Seán Moran: A sobering year for Kerry but they’re still in everyone’s road

Kerry have been in the firing line a lot recently. Losing the men’s and women’s All-Ireland finals, both to Dublin, was a downbeat conclusion to a year that had started with the promise of more.

Apprehension set in early.

All-Ireland winner Marc Ó Sé in his Irish Mail on Sunday column on the morning of the final, wrote about former Kerry captain Dara Ó Cinnéide telling a discussion forum, held in Tralee the week before: “They are taking it all away from us.”

This was a reference to Dublin’s record over the past decade, winning the five-in-a-row that historically eluded Kerry – and doing it by beating them in the 2019 All-Ireland – and the possibility, duly realised, that three Dublin players would move past a slew of Kerry legends on eight medals by winning a ninth.

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In other words, the records that substantiate the county’s standing as football’s brand leader were being surpassed and almost undermining the foundations of achievement.

History matters in Kerry. Back in 2007 when they faced Cork in the All-Ireland final, one theory was that the unique pairing in the biggest match of the year was an opportunity for Cork to leave their mark by winning the then only All-Ireland between the counties.

It appeared afterwards as if, in fact, Kerry had been the ones inspired by history. Paul Galvin spoke vehemently about how he had perceived the stakes coming into the final.

“I felt myself that everything Kerry football stood for was on the line. Everything we’d achieved in the last four or five years, and everything we’d achieved in the last 100 years, was riding on that 70 minutes of football. It was that fear of losing to Cork that was driving us.”

The county of course is nearly always in the All-Ireland conversation. They will point out that as well as topping the roll of honour for the last 80 years, they have also lost more finals than anyone else.

The reflections of Séamus McEnaney have been published before but the Monaghan manager, speaking earlier in that 2007 championship after narrowly losing an All-Ireland quarter-final, expressed an eternal truth.

“It looks like every time we come with a good team, Kerry’s in the road. We came in the 70s and Kerry was in our road. We came with a good team in the 80s and Kerry was in our road and we’ve come with a good team in the 2000s and Kerry’s in our road but the reality is that Kerry’s in everybody’s road.”

Which is exactly where Kerry still stands – in everybody’s road. For Dublin to break records, they first had to get past Kerry and even then, the gap on the All-Ireland roll of honour has hardly moved in 40 years. Dublin’s 1983 win made the overall tally 21 against their rivals’ 27.

The next four decades incorporate Dublin’s most successful spell in history and yet, after last month’s All-Ireland, the roll of honour is actually more pronounced, 38-31.

So, the trauma that beset Cork when this century’s supremacy carried Kilkenny to the top of hurling’s All-Ireland lists still looks comfortably distant for Kerry.

There is also the historical cachet of beating them in a final. Counties make no secret of the extra validation of defeating Kerry in an All-Ireland. They are the eternal gold standard.

Ulster teams broke through 32 years ago when Down won the first All-Ireland that hadn’t gone to Munster or Leinster since 1968. In the 33 years since, northern counties have won nearly a third of the All-Irelands, 10 – just two behind Leinster, buttressed by Dublin’s unprecedented success.

On the way to seven of those 10 Ulster All-Irelands, Kerry were obstacles in the road needing to be surmounted.

During that era’s prehistory in the 1980s, Kerry encountered stern resistance from Ulster teams, a marker of what would come. Both of the men who helped to redefine that relationship died in the past nine months.

Seán McCague, later GAA president, had absorbed the lessons of taking on Kerry. In 1979, Monaghan won Ulster for the first time in 41 years but reaped the whirlwind when taking on peak Kerry. Six years later it was different. McCague was again in charge and his team had evolved and won the NFL that spring.

Still apprehensive – my memories of that year’s Ulster final include hearing two agitated locals that evening discuss the upcoming All-Ireland semi-final, again against Kerry, one cautioning the other that his retail business would suffer if he couldn’t muster more optimism about the county’s prospects.

Monaghan came within a whisker of causing a huge upset even though they ended up needing to equalise, which Eamonn McEneaney did from a 46-metre free. They went down in the replay but Kerry knew they had been in a contest.

A year later, Tyrone led by seven in the 45th minute but ended up losing by eight. Art McRory, who died suddenly last week, had come close to engineering a sensation in a first All-Ireland final but had been hampered by the loss of his on-field consigliere Eugene McKenna for the last 15 minutes. It marked the county’s arrival as a football presence.

Nine years later, on a further tour of duty, he lost the final to Dublin by a point and would add the county’s first league title. Everything that was said about his role in Tyrone football was true but his acerbic wisdom and good humour were equally unmistakable.

For Art, Kerry was both a challenge but also a litmus test – one to be met and the other to be observed carefully. He will be terribly missed.

e: sean.moran@irishtimes.com