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Gavin O’Connor looks forward to the Kerry v Dublin Allianz National Football League clash this evening…
Action from the All-Ireland final in September. Photo by Dermot Crean
LAST year’s league win over Dublin as All-Ireland champions may have given the impression Kerry had turned the tide on a poor record against the Dubs.
70 odd minutes in September reinforced the often prescribed notion, “it’s only the league, you can’t read anything into it”, which again makes this game hard to read.
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Kerry are without a host of regulars and Dublin have shuffled the pack so often in the lead up to this game it’s hard to know what side the champions will put out.
You won’t find many people backing Kerry in this match. But as we’ve seen so often in the past, an All-Ireland win can soften a side. Dublin may think they’re pushing as hard as last year only to find that fire in the belly has gone from a 12th of July bonfire to a strike of a match.
There’s loads of incentive for Kerry, as new captain Bryan Sheehan has said in the lead up, beating Dublin is the ideal way to “right the wrong” of the All-Ireland.
But, as we all know, revenge is a dish best served in September not in February.
Kerry have named just eight players who started that ill-fated final. Tommy Walsh, has got arguably his best opportunity yet to prove himself.
Experiments in midfield just haven’t worked out, now he’s back in his most natural position of full-forward.
The Dublin full-back line is without two All-Stars, Philly McMahon, is serving a one match suspension – for you know what – and Rory O’Carroll left the panel for work in New Zealand. Tommy Walsh could do some harm to that depleted Dublin line.
With these games, there is a sense both sides are keeping their cards close to their chest. The result is important of course, but maybe the teams had a tendency to not show their full hand.
The last two times Kerry played Dublin in Croke Park have finished with a win a piece. In 2012, Kerry won by seven points against the then champions and in 2014, Dublin once again as champions saw out the match with a familiar late sting in the tail to edge it by a point.
I’m going to buck the trend and say Kerry can get something out of this, it could be cagey like last year’s final, but above all it’s the first match of the league so God knows what will happen.
Result – A Draw
