SIDELINE CUT: Even when not firing on all cylinders, the Kingdom have always been extremely hard to beat. And despite all the gloomy reports, they will not go quietly

ONE THING has become clear now that we approach the intriguing third act of the All-Ireland football championship: Kerry are blessed.

It is probably a fair guess that football people across the land are quietly enjoying the discomforts the Kerry squad have experienced in recent weeks. It is only human to feel some level of Schadenfreude when watching an exalted Kingdom side encountering the mortal difficulties – ie, finding it halfway hard to beat other teams – that are the normal state of championship existence for other counties.

In the moral order of things, Kerry are not supposed to go to Longford and find themselves soundly outplayed in the second half of a game. They are not supposed to go to Longford and get saved by the bell. In fact, they are not supposed to go to Longford at all.

Kerry’s traditional route to those 35 titles – straight from home to Croke Park – was such a rites of passage for generations of their footballers that their presence in the qualifying route seems to the rest of us as if an indignity has been forced upon them.

Once Kerry were eclipsed by Cork in the Munster championship, they left themselves exposed to the vagaries of the qualifying system. The sheer unpredictability of the system has always been its chief asset. So for three weeks running, in saloons across the land, punters waited for the showpiece in modern suspense that is the GAA’s “live draw” to see Kerrymen get their comeuppance. Visits to Clones or Navan or Derry would surely test their mettle.

The big problem with the qualifying system is it has rarely produced a definitive “shock”. All of the usual suspects have made it through one way or another. But a vulnerable Kerry team taking a road trip to play against flinty Division One opposition was what people wanted to see.

However, the fates decreed that they avoided the crunch matches. Away to Longford was regarded as a tilted draw – even if that victory was achieved at the inestimable cost of an injury to Kieran Donaghy. Sligo presented sterner opposition, but with home advantage for Kerry, the Yeats County faced a very tall order.

Suspicions that all is not right in the Kingdom deepened during that match. The problem for this Kerry team is they will always be judged against the periods when they were considered by many to be untouchable. From their stunning quarter-final coup against Armagh in 2006 – all the more remarkable given it was thought to represent a potential last stand for the team that morning – until the conclusion of the All-Ireland championship the following year, Kerry hit an admirable level of quality, consistency and strength that no other serious team could emulate, at least until Tyrone decided to take an interest in the sport again.

The legacy of appearing in five consecutive All-Ireland finals is an achievement no county will match. The problem is that such is the pursuit of flawlessness within the Kerry borders that the five-year run will inevitably be associated with two of the most galling September defeats in their long history, against the arrivistas from Lough Neagh country.

You add up the effort of those five finals – and the fun and sheer exhaustion that must have followed the victories of 2004, 2006 and 2007 and you have a group of footballers for whom appearing in the All-Ireland final has been the rule rather than the exception.

It is an expectation shared by the public at large and that is why their narrow escape against Sligo in Tralee last week was such a source of disquiet to the Kerry public and of amazement around the country at large.

Sligo had the chance to live one of those seismic championship coups, to achieve a win that would have easily stood along side their famous provincial triumphs of ’75 and ’07 and would arguably have beaten Fermanagh’s raid against Armagh five years ago for creating the sense that the sky had fallen out of the GAA world.

When it came to the close of that match though, Sligo weren’t simply playing against an out-of-sorts Kerry outfit. Despite the guidance of Kevin Walsh and the best psychological advice, the Sligo team, during the crucial last 10 minutes, were playing against the weight of all those past All-Irelands and of the formidable force of persuasion those green and gold hoops carry, reminding opposition players this is Kerry and Kerry win because that is how it always was and is and ever will be, amen.

Sligo pushed on and they asked questions and they created the chances to win that match, but it cannot be easy during those last minutes when everything turns sharper and tighter and seems magnified and you find yourself in a place you have never been before.

If Sligo had been in Markievicz Park – which would have been the case in a fairer world – maybe they could have pushed on. Maybe Kerry were vulnerable enough to have succumbed to a late push. But they survived and in the qualifying draw they were paired with an Antrim team that, for all its gallantry and bright, game players, has already been taken into bonus territory by manager Liam Bradley. And so by hook or by crook, Kerry look set to stumble into the quarter-finals, with the usual rumours filtering out about their state of disarray.

So are we looking at a Kerry melt-down? We know nothing that we did not before. Ever since Jack O’Connor re-imagined Donaghy as an old-fashioned marauding full forward – albeit one with a passing touch closer in spirit to the school of Allen “The Answer” Iverson than that of Aeroplane O’Shea – the Kingdom team have been heavily reliant on the big Tralee man.

He acts as a foil for Colm Cooper, gets the other forwards involved but can also be drafted outfield and he has a habit of stepping up to land important scores.

Kerry suffer dreadfully without the big man – which is why Darragh O’Se’s big-game know-how and temperament and the very reassurance of his presence has become so important to Kerry as they try desperately to tap into that hard, potent game of theirs, a game based on absolute confidence in their own ability and, by implication, a certainty other teams will ultimately buckle against the force of that confidence. For whatever reason, that shield of theirs has been dented this summer.

But somebody up there likes them. In the bingo-hall of fate that decides these things, they have avoided the teams and venues that could have sent them crashing out of this tournament. Reports of radical alterations to the team to play Antrim this weekend may or may not prove true. The demigods of the last 10 years may be sent to the shadows of the dug out. Or they may be told in no uncertain terms to show up. Either way, Kerry have what they need. The sense of urgency, the sense of cause and anger, is there for them to use. Pride has been stung and they will rally against Antrim.

When all is said and done, Kerry will be where they are supposed to be. It is then things get interesting. It is then the bingo drum might work its mischief. The truth is for all their days of brilliance, this Kerry team was never unbeatable. That was an illusion they presented without ever seeking to do so. But they have always been extremely hard to beat. And despite all the gloomy reports, they will not go quietly. Wait and see.