Kerry firing on range of fronts

Ian O'Riordan talks to former Kerry player Ger Power and former Tipperary manager Tom McGlinchey about the number of quality forwards available to Páidí Ó Sé.

Tomorrow evening Páidí Ó Sé will finalise the Kerry team to play Roscommon in this weekend's All-Ireland quarter-finals, and faces the sort of selection dilemma most managers only dream about. In Kerry's two championship games to date Ó Sé has used 11 forwards, each one arguably as good as the next. If he didn't need defenders as well he'd be tempted to start all of them.

Yet football's equivalent of a royal flush comes with its own responsibility. Like playing the right combination. They can't all peak on the same day, some might suit the particular challenge raised by Roscommon, and others might simply perform better coming off the bench.

For Ó Sé, then, it's not simply a case of putting the names in a hat. But it's better than trying to fill cracks. According to Kerry's former All-Ireland winning forward, Ger Power, there aren't many disadvantages to having such an embarrassment of richly-talented forwards to call on.

"Well I would see it only as a good thing," says Power. "The main thing is that you don't want any player to be complacent about their place on the team. And that's definitely the case with the Kerry forwards. Right now you have at least eight or nine players going for the six starting places.

"It's also vital that you have the players on the bench that can come in. We nearly always see five substitutes used in championship games these days, and you could more or less write it down before the game that one or two of the forwards that start aren't going to play up to scratch."

There is a perception that having so many forwards to choose from, and also moving them around so much, might endanger the team's ability to play as a unit. Yet that doesn't worry Power.

"I don't think that is the case with this Kerry team. Declan O'Sullivan is the only young player in there, and the rest of them have been playing together for a good few years now. And if they are doing enough work together on the practice pitch then that definitely shouldn't happen."

Kerry's range of quality scoring forwards was best exemplified in their opening championship match against Tipperary, which they won by 12 points - 0-25 to 1-10. The six forwards who started had all scored before half time, and the four who came off the bench scored 0-6 between them - including a slick four points from Mike Frank Russell.

Tom McGlinchey, the Tipperary manager that day but who has since stepped down, has little doubt where Kerry's greatest asset lies this weekend: "Well that forward line is definitely their strength. They certainly don't lack players that can score, and if do they all click as a unit I don't think any team around at the moment could contain them.

"Normally a player can be a little bit satisfied when he sees his opposing man taken off. But in Tralee that day our defenders were seeing forwards taken off, and then All Stars coming on to replace them. So it was like getting over one obstacle and then seeing an even bigger one in front of them."

And it wasn't just the way the Kerry forwards were putting the ball over the bar that was the key.

"To be honest I thought we did break even at midfield that day," says McGlinchey. "But they just picked up all the breaks, which they are so good at. Our players were saying afterwards that they couldn't afford to take their eye off their man for one second."

In assessing the Roscommon game next Monday, however, McGlinchey feels Kerry still have some improving to do.

"I think their defence might yet be their Achilles' heel. So it's definitely not all doom and gloom for Roscommon. And I definitely wouldn't say this Kerry team is unbeatable. Cork ran them ragged the second day last year, and then Armagh got a grip on them too. And if you are to be totally honest, Kerry had two easy games in Munster this year. But Roscommon really had to get their teeth stuck into their games and that will stand to them."

But there is also a great contrast in the Roscommon team in that their forward line is almost exclusively built around Frankie Dolan, who scored 0-13 against Kildare last weekend.

"Looking at Roscommon the last day it did seem like just the one man was getting all their scores. And you would assume they would like to spread it around a little more. But you don't know which players will step it up for the next game, and you can nearly be sure another player will come out and shine," says Power.

As for the most recent meeting between the counties, the league game last February, which Kerry won by 2-11 to 0-4, neither county is expected to look back too closely for any comparisons. Kerry were coming off a hiding from Cork in the previous game, and Roscommon were still settling down to work with new manager Tom Carr.

"I remember Roscommon missed an awful lot of chances that day," notes Power, "particularly in front of goal. In fact their finishing was very poor. But if they do come right the next day I would expect it to be a very close encounter on Monday."

Declan Quill: v Tipp started (0-3), v Limerick on bench

Liam Hassett: v Tipp started (0-1), v Limerick started (0-2)

Sean O'Sullivan: v Tipp started (0-3), v Limerick started (0-0)

Colm Cooper: v Tipp started (0-5), v Limerick started (0-1)

Declan O'Sullivan: v Tipp started (0-3), v Limerick started (0-0)

John Crowley: v Tipp started (0-2), v Limerick sub, replaced Cooper (0-1)

Eoin Brosnan: v Tipp sub, replaced Hassett (0-1), v Limerick started (at midfield)

Mike Frank Russell: v Tipp sub, replaced Quill (0-4), v Limerick started (0-0)

Dara Ó Cinnéide: v Tipp sub, replaced Crowley (0-1), v Limerick started (1-6)

Aodhán Mac Gearailt: v Tipp sub, replaced O'Sullivan (0-0), v Limerick sub, replaced Russell (0-1)

Paul Galvin: v Tipp on bench, v Limerick sub, replaced O'Sullivan