Éamonn Fitzmaurice hopes Kerry will keep feet on the ground

If championship replays are all about psychology then Éamonn Fitzmaurice is back working in reverse. His Kerry team possibly believed they were too good the first day: now he needs them to believe they’re not as bad.

Because complacency, says Fitzmaurice, almost certainly crept in before their first Munster final date against Cork, last Sunday week. Kerry just about got away with a draw, thanks to a late point form Fionn Fitzgerald, and are now going into Saturday evening’s replay in Killarney with their heads in a very different place.

“There’s no doubt about it, complacency can seep in,” says Fitzmaurice. “Because you’re in an environment where the general mood around the county, coming up to that game, was one of confidence, and over confidence. Regardless of what you’re doing inside in the camp, it’s not like in a professional environment, where fellas are very isolated from the real world.

‘Negative vibe’

“All the lads are working, and are out amongst the community, so if that’s the vibe that’s out there, that’s the vibe that soaks in.

“Last year, we were trying to protect the players from the overly negative vibe that was out there, before the Cork game. And there was a very negative vibe out there, pre-Cork last year, and we had to try to make sure that that wasn’t seeping into the players.

“It was the reverse on this occasion, before last week’s game. I don’t think there was any over confidence on any player’s part, and certainly not on our part, but at the same time, if you’re hearing this mantra constantly that Cork aren’t up to it, it can seep in, absolutely. And it’s hard to protect against it. But thankfully that won’t be a factor for the replay.”

Indeed presumably not, as Fitzmaurice hardly needed to remind any of the Kerry players that with the sunny side of luck, they were headed down qualifier avenue (Kildare, by the way, await the losers of Saturday’s replay). If there is such a thing as a get out of jail card in the championship, Kerry have already used up at least one.

‘We were lucky’

“Of course the lads know that,” says the Kerry manager. “You’d be a fool not to accept that. We know we were lucky. And Cork were probably a bit disappointed that they didn’t deservedly win the game the last day. So definitely we will have to improve, performance wise, for the replay.”

When pressed on where exactly Kerry need to improve, Fitzmaurice is more typically coy – although there’s no denying he wants Cork midfielder Alan O’Connor to become more targeted than an opponents’ target man.

“Well he didn’t surprise me at all,” he says of O’Connor, their big midfielder who came out of retirement in May to rejoin the Cork panel. “He is a very effective player, a lad you would kind of want with you. He is a very combative midfielder, works very hard, and does his job very effectively. It wasn’t a huge surprise.

“And there was a lot of stuff made last week, of the fact that he was out for a year. But I don’t think he (O’Connor) was sitting at home with his feet up eating pizzas. He was still obviously keeping himself in very good shape because he was at the pitch of it the last day. He will in our minds when selecting our own midfield, yes.”

Fitzmaurice has always admitted that managers can swiftly move from genius to fool and back again, depending on the decisions made on the sideline during the course of any given game.

He also admits Kerry’s substitutions didn’t exactly have the desired effect the last day, and while starting changes are expected (both teams set to name their teams this evening), he also wants a greater impact from his subs.

“Well there’s a skill to coming on as a sub, first of all,” says Fitzmaurice. “And to be fair to lads like Anthony (Maher) and Colm (Cooper) in particular would not be accustomed to that role. And Paul Geaney wouldn’t be either really. It is a balancing act and it’s a work in progress definitely. It is something that we have to address but I think with a lot of these things we’re quite close to getting things right.”

Typical of any manager, however, Fitzmaurice heaps plenty of praise on his opponents, including the influence of former Kerry trainer Pat Flanagan.

‘Give credit’

“You would have to give credit to Cork, as they really upped the ante in the second half and this is a feature of teams trained by Pat Flanagan. When he was with us he used the same ploy, so we knew that Cork were going to come strong at us, because Pat targets the third quarter with the way he prepares teams. So it was no shock to us. But we did not deal with it well and it’s something that we will have to work on.”

Tactically he also expects Cork to shake things up again, not necessarily adopting the trio of sweepers who worked so well the first day: “No, I wouldn’t be overly surprised if they threw something different at us the next day. They’ll probably stay loyal enough to the way they played the last day because it was effective.”

Fitzmaurice has his full panel is available for selection, other than Kieran O’Leary, who is out for the season.