IT WAS almost a swift transition for Diarmuid Murphy, from being a player into a member of the Kerry management team.
After taking a sabbatical in 2010 following his retirement in '09, Murphy replaced Éamon Fitzmaurice as a selector under Jack O’Connor in 2011, with the four-time All-Ireland winning goalkeeper the longest serving member of the senior management team at present.
As a former 'keeper, attention to detail with kick-out strategy would be something that would be of particular interest to Murphy. Stephen Cluxton’s choices from the elevated kicking tee will be something that he, no doubt, will be focusing strongly on ahead of Kerry’s seventh Championship meeting this century with their age-old rivals.
“I thought Mayo hedged their bets a bit with how they set up for Cluxton’s kick-outs in the replay and it certainly didn’t seem to work for them come the final whistle," the Kerry selector said.
"In general, I thought Dublin were a lot more relentless with their gameplan in the replay as opposed to the first match. They certainly got the desired effect from it."
While he acknowledges Dublin will probably get the same value out of their two encounters with Mayo as Kerry did last year, Murphy feels the Kingdom can be quite happy with the examinations they have received thus far in their own campaign.
“I would say Cork, in particular, played like a team with a point to prove when we met them this year. The replay was certainly a day for putting our heads down and not thinking too much beyond just winning the game,” the Dingle native said.
Murphy believes that, if the Kerry players have learnt one thing from this campaign, it's that it's all about giving everything they have, no matter how long or short they are on the pitch.
“I think, no matter the circumstances now, the players know they have to perform when they are on the pitch, whether that be as a starter or a sub," he added.
"The good thing about the impact our subs made in the victory over Kildare is that it kept a lot of our regular starters on their toes in terms of reminding them that their places on the starting team were not secure."
The Tyrone game was one where Murphy felt the county showed it had turned a corner in terms of how it could now cope with defensive set-ups.
“I felt Tyrone were more defensive this year than they were other times during the past and relied a lot on counter-attacks," he said.
"We made a big call, obviously, in taking Kieran [Donaghy] off at half-time, but it was because of a combination of the conditions and Tyrone’s tactics that we felt he wasn’t making an impact and we decided to bring Paul Geaney in on that basis.
"Tyrone put a savage amount of effort and energy in trying to win that game it must be said, but the thing I suppose we had on them was the better pick of players on the bench we had to bring on when the game got down to the closing stages,” the three-time Allstar added.
One occurrence in that particular match which Kerry dealt with pretty effectively was the first half black card to Marc Ó Sé. On the subject of having great depth from which to choose from in their ranks, Murphy feels teams such as Kerry and Dublin can cope with being awarded one of these contentious cards.
“Dublin have received them as well this year and still came through like we did when Marc got his against Tyrone. That definitely is down to having a strong panel and players who can be ready at any instant to come into a game for whatever reason,” he said.
Indeed, this is an encounter where you feel the players that both sides will finish with as opposed to start with could be the deciding factor.
