Kerry boat prepares for Armagh Falls

Locker Room: White knuckles. Grazed knuckles. Wet through, but alive for now. Down through the white water rapids. Might as well have the eyes shut. Buffeted and tossed and churned. Still, doing the right things. Still sticking the paddle into the crazy water, but the paddles find no purchase. Just clinging on now as the boat spins, gets thrown clear of water, the boat half disappears into the river. Every man for himself.

Finally it's over. Calm, still water where the river is at its broadest. Control! Safety! Everyone looks at each other. They know more about each other now. They each lean back and draw breath and stare at the sky. Alive! There's nothing to be said.

Deliverance? Not yet. They all hear it at once. Their eyes register the knowledge. The distant roar. The crashing roar. The quickening pace of the boat as the silent current catches it. It means one thing. The falls. The worst is yet to come. They grab the paddles again.

Kerry beat Longford on Saturday. They play Armagh in Croke Park in six days. The hierarchy of needs isn't supposed to have this express lane. After bare survival, Kerry face the chance for self-actualisation. After the depths, they have an instant opportunity to get to altitude. Next Saturday for Kerry is going to be about tradition and experience and adrenalin.

What a prospect. Armagh, in the business of renewal and regeneration, have put together a team for this season which has an average age of 26 years. While we have been concentrating on the venerability of a few key components, Armagh have been making themselves young again.

How good are they? We suspect that they are very good. Not so much on what we have seen of the Donegal game, in which they contained a good young side who gave them trouble, but because we suspect they know how to be good at the right time of the year. The struggles early in the Ulster campaign we attribute to Armagh's knowledge that there is no point in being at your peak when September is still another country.

Six Ulster titles in eight years tells its story. Southern teams have found Armagh unconquerable in this time of Orchard County opulence.

Kerry in transition, in both style and temperament, are suddenly offered the chance they have been waiting four years to grasp. An opportunity to settle up for 2002.

Any giddiness Kerry felt after Saturday, any thirst for beer or champagne, any feeling of having arrived, all those things will have been banished. In the Kerry dressingroom afterwards Séamus Moynihan was asked about young Kieran Donaghy's performance. Donaghy was sitting in the stands back in 2002 not within an ass's roar of any Kerry team.

"Kieran had a great day today," said Séamus, "but Armagh have a tried and trusted defence. They won't be giving him that freedom.

"He adds another dimension for us. He is well able for the high ball, but he'd be a fool to think he'll get that again. He knows that. He's a good lad.

"Look at 2002. It's a totally different team. In fact, there are new faces on both teams. We're not looking at revenge. We just have an opportunity to play the best team in the country. We were happy to get a second chance. They knew today the ball would be going in high. It worked today. Mike Frank and Colm won a lot of ball too. It's the option we've needed. Armagh are a tough defence though, they won't be letting us get ball as handy."

There's a lot in there. Not many players get unimpeded access to airspace when Francie Bellew is around. Donaghy won't be expected to get his fingers around every ball, but at least Kerry have the means now with which to keep Armagh guessing.

The stuff about forgetting about 2002 can be written off though. In Kerry, the All-Ireland win of 2004 has never tasted as sweet because it didn't involve the slaying of either Armagh or Tyrone. This team desperately needs one of those two scalps to be hanging above the mantelpiece before the elder statesmen can go happily to their retirement.

Everything that has been done for the past couple of years, the design of the team and the style of play adopted, has been towards that goal. Ironically, having had to fight for air all summer, Kerry go to face Armagh next week using pretty much the traditional Kerry game they all grew up with.

If they can play that game to the limits of its possibilities, they can win. On Saturday they weren't near those limits. Darren O'Sullivan, it seems, ran out of steam early in the game. His replacement, Declan O'Sullivan, still shows some of the doubt of a good player in crises. Whereas his namesake pumped a number of balls quickly into the full forward line when he won them, Declan was inclined to take too much out of the ball, hoping for the sudden burst of impetus which would put him into space with glory beckoning. The one time it happened he hit a bad wide.

Still, he'll challenge for a place again next week. Kerry may have decided that Darren O'Sullivan's pace is best used as a wild card late in a game. Declan O'Sullivan can still win good ball, has the physique to match Armagh, and if he can be persuaded to part with the leather a little earlier he could do damage.

Midfield will be fascinating. Darragh Ó Sé and Tommy Griffin working in the white heat of Kieran McGeeney's passion and intensity. If Kerry want a template from whom to draw example and inspiration, McGeeney is the one. One the other hand, will the great man have the legs for 70 minutes on the bone-hard Croke Park turf?

Kerry's defence looked uncharacteristically brittle on Saturday. Jack O'Connor conceded there was room for improvement, but he noted that Longford have exceptionally lively forwards. Next week's challenge will be more muscular than pacy, and Armagh will come with a different game plan.

Kerry will spend a lot of time looking at the drawing board this week. In the end, one suspects, they'll offer their most experienced defenders a start and trust that the occasion will draw it out of them.

It's been a tough time in Kerry. O'Connor stood in the dressingroom on Saturday and gave a baleful grin to the assembled hackery.

"It was easy to make the changes after Cork. We had to try a few new things. It worked today. There were times today we could have tipped a few over when we went for goals.

"Criticism? To be honest, criticism goes with the territory down here, I was worried about it affecting the players. I've been getting it most of my life. Another kick in the cojones wasn't going to make too much difference to me!"

That's the nature of managing Kerry. There's scarcely a manager you can think of whose cojones haven't got a good kicking at some time or other. That's what makes them different and dangerous. Kerry that is. Not the cojones.

Saturday will be compulsive viewing.