By Cian O'Connell

“I think the standards have never been higher, to be honest about it," Kerry selector Diarmuid Murphy replies when asked to assess the current level of Gaelic Football goalkeeping.

Murphy has forged a hugely successful sporting career as a Kerry goalkeeper before becoming involved as a selector.

His passion for Kerry football endures, and so does the respect for goalkeepers throughout the country.

"I suppose you’ve really good footballers now playing inside in the goal as well," Murphy adds. Maybe back in my time, certainly, wouldn’t have been as good a footballer as Shane Ryan or these lads anyway in terms of skills, in kicking, contributing to play.

"They’re excellent players, and you look at the likes of Odhran Lynch last weekend, Niall Morgan, Rory Beggan over the last few years. They’re top, top players – but they’re really, really good footballers. Their skill levels are very high. And I think it’s exciting.

“Even things with some of the kickouts. I know the shorter kickout might bring its own set of challenges, but look at some of these lads kicking balls 70, 75 yards, as accurate as they are. The skill level in goalkeeping has gone through the roof compared to what it was in my time anyway.”

It can lead to pressurised situations delivering kickouts under real scrutiny, especially in the closing stages of matches.

“It’s higher risk, but it’s higher skill level as well," Murphy says. "You have to be a better kicker to execute those kicks now – and really and truly, unless you’re a really, really good kicker now, you’re not going to succeed at the top level, at inter-county level. But the levels that these lads are showing, week in, week out, is phenomenal, I think anyway.

“And even looking at Stephen Cluxton this year when he came back in there for Dublin, it was like he was never away. His kickouts have been excellent, and general play as well has been really good.

"So, if you’re a young goalkeeper coming up now, coming up through the ranks at minor level - I know that our minor goalie this year is from Dingle, and looking at him it’s very exciting, to be able to challenge yourself and to be able to contribute to the team that you’re playing on, as much as they are. It’s brilliant.”

Remaining cool is critical according to Murphy. "In general like the mental side of goalkeeping is huge anyway, like, because it's a highly pressurised situation because I know myself you can make four or five brilliant saves, it's the one that goes in under your legs is the one that they'll be asking you about at the end of the year," Murphy remarks.

"It's as much a mental game, I think as, as anything else and nerve is hugely important. Those scenarios you talk about there, that's the highest level under the fiercest pressure, and to be able to come through that.

"Not just our fella but in other games as well, you see other teams doing it. It requires a lot of nerve and a really strong positive mindset as well."

In the 2022 All-Ireland Semi-Final and decider, and in this year's clash against Derry in the penultimate round, Kerry found a way to finish with a flourish.

"Kerry had to dig it out last year, I think, really in the last few minutes of that game because the momentum was going against Kerry towards the end of it because Dublin had made a great comeback and I think it was level," Murphy recalls.

"Look each of these games take on a life of their own. There's different factors that play in the day. You'd be looking at bench impact from fellas coming in as well is huge now.

"So there's a lot of things that come into it, when games come down to the wire like that as most of the big games do now, especially now with the bit of injury time, there's usually about five minutes.

"So it's really a lot of the games you're looking at minute 62, 63 onwards, that's where a lot of the games are decided from there to the final whistle."

Murphy has been very close to the action for most of the Kerry versus Dublin encounters since retiring.

"I suppose it wasn't much of a rivalry up until last year because Dublin won all the games, so it was fairly one sided," Murphy says.

"We were lucky enough to get through it last year and it was a good win for us at the time and it was great to kick on to win the All-Ireland afterwards.

"But Dublin have certainly had the upper hand since we played in the quarter final in '09. Since then last year was the first time that Kerry beat Dublin since that game and there've been many games in between, so it's been fairly one way traffic really.

"Dublin still have a fantastic team and still have a lot of the players. I was actually just looking at the teams the other day of the 2019 All-Ireland final, and most of them are there and most of our fellas as well as it turns out.

So they had a fantastic team that time, it was a brilliant team and they're still there a lot of those players and still playing to a very high level. It'll be another chapter in the rivalry, of course, on Sunday, but it's going to be a tough one for us."