Gavin White of Kerry poses for a portrait with the Sam Maguire cup at the 2023 GAA Football All-Ireland Series national launch in Howth, Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Pressure to succeed is a burden that Kerry footballers have little option but to learn how to bear.
Such is the tradition of Kingdom teams winning silverware that expectation is often the default mood setting in the county.
That was especially true this year after a long-awaited All-Ireland success in 2022.
The problem with expectation is that it can quickly turn to criticism if high standards aren’t met, and that’s what happened when Kerry lost four of their seven League matches this year and were then beaten by Mayo in the first game of the group phase of the All-Ireland SFC.
That loss to Mayo was a particularly sore one because it was Kerry’s first defeat in Killarney for 28 years.
Within the camp the players were aware of the public concern about the team’s form, but, according to Kerry defender Gavin White, they’re well versed now on insulating themselves from it.
“Everyone just kept trucking away,” he says. “We try to block out the outside noise as best we can. We know subconsciously there's going to be a red target on you from winning it last year, that's natural enough, every All-Ireland champion is going to have that.
“When you live down in Kerry there's always that small bit of pressure to perform as best as you can.
“We put that pressure as well on ourselves inside in the dressing-room. If something is not going right there's no bother inside in the dressing-room to call a man out and ask why weren't you doing this or why weren't you doing that.
“Winning it last year, I don't think it has changed a whole pile with us, we're just going away as normal, taking it game by game. It's probably a cliche in saying that, but we've seen it this year that if you're any way off for any game no matter who it is, you're going to be caught.
“And obviously we were caught at the start of the group stage and we're hoping that won't happen again.”
David Clifford of Kerry reacts after a second half missed goal chance during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 1 match between Kerry and Mayo at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, Kerry. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
The Kerry players didn’t need to be told their performance in that five-point defeat to Mayo in Killarney wasn’t good enough. There were plenty of hard questions asked of one another in the aftermath.
“Yeah, certainly there was,” says White. “There was a couple of disappointments to that game. Obviously we had an ambition to top the group and as it worked out we did, but at the time we lost that game that was less likely.
“And, also, Mayo gave us a good pasting up in Mayo during the League and coming down to Killarney and having not lost in Killarney in however many years there were all sorts of factors that came into play.
“Now, I'm not saying we focused on that in the preparations, but it was probably there subconsciously. Yeah, look, it didn't work out for us on the day and there were a few words spoken the Monday after the game and Tuesday it was just, right, lets get back at it, and that was it.
“And thankfully those small few tweaks have come through in the Cork game and against Louth it really seemed to click together again.”
We’ll find out exactly where Kerry are when they play Tyrone in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.
As they showed once again in the League this year, Tyrone have the ability to play a brand of football that Kerry consistently struggle to cope with.
Brian Kennedy of Tyrone in action against Tadhg Morley of Kerry during the 2023 Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Tyrone and Kerry at O'Neill's Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
So what’s the mood in the Kerry camp ahed of what will be a very stiff test? Do they feel like they’ve timed their run to form perfectly and are ready to confidently stride across a championship high-wire that now has no safety net.
“Certainly we are where we want to be,” says White. “It was looking like we'd have to play in a prelim quarter-final so the extra week off is a huge bonus for us.
“But, definitely, the performance we gave against Louth has definitely filled a lot of players with confidence and the team with confidence that we can go on again.
“That's not to say that the game against Louth was the perfect performance. There's still a lot of things we can tweak and that's the mentality that we need to have to push on again.
“Because if you're happy with what you've got you're going to be caught, especially the way the game is gone with everyone studying everyone. They're going to find ways around you so you just have to keep evolving your game.
“It's exciting. This whole championship is wide open. I don't think there's any team that's a front-runner at the moment.
“It's going to be an exciting couple of weeks but I'm hoping we can push on ourselves and maybe get to the heights that we got to last year.”
