Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston…’very concerned’ about the Donegal challenge.
WITH the Kerry team to play the All-Ireland set to be announced later this evening, Traleetoday.ie caught up with two legends of the game, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston and Ger Power, who between them in their careers collected 15 senior Celtic crosses.
We spoke to the Kerry greats about Sunday’s game and the challenge facing Kerry.
“At the moment, I’m very concerned. I can understand why the bookies have Donegal slight favourites, they are a right good team and better than what a lot of people give them credit for,” said Liston.
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“The main question will be ‘do Kerry have the key to unlock the Donegal defence?’ They will have ten or 12 players back there, it’s going to be very difficult for us to play our normal game. The Donegal defensive system is going to be the biggest concern for Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his management team, I’m sure they will have different strategies in place so hopefully one or two of them will work” said the Ballybunion native.
“One part of the strategy will be to use Donaghy. Without a doubt, when you have an asset like that inside there, a fella with such natural ability in height – how could you not use it? But it won’t be the sole area where Kerry will look to find weakness in that Donegal rearguard,” said Liston.
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“There is a lot of thought gone into this and I expect they will come up with a good formula that will give them a decent chance of winning. Eamonn Fitzmaurice has sprung a few surprises with team selection in the past, but I think what way we set out to play will be more important than what 15 starts the final. We have the ability to beat them and I’m just hoping we can do it by a point or two,” he said.
Ger Power: frees could be vital at the end.
Austin Stacks legend, Ger Power, said everything Kerry do has to be quicker than before and they’ll need to work extremely hard if they are going to win it.
“I presume they will have the preparation done to counteract the Donegal blanket defence and I’m hoping the players will have the skill in their game to win it all over the field,” said Power.
“Midfield will have a massive say as well. Anthony Maher and David Moran played excellent in the games against Mayo, so hopefully they can keep that going,” said the eight time All-Ireland senior title winner.
“This year Kerry have varied their play, we have a lot of options now and I presume they will try and do the same on Sunday. Because of the way Donegal set-up, everything Kerry do has to be quicker, if you look how Dublin played in the first half in the semi-final they just attacked, but they forgot to look after the house at the back. I think if they had not leaked those goals we’d be playing them in the final,” said Power.
“Kerry will have to work extremely hard when they don’t have the ball – as Donegal do – and cover the backs to make sure they are not cut open the same way Dublin were,” said Power.
“It will probably come down to just a few points, so who’s taking the frees will be vital. Bryan Sheehan could have a big say in this final,” said Power.
