Kerry get marking duties spot on

Jack O'Connor's Column:Kerry did what smart teams do. They attacked the opposition's strength

There are things you can't buy and things you can't coach.

Sunday was set up for Dublin. They should have been hurting from losing last year's semi-final. And they were at the end of their three-year cycle, at the precise point where they were supposed to peak. The blue army would drive them into a frenzy. And they were playing a Kerry team whose appetite was being questioned and who had rookie players in key positions.

It was time to deliver and Dublin weren't good enough. It was Kerry who showed the hunger. Kerry tore into it and took away one of Dublin's crutches, the fast start. The Hill went quiet. Dublin didn't get up an early head of steam.

Kerry did what smart teams do. They attacked the opposition's strength. Kerry didn't allow Ciarán Whelan to cut loose until the game was beyond Dublin. They didn't allow Dublin to score goals. They snuffed out key forwards.

So Dublin won midfield overall but the man-marking by the Kerry defence decided the game. Players like Bryan Cullen and Ross McConnell are good ball players but they aren't tight markers. Kerry's defenders didn't handle a lot of ball but they did their primary duty very well.

The Kerry management have to be complimented. They were under pressure to make sweeping changes after the Monaghan game. They held their nerve. They kept changes to the minimum. This applied especially to young Padraig Reidy who got the chance to redeem himself and took it with both hands. He destroyed Mark Vaughan.

You have to feel some sympathy for the Dubs because they have been involved in more thrillers than almost any other team of the past 20 years. In many ways they are the making of the modern GAA with the glamour they bring to Croke Park. They are very professional in their preparation. Yet they lack a cutting edge. In soccer they use that euphemism about a lack of quality in the last third of the pitch. Dublin suffer from that.

Kerry man-marked perfectly. Men like Tom O'Sullivan and Aidan O'Mahony played very little ball. Neither did the men they were on. Defenders mark. Anything after that is a bonus.

Tom saw off Conal Keaney who looks like a fellow who needs more space at this level. Keaney scored three points off Séamus Moynihan in the first half of a league game a few years back and I thought he would always be at home in the half-forward line. He doesn't look that comfortable inside. He needs a big arc to turn. Outside he would get a bit more space.

Kerry got the marking duties right. Players followed their men. Tom O'Sullivan went to centre back when Keaney moved out there. They had these men in their sights for the last couple of weeks. That's a great way of focusing the mind. The Dublin backs like to play a bit of ball and drive out of defence. The Kerry defence basically opted to leave the fancy stuff to other fellas. They marked their men.

Off the bench Kerry were better. Tommy Griffin looked like a man staking a claim for the final. Kerry brought in speed off the bench. The two O'Sullivans, Darren and Seán, are a nightmare for opposition half backs late in a game.

Dublin took off Jason Sherlock and Bernard Brogan at a time when it wasn't their fault they weren't going well. If they had been there when the tide turned in the last 15 minutes and Dublin had tightened up in the middle of the field then they could have been judged fairly.

Vaughan wasn't doing it from play at all. Reidy choked him. This was a big test for Vaughan. Everything had gone right for him this summer and on Sunday he was on a young player whose confidence had taken a knock the last day.

Vaughan didn't nail that first handy free in front of the Hill and it seemed to affect his confidence from play. There were balls slipping through his hands and his legs. He just wasn't having a good game but he stayed on till almost the end.

Dublin lacked options. Kerry have three or four "go to" players in the forwards. Huge difference. Declan O'Sullivan is blossoming into one of the greats. Even in just his second year Kieran Donaghy is turning out to be a great leader.

And Colm Cooper? Not many people have picked up on Gooch's orchestration of the Kerry forward line and movement. On Sunday after being involved in the passage of play that led up to Declan's goal he actually pointed out to Cillian Young the direction for him to play the ball for Declan to run in to. That is coaching on the hoof. A player with a brain like that is just invaluable. Jayo was the nearest that Dublin had to a brain like that. They took him off.

It's not rocket science. Kerry just have more quality up front. If the Kerry selectors sat down and picked a forward line with all the Dubs available to them also only Alan Brogan would make the cut.

Dublin gave it everything but they are still making mistakes under pressure and in some ways will feel they left the game behind them. A handy free missed early on, Shane Ryan soloing out of defence and losing it on a high solo (Bryan Sheehan kicked the free that came from that), Ray Cosgrove hit the post with a handy chance and blazed a goal opportunity wide. Kerry just didn't miss chances like that.

Stephen Cluxton made a big error. He was a little arrogant I thought. He likes to do a little bit that's spectacular, he likes the risky ball especially when he has his back to the Hill. The Kerry forwards suckered him. When they saw him coming out they just backed off him. Nobody made a drive at him so he could clip the ball over a Kerry head to the loose man and get the big cheer from the Hill that he was hoping for. They let Cluxton come out into no-man's land and watched him ignore several easy options. Eventually he cracked. A point just then was a big score to concede.

Cosgrove can't have been playing with a pile of confidence. He has been on and off the team. People thought he was gone. Then he was back. He rushed his kick for the point. The goal was a case of closing his eyes and having a blast. Just a basic lack of confidence.

It is ironic that back in 2002 when Dublin lost a semi-final to Armagh that it was Cluxton and Cosgrove that suffered the most when the pressure was on. Are the Dubs any closer to that All-Ireland than they were then? The 1995 team got the breakthrough from sheer resilience and perspiration. In those terms they aren't that far away now.

Whether Paul Caffrey stays or goes is a matter for Dublin. He has been involved for six years now and has given a lot of hard work. It is hard to see, though, what extra he can do to get Dublin over the line. Dublin may need a new voice to rejuvenate and regenerate them.

Even after winning last year's All-Ireland Kerry may have benefited from a change of management as they attempt to win the elusive two a row. If a manager stays too long players get too familiar. Managers tend to remember what players did for them in the past rather than see what they are doing in the present. The change of management has worked out for Kerry. Players have had to prove themselves again. That might just drive them over the line for the two in a row.