Eamonn Fitzmaurice: ‘We hope we have a few tricks up our sleeves’

Life is replete with difficult choices and sometimes football is too. Eamonn Fitzmaurice faces some difficult choices: should he go for Kieran Donaghy? Maybe Declan O’Sullivan? And does he really fancy Marc Ó Sé?

Kerry had survived their first All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo, just about. When it came to the replay Fitzmaurice fancied something different – starting Donaghy (even though he wasn’t named) and dropping Ó Sé (even though he was).

Dropping Ó Sé, for the first time in his career was declared “high risk” by those in the know. Killian Young had started as an indirect replacement, but with the Kerry defence creaking (conceding two goals against Mayo within three minutes, etc) Ó Sé was brought in, replacing the yellow-carded Shane Enright. Ó Sé went on to deliver one of his finer performances, paying off Fitzmaurice’s high-risk strategy.

“It all depends on your assessment of high risk,” says Fitzmaurice. “Okay, you can argue that it’s more of a risk putting in a rookie, or an inexperienced player, ahead of an experienced one. But I don’t see it that way. If it’s a case of putting in a form player, we see that as low risk. Because we’re going with form, which is the best barometer you have.

“And the lads know it doesn’t matter what status you have, or how many All-Ireland medals you have. You have to be playing at the top of your game to get into the team. None of them have bitched. None of them have cribbed. Every fella has put his head down, ploughed away, and thankfully that has been rewarding for the group.”

For that semi-final replay, against Mayo, Fitzmaurice

used 23 players over the course of normal and extra time (the starting 15, six substitutes in normal time, another two in extra time, as well as reintroducing Paul Geaney).

Moreover, so far this summer Kerry have had 19 different scorers (four more than Donegal), averaging 1-19 for, 1-14 against. Donegal have had 15 different scorers – averaging 1-16 for, 0-13 against.

Kerry, in other words, have scored more and conceded more. Therein lies the challenge on Sunday: because while Donegal will unquestionably limit Kerry’s scoring power, how can Kerry ensure they concede less than Donegal?

“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” says Fitzmaurice. “The way the game has gone, the teams know that the first line of defence, when you lose the ball, is going to be your full-forward line. That might be a bit of a cliche, but I have no fear about our defence. The likes of Paul Murphy have made massive progress this year. Playing in a Munster final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh is a great test. Playing your first championship match in Croke Park is a great test.

“And Mayo were a great test in Limerick the last day. Now, an All-Ireland final is the next step, a natural step. So I think they’ll be ready for it. We’ll definitely have to toughen up our own game plan. And there will be a lot of patience involved. Donegal, we know, like to play the game on their terms

. And there are times when you’re going to be playing it on their terms.

“But there are still things you can do and we hope we have a few tricks up our sleeves. Because absolutely, if you’re playing it fully on their terms, it could be a long day. You have to play parts of it on your own terms.”

What is certain is that neither team should be distracted by the fact it’s the All-Ireland final. Fitzmaurice acknowledges that Donegal’s experience of 2012 is still more than fresh enough to affect this game, but then so too is Kerry’s experience of 2012 – when they ran Donegal very close in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

“If you look back at that, Kerry were getting stronger as that game was going on. If it had gone on for another few minutes, they would have at least got a draw out of it. Donegal are possibly fitter now, and maybe stronger. But the game they play is very demanding too.

“But to be fair to Jim McGuinness, when he took over Donegal, they were at . . . zero. He implemented a very defensive system the first year, got them to an All-Ireland semi-final. He changed their game plan again the next year, to kind of give them the attacking threat in their game and get the balance right. And that’s what they have now.

“But at the end of the day, I’m not going to be kicking any ball. He’s not going to be kicking any ball. It comes down to the players following the game plan, and making the correct decisions on the field.

“I also think, at times, the danger is that you can become too obsessed with Donegal. We’ll worry about ourselves. We’ll get ourselves right. We’ll have our own plan.”

All based on the options that Fitzmaurice has been looking at for the last three weeks.