Football

What will it take to finally get the better of Dublin? Kerry unlikely to provide the answer in League decider

Dublin are unbeaten in their last five meetings with Kerry - though the Kingdom were the last county to beat Jim Gavin's side back in March 2015
Dublin are unbeaten in their last five meetings with Kerry - though the Kingdom were the last county to beat Jim Gavin's side back in March 2015 Dublin are unbeaten in their last five meetings with Kerry - though the Kingdom were the last county to beat Jim Gavin's side back in March 2015

Allianz Football League Division One final: Dublin v Kerry (tomorrow, 4pm, Croke Park, live on TG4)

WHAT will it take to finally beat this Dublin team? This is the question that was asked of Mickey Harte, Rory Gallagher, Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Malachy O’Rourke during a shaky spring when the Dubs hovered close to the cliff’s edge without feeling the final push to send them over.

Tyrone held Jim Gavin’s men scoreless for an hour and led by five points with 24 minutes left at Croke Park back in February. A week later Donegal were ahead by four early in the second half, yet they needed Michael Murphy’s last-gasp free to snatch a point.

Last Sunday Monaghan threatened an ambush at St Tiernach’s Park, Jack McCarron leading the Dubs a merry dance as the Farneymen found themselves six up 10 minutes after the break.

They didn’t even share the spoils by the close of play, Jack McCaffrey’s goal in added time getting the Sky Blues over the line.

The team that came closest to unloading the silver bullet was Kerry during a feisty battle full of off the ball incident in Tralee three weeks ago.

Two points up in injury-time and with the ball in hand, a packed Austin Stack Park expected. It was a lesson learned.

The Dubs slowed the matrix again before performing the greatest Houdini-esque escape of the lot, boarding the bus with their unbeaten record still intact against the last county to taste victory over the back-to-back All-Ireland champions more than two years ago.

It was only the League, but that draw will have taken the Kingdom players longer to get over than some defeats.

At Croke Park tomorrow, Fitzmaurice’s men get another crack in a Division One final that has got everybody talking as the dust that settled after Tralee has been kicked up again.

Former Dublin player Paul Curran claimed Kerry “should be ashamed of themselves” after the shenanigans of that initial encounter, and Gavin landed the first glancing blow once it became clear acquaintances would be renewed this weekend.

Breaking free from his usual post-match routine of talking plenty but saying little, the Dublin boss suggested his men would continue the fight against the evils of modern football tomorrow.

“I can't speak for Kerry - there was a lot of off the ball activity in that game,” he said in the tunnel at Clones last weekend.

“All I can speak for is how Dublin approach the game and we'll continue to play our traditional style of football, as you seen today, no matter who we play.”

Fitzmaurice fired back, pointing to Dublin’s “seriously hard edge”, but the concern for the Kerry boss must be that his men threw everything at the Dubs three weeks ago and still couldn’t get over the line.

The Kingdom pushed up aggressively on Stephen Cluxton’s kick-outs, Paul Murphy found plenty of grass to run into far too often for Gavin’s liking, and young Jack Brady more than held his own against Brian Fenton.

They managed to engineer space for Paul Geaney, their most dangerous forward, time and again as the Dingle man made hay against Philly McMahon.

It wasn’t enough to get the win.

There is no doubt, though, that the Dubs look decidedly more open without invisible wall Cian O’Sullivan in place.

The movement of McCarron and Conor McManus caused them problems last week, the Monaghan pair regularly straying out wide and leaving space for others to burst through the middle.

O’Sullivan came on late in the game, as a black card replacement for Diarmuid Connolly, and it will be a major surprise if he doesn’t start tomorrow.

But how far does a team need to be ahead of the Dubs before the last rites can be administered? Ten? Eleven?

When you can spring the likes of Connolly, McCaffrey, Michael Darragh Macauley, Paul Mannion, Cormac Costello, Con O’Callaghan and Bernard Brogan from the bench late on, only something truly special can finish them off.

It is difficult to see their unbeaten run coming to an end tomorrow, but Kerry eyes will remain on the big picture.

In last year’s League final between the pair, Dublin ran riot and had 11 points to spare when all was said and done. Yet when Championship came, it was the Kingdom who threatened to derail Gavin’s juggernaut when it really mattered.

Another victory for the Dubs tomorrow might add to their psychological edge, but it will count for little when the summer comes.

Allianz: For more information visit www.allianz.ie

PATHS TO THE FINAL

DUBLIN

Feb 5: Cavan 0-11 Dublin 0-18

Feb 11: Dublin 0-10 Tyrone 1-7

Feb 26: Donegal 2-5 Dublin 1-8

Mar 4: Dublin 1-16 Mayo 0-7

Mar 18: Kerry 0-13 Dublin 0-13

Mar 25: Dublin 2-29 Roscommon 0-14

Apr 2: Monaghan 1-15 Dublin 2-15

KERRY

Feb 5: Donegal 1-17 Kerry 2-17

Feb 11: Kerry 1-10 Mayo 0-15

Feb 26: Kerry 1-10 Monaghan 2-8

Mar 5: Roscommon 1-13 Kerry 1-19

Mar 18: Kerry 0-13 Dublin 0-13

Mar 26: Cavan 1-10 Kerry 0-13

Apr 2: Kerry 1-21 Tyrone 2-11