Vinnie Murphy isn’t quite sure what to make of the soundbites drifting out of Kerry ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland football semi-final with Dublin, the ones that damn with faint praise.
There’s the mention of Dublin’s athleticism, the talk of their physique, and of how – as Bryan Sheehan put it – the Dubs “stole” Sam Maguire from their grip in 2011, a defeat that was the catalyst for Dublin supremacy in the duels since.
No mention of footballing skill. That’s the one that really gets Murphy. “I happen to think Bernard Brogan is the best forward to ever play for Dublin. In terms of skill and ability, we haven’t seen a better all-round player than Diarmuid Connolly. He can do things with a football that only two or three players of the last 40 years have done, stuff that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. You’ve four-times All Star Paul Flynn. Kevin McManamon, who’ll go down in folklore for the goals he’s scored.”
He’s made his point, this Dublin team has skill to go with everything else; and Murphy – the outsider who spent time in the Kingdom’s inner sanctum, a Dub who got to know the Kerry psyche in his time with Tralee club Kerins O’Rahilly’s in the late-90s – actually believes that Dublin players have evolved to the point where wearing the blue jersey is no longer a weight on their shoulders.
Rite of passage
“In my spell in Kerry, I learnt that every Kerry footballer has aspirations of not just playing with Kerry but winning an All-Ireland. In Dublin, it was seen as a great achievement. The difference between Dublin and Kerry up to this present Dublin team and the team of the ’70s is that the Kerry jersey frees up Kerry players once they get it on, it is almost a rite of passage, to grow up in the Kerry jersey. The Dublin jersey weighed heavily on certain players over the years. That’s changed.
“These Dublin players have all the armoury, all the skills, the mental strengths. In Kerry, that comes with tradition. Every club would have a former player that has won All-Irelands and that’s what you’re judged on. In Dublin, you’d wear a Dublin jersey and you’d get respect. In Kerry, you only got that mark of respect when you won an All-Ireland and there is this thing that you don’t do one medal in Kerry.”
Ironically, too, Murphy – whose intercounty career spanned from 1988 to 2001 – has a sense of what Kerry’s players must be feeling in attempting to turn the tables on Dublin. He’s been in those boots.
In his own playing days, Meath – rather than Kerry – were the nemesis. “I remember when Meath had the upper hand on us when I came on the scene. They’d beaten us in ’86, ’87, ’88. There was this question, ‘were we ever going to beat Meath?’ Then, all of a sudden in ’89, we got a flyer and beat them. Then, they came back in ’90 and ’91.
“Now, Kerry have lost to Dublin three times on the spin and Kerry people are wondering what’s happened. I think for Kerry this is a mental thing, and one thing Kerry don’t do is mental weakness. With their tradition, any Kerry player will feel once he’s good enough to wear the jersey he’s good enough to win an All-Ireland.”
Against the head
The facts of the matter are that Dublin have had the edge over Kerry in the most recent exchanges. “Dublin got one against the head in 2011. In 2013, it could have gone either way and Dublin came out the right side. Last year showed there was probably a bit of a gulf between the two teams in terms of athleticism. This Sunday will tell a bit more if there is a difference.”
He added: “I feel Kerry have to play defensive. I don’t see them going 15 on 15, because of Dublin’s natural pace. But playing defensive won’t suit Kerry. It’s not in their psyche, it goes against the grain. Last year was proof of that. It’s not the way they’re brought up, where players get a ball at underage level and they keep the head up passing the ball rather than get stuck in to win breaking ball and drive through tackles.
“I feel Sunday will either go one of two ways. Dublin will either beat them comfortably, or Kerry go for the jugular. As they say down there, ‘hammer the hammer’.
“I’d expect them to play target men inside and have James O’Donoghue and Darren O’Sullivan at centre-forward and play everyone back and launch balls in to get Dublin on the counter-attack. If Kerry keep it tight, be brave and bold as they can be, playing with one sweeper, they can put it up to Dublin. But I still think it’s Dublin’s to win.”
