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After only four minutes last Sunday, the strongest voice of Croke Park belonged to Liam Hbadett. No matter where you were in the morgue / stadium, you could hear the Kerry Maor barking the sideline, already visibly upset by the lack of urgency of the players on the ground. As Galway attacked in the middle, without any pace or vim, Hbadett's foghorn sounded
"Pressure out, guys!"
"Contact, Jack, contact!"
"James! James! All the way, all the way!"
The temptation, of course, is to retrofit an early sense of their day being condemned from the start. Another day, if Kerry had been Kerry and found her way through the fog to shape a result, it would hardly be worth pointing out. But Kerry's sideline seemed to unfold before everyone else that their players were not there, such was the lethargy of their display.
The contrast with the Munster finale against Cork could not have been more striking. Kerry did not really start this match on the board – Cork scored two goals in the first nine minutes after all. But the visual contrast between this evening in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the Galway game tells a story all by itself.
Nobody needed to exhort the pressure outside of this night. Jack Barry does not need to be reminded of the need for contact, James O 'Donoghue did not have to be told to follow his man all the way back. Kerry players took tackles, annexing the space between Cork players all over the field
More importantly, they played on their own terms, dictating what would be needed to thrive in the game. Even after four minutes at Croke Park, it was obvious that this would not be the case against Galway. Kerry's sideline could see it, everyone could see it.
"The quick decision-making we saw at Páirc Uí Chaoimh was just not there," says Seán O. Sullivan, four-time champion of Ireland. "Even small things like fast, fast balls, speed in the tackle, hands in and around the Galway players, doubling over the guys, none of that was there against Galway."
"We have not seen anything like it. Stephen O'Brien's race was so important at the start of the game against Cork, but I think he may have attacked Galway only once. Gavin White, how many times did he go forward? Paul Murphy the same. With Tadhg Morley, where was Peter Crowley to do this tough, positive working defense? He was back playing broomstick while he should have been in the front to take the match to Galway. The sweeper did not work for Kerry – he never does it.
"We knew we had no tests off Clare and no tests off Cork.But again, as bad as they were, we imposed our game on them. all the opportunities we have had, and there was none of it on the last day. "
Ribbon of Light
Does this matter? Only in the sense that he provides to Éamonn Fitzmaurice his only light in a dark week. If Kerry had been outclbaded by Galway because they were not good enough to live with Kevin Walsh's men, they would have serious problems. In fact, Fitzmaurice must know that if his players can rediscover the snap and crackle that they brought to the Munster finale, the trip to Clones tomorrow should not be so discouraging.
The level of invective towards Fitzmaurice and his management team this week in Kerry has been such that no one can have the slightest doubt that it's been a while. This is not the first time that a Kerry team looks lethargic and uninspired under his watch. Sunday goes on the list that already contains the semifinal semifinal of the year against Mayo and the match he looked like the most, the All-Ireland 2015 final against Dublin.
On three occasions, Kerry returned on the road barely disturbed to ride it. After the 2015 final, we scratched our heads and found our fingers over the years to know when there was a game at Croke Park the last time they did not show up. The best of everyone could do, the 2010 quarter-final against Down. Prior to that, it was Meath in 2001. From two in 15 years to three out of four.
O & # 39; Sullivan was suspicious even before the balloon was thrown. A personal trainer himself, with the strength and conditioning of a particular area of interest, he watched Kerry warm up closely and was far from being impressed.
"I admit that it's very easy to say after a defeat, but they warmed up in front of the Hill and I found them very slow from where I was sitting . They were playing a game of possession and watching, you can consider the conditions, but really they looked very slow and heavy on their feet. Whatever the conditions at Croke Park, you can not have that. You must be jumping off the ground. If this epidemic continues on Sunday, they are gone. "
Shield weakens
This is at the heart of Fitzmaurice's problems, no one doubts his dedication to Kerry, nor his diligence or determination to bring them back to their place, but every year who pbades, the distance of the 2014 All-Ireland victory weakens the shield that he has provided.Kerry's football culture makes everyone an expert and puts everyone at stake. "Losing epics in Dublin as in 2013 and 2016 is not great but it is judged more or less acceptable.This last Sunday, this is not the case
"It was very hot and heavy for him this week," says O. Sullivan. "The main points of questioning that have been cast on the direction as a whole – Éamonn is undergoing the weight because he is the manager obviously – but in general the main one is why did we pay so much respect to Galway by installing a sweeper? ? So when the game was leaving us, why did not we start Donaghy?
"And then the last one, that I do not buy in myself but that's the subtext of a lot of what I've been hearing all week – we're talking about There is a lack of urgency on the ground, but there may be a lack of urgency on the sidelines.Now, I would say that the behavior of Éamonn is the same as that of It has never been, and if it was not a problem before, you can hardly say that it is a problem now. That said, I would have thought that They would make more changes at half-time or shortly after Sunday and they did not do it. "
Whatever the strength of these arguments – and O & # 39; Sullivan has Certainly right to dismiss the subsidiary question – the very fact that it's coming up tells you something about where Fitzmaurice lies among Kerry's public all the while. When they are looking for the energy that it shows, it is obviously a symptom of something much bigger. You do not hear a lot of Dubs criticizing Jim Gavin's lack of emotion during games, after all.
The dam about to burst
In truth, there is an undeniable sense of dam on the manager Kerry. The general low level irritation to his underutilization of minor talent in both seasons followed All-Ireland 2014 curdled – rightly or not – in a mistrust of his tactics. The two times Kerry used a full-time sweeper, there was no disaster or fishing. They have chopped and changed the goalkeepers between seasons and within them, which means that they seem to constantly be back to the drawing board.
Especially, the worst days, they did not dictate the terms. Fitzmaurice can say with great justification that it is not that simple: the other crowd is training three nights a week since before Christmas. But Kerry's job is what it is. When you are given a full line of Paul Geaney, James O 'Donoghue and David Clifford, no one wants to hear how difficult it is to integrate them into a functional system in the modern game.
The result is that the consequences of a defeat in Clones tomorrow hardly need to be explained. The appalling vision of a match against Kildare in Killarney on the holiday weekend is not far from the minds of everyone. O & # 39; Sullivan admits that it would be a rotten path for the summer, but he does not yield at all to his support of Fitzmaurice.
"I played with Éamonn. He understands Kerry better than anyone. It's what you see on the sideline. He takes the good with the bad; he is the same man regardless of the situation. He does not get up too much or too low. But he does not hesitate to tell truths at home – part time, full time or during the week.
"There were definitely guys waiting this week in the long grbad, ready to cut in. It's absolutely true.There was an air of discontent for a moment. there were a few raised eyebrows when he decided to stay for a term of three years.
"But I sincerely think – and I wrote at the time in the Kerryman ] and I stand ready – I sincerely believe that he is the best man to lead Kerry forward. And it's no matter what happens this Sunday. I saw him first hand with these young players because I work with development teams – he is the best guy to lead this group. I have no doubt about it.
"The reactions of these players are consistently positive about him, he has an excellent relationship with them, they follow him all the time and they learn all the time from him and the rest of the direction." Éamonn will know when he is time to go there, trust me ….. he felt that he should have left, he would have done it.There is no self-gratification He does not do it for himself, he does it for Kerry. "
For how long, the results will certainly dictate.
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