CANNY KERRY MANAGER Eamonn Fitzmaurice showed his players a re-run of the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin in order to raise their hackles for Saturday’s league rematch.
Experienced forward Donnchadh Walsh, a goalscorer in that epic Croke Park encounter early last September, revealed that the boss went through various clips from the game last weekend.
The Dublin based Cromane club man admitted it was probably a motivational tactic by the Kingdom manager ahead of their Allianz League showdown.
“Eamonn showed us that on Sunday and I am sure that is just what he wanted us to do, to remember the bit of hurt,” said Walsh. “It is good to remember that sort of thing going into a game, to bring a bit of hurt. But he also re-emphasised the unforced errors that we made that day.”
Walsh, a 29-year old physiotherapy student, is adamant that Kerry left victory behind them almost five months ago at Croke Park, allowing Dublin to progress instead to face Mayo in the final.
He pointed specifically to the damage inflicted by Kevin McManamon, Dublin’s goalscorer in the closing minutes, after a ball at midfield was just about tipped on by Michael Darragh Macauley to set up the major.
“If we had claimed that kick-out, you could imagine that the game could have gone another way,” continued Walsh. “But in saying that, the Dubs ran out convincing winners as well. You wonder could they have put the pedal down later on if they needed to.
“We are still hurting a small bit but we have a chance to put it right on Saturday night.”
Walsh admitted it’s a help to Kerry players still coming to terms with the Championship defeat that they are playing Dublin first up in the league.
“It probably does help, yeah,” he said. “We know that they have set the benchmark so the work that we have done since playing them last, until now, it will be a good indicator as to whether we had a good pre-season or whether we have more work to do.”