Mediaboss Marketing

Diarmuid Murphy knows well how unforgiving a Kerry inquest can be. The blinds are pulled and youre not stepping far outside the door. Just as well its level five.

Speaking on the Irish Examiner GAA podcast, the former Kingdom keeper and selector tried to process what went wrong in Pirc U Chaoimh on Sunday. It sounded simplistic to say Cork wanted it more, but it was as good a starting point as any.

Its the truth, quite simply. If you look at the way the game panned out from start to finish. Even in the first five minutes, Cork set the tone. They were very very aggressive, and rightly so. And to be honest I dont think our fellas were really mentally prepared for that.

To me, it looked like Cork played the game like a knockout championship game, like it was do or die. And I thought Kerry played the game as if there was a backdoor. Cork just wanted it more. You could see it in the 50/50s throughout the game.

I don't think Kerry took it for granted, and I can guarantee that the management would have been warning them about what was coming down the tracks, especially given the conditions.

But you wonder with players sometimes does it get into their head a little bit, that maybe today isnt going to be as hard as Peter (Keane) and the boys are telling us.

Mentally you sometimes wonder are players as well prepared as they can be. And this isnt a management thing. Its purely down to the players themselves. Are they ready for battle today? And you can see it in some of the decision making. Kerry turned over some very poor ball, shot selection was dreadful. In possession, it was probably the worst display Ive seen from Kerry in a long long time.

Murphy was surprised by the late switch that saw Brian Beaglaoich come in for Stephen OBrien and felt Kerry set up extremely cautiously.

The team selection was conservative at best, very cautious. Youre getting bodies behind the ball, but usually you see the forwards engage the defence much higher up the pitch coming out.

Kerry were sinking deeper and deeper, too far back. So even when they did turn over the ball they had the whole length of the field to go.

You just wonder in the backs of the minds of the management, was this a system for down the road. Is this something were going to bed in now, get over these next couple of games, and use it for Croke Park. Only they could say.

As unforgiving as the fallout inevitably will be, he accepts there are mitigating factors for Keane and his selectors.

It has been an extraordinary year. But you hope that the management and players will learn from it. Definitely, he has next year to fix it. He will be under pressure next year. You look at last year and the balance was too much towards attacking, this year it was skewed too much the other way.

There is a balance there to try and find the right mix.

Subscribe to get the latest GAA Championship podcast every week

Apple Podcasts Spotify Soundcloud

In association with Renault Ireland

Excerpt from:
Gaelic Football Podcast: 'Cork played a knockout game. Kerry played like there was a backdoor' - Irish Examiner