an All-Ireland two summers ago, can Kerry cope?

“We targeted their midfield area from the beginning,” says John Evans about Kerry’s opening game in this year’s championship.

The Tipperary manager acknowledges the suspicion that Kerry are vulnerable in the middle sector will remain until they establish a settled unit.

“I think we won it for about half an hour anyway. And then Séamus Scanlon got injured and Mike Quirke came in and that did turn the tide for Kerry a bit.

“In terms of Sunday, Cork’s midfield is obviously very deep, but there is one area that has not been identified.

“Cork do have the prowess in the air with Walsh and O’Connor and Nicholas Murphy. You would expect them to hold the advantage in terms of primary advantage and maybe winning breaks and for mobility as well.

“But the one thing is that when the Kerry midfielders do get their hands on the ball, they are probably more of a threat in terms of scoring. Look at how comfortable Bryan Sheehan is on the ball.”

Kerry’s lack of a senior, authoritative presence in the middle sector must have been at the back of Jack O’Connor’s mind during the close season when Eoin Brosnan caught his eye with storming displays for Dr Crokes in the Munster club championship.

Just as he had done with McCarthy, O’Connor managed to coax from retirement a player who had probably left too soon to begin with. Brosnan’s return looked promising in the league.

He looked comfortable at centre back, distributing ball with his customary accuracy and was also used in Kerry’s rotating midfield. But it remains a radical change from Brosnan’s former Kerry life as a pedigree forward with an eye for rampaging goals. Kerry’s resistance in midfield and at centre back as yet to be stress-tested.

Although Tipperary lived with Kerry in the first half, the game just ran away from them after that. In the Munster semi-final, Limerick were left helpless against the ferocity of Kerry’s approach in the first 20 minutes.

“They blew us out of the water at the start of the game,” says Maurice Horan, the Limerick manager. “In last year’s Munster final, we got a good start and then scored 1-4 in a six-minute period in the second half.

“But the most noticeable thing this year was how Kerry came so fast out of the traps. We didn’t get a foothold in the game at all. I know we got the first goal but after that, they really came at us. Declan O’Sullivan gave an interview after the Tipperary game about how they had to work on breaks. And they were ravenous around the break for the first 20 minutes.

“Funny enough, we were 1-10 to 0-1 down after 28 minutes and then scored 3-8. But the game was buried by then. I think Donie Buckley (the former Limerick coach) would have had them very sharp. That would be a trademark of his. So I would expect that they will be the same on Sunday – very sharp and very alert.”

This is what makes tomorrow’s game so intriguing.

By all accounts, Cooper has achieved an even higher level of consistency this summer and, along with Darran O’Sullivan and Declan O’Sullivan, is playing with sky-high confidence.

For that reason, Kerry will probably be reluctant to deploy Kieran Donaghy in the midfield sector – the big Tralee man is peerless in his ability to orchestrate attacks from the edge of the square.

If Kerry can keep attacking, then perceived frailties at the other end may be overstated.

But to do that, they will need to win ball – it is a key test for the midfield pairing of Bryan Sheehan and Anthony Maher. The former is playing midfield because of his versatility, the latter is promising but young.

“People talk about midfield and Cork are obviously very strong there, but I expect that the middle eight of Kerry will want to prove otherwise,” Horan says.

“They will know what is being said about the Kerry midfield and they will want to show otherwise. The engine room there is going to be very intense over the first few minutes.”

Kerry, after all, are playing for pride. It is a rare day that Cork walk into Killarney as All-Ireland champions. The bigger picture will soon be obscured in the head and dust of the day.

But the fact remains, Kerry will grow from this point. Ó Sé will be back. Galvin will be back. Tommy Griffin has just returned to training. Kerry’s options will be deeper as the championship goes on, but this is a critical moment.

“These are probably the best two teams in the country and they will be using it as a measure to see where they are,” Horan predicts. “I think it is going to come down to hunger.”