O’Donoghue provides the cutting edge as Kingdom return to winning ways

“I think it is a confidence thing, yeah,” says James O’Donoghue, and he might as well be talking for every footballer in the country. Not that scoring 5-15 in Kerry’s five league games so far is as simple as that.

But with the possible exception of Diarmuid Connolly there may not be a more confident player in the country right now. O’Donoghue’s 1-5 against Kildare last Sunday took him to the top of the scoring charts in Division One, alongside Derry’s Mark Lynch (who has scored 1-27).

Connolly would probably have been up there too had he been playing with Dublin this spring and not concentrating on St Vincent's winning another All-Ireland club title. But for now, O'Donoghue's five goals and 15 points have provided the most impressive demonstration of a forward on top of his game.

Biggest pressure
In elaborating on his scoring spree – and effectively picking up where the 2013 All Star left off last year – O'Donoghue points to a few motivations. Kerry's recent flurry of retirements, coupled with the season-ending injury to Colm "Gooch" Cooper, meant the 23- year-old from Killarney could no longer be relying on the so-called older heads for inspiration, nor indeed could any of his younger team-mates.

He also says the biggest pressure to score these days comes from himself – and he found it “embarrassing” that he missed two goal chances against Kildare on Sunday.

“If you get three goal chances in a game, come championship, you have to score those three goals. There is no question about that. You can’t miss two goals chances because if another team misses a goal chance, you get a bit of a lift. So it’s my responsibility to put them in the net.

“I missed two (against Kildare), and it was embarrassing. So I had to go and finally get one. If I didn’t I’d have been killed. But if you get the ball in the right position the goal is always on. If you are getting it miles out from goal then points are on. Simple as that.

"I think it is a confidence thing, yeah. And everyone was kind of thrown in last year, and maybe fellas weren't 100 per cent ready. We also had a few fellas to kind of come back last year, and drag us out of the fire. We don't have that this year, so fellas really are stepping up. And I think everyone is really fired up, after the fact we didn't do great in the league last year.

Horrible place
"It was a horrible place to be, after losing three games in a row. Last year was worse. We were after losing four, and losing badly. We were losing by five or six points, and that is a nightmare situation really. But, as I say, we had fellas to come back in. But hopefully we will do the job ourselves this time. If we win again on Sunday week we are back in the shake-up."

Indeed they are . Kerry’s penultimate game away to Westmeath on March 30th coming with the premise that another victory would steer them clear of relegation, and into the hunt for one of the semi-final berths. Either way it could all come down to their last game against old rivals Cork on April 6th.

“We’ll certainly be looking to win again in two weeks’ time, and maybe be looking at a semi-final, if we’re lucky. You never know but things are looking up. But Westmeath could turn us over and then we could have a relegation game against Cork, which would be a nightmare really.

“On those last days you never know what is going to happen. And if Cork have a chance to come down and relegate us they will probably be up for it, so we really need to get the job done in two weeks’ time.”

For now it seems certain the top-scorer in Division One this season will be either O’Donoghue or Lynch (Kildare’s Darroch Mulhall is third best with 1-20). If O’Donoghue keeps playing with the same confidence he will likely top the lot, and with that tie in nicely with his father, Diarmuid O’Donoghue, who was top scorer in the 1984 football league, when playing for Kerry, racking up a total of 4-14, from nine games.

The top footbal league scorer so far for 2014 outright, meanwhile, comes from Division Four with Tipperary’s Conor Sweeney, with his 3-29, followed by team -mate Barry Grogan with his 5-19.