DEPTH…Kerry seem a bit short on numbers

AS we head into the two-week break, most teams have serious question marks hanging over them and it’s how they will go about answering those questions when they return that will determine how long or short their season is set to be.

The Dubs are always going to be there or thereabouts but the likes of Donegal, Tyrone and Monaahan, to a lesser extent, have raised a few eyebrows in the opening weekends and all eyes will be on the likes of those teams to see if they can maintain and build upon that form which would make them serious contenders.

Those teams and a few others head off into the break in high spirits but there are a few teams with a serious amount of soul-searching to do over these next few weeks.

Armagh are one of those teams and I think all Orchard county supporters will genuinely fear for what the future holds for their beloved county in the years to come.

To an outsider like me, they just don’t seem to be gelling together as well as Kieran McGeeney would have hoped. I spoke here a few weeks back about how I felt this current crop of Armagh players lacked that serious commitment and edge needed to complete in Ulster at present.

When you see the likes of Jamie Clarke opting out of the set up this tells me they just might not be that serious about the whole thing, in top counties players like that are not allowed to walk away that easily.

We know that players have other interest outside of the GAA and we are led to believe that perhaps Jamie has other itches he would like to scratch, but if all was right and the ship was heading in the right direction it may have been harder for Jamie to walk away.

I was at the Ireland v Wales rugby match at the weekend and I happened to be sitting beside two young Armagh lads who had travelled to the Laois game the night before. When I asked what they felt about the situation at present they informed me that people in Armagh are of the opinion that all links to the 2002 should be cut.

It’s a tough one and we kind of experienced the same in this county with the 1992 squad. New players and young players in particular need to create their own identity, what worked for a team in the past won’t work for a team today and perhaps that link to the first team to bring Sam home attaches a little bit of extra pressure which ultimately tips the scale.

I feel for Kieran because first and foremost he is a fantastic GAA man and his county means so much to him, given all that he has done for Armagh as a player he owes no one anything and if I’m honest he’s the type of lad that is so driven in what he is doing that it won’t flinch him in the slightest that his team are receiving a bit of criticism at the minute. The big thing on his mind will be how to go about turning it around and he will leave no stone unturned in doing so.

Kerry are another team I have serious reservations about. They won the All Ireland in 2014 and they reached the final last year but if you study their panel and extended panel closely then I think you can see major flaws. In 2014 they won the All-Ireland with what was probably their weakest ever team to do so, and last year they never really hit the heights when it could have been said that they were a force to be reckoned with.

We know form hearing about how Kerry teams prepare that they have never been really bothered nor, indeed, do they put any real effort into the League and they do have players to come back into the mix, but for me they don’t have that quality and strength in depth that they used to have.

They have struggled in the League over the past few season narrowly avoiding relegation on a few of those occasions but they seemed to be able to pull it out of the fire at the depth by bringing back some of their big guns.

Come the dry days and the harder ground, we will see the likes of the ‘Gooch’, Bryan Sheehan and Kieran Donaghy being reintroduced but will it be enough? For me I don’t think so but time will tell.

The way the results have gone this year it’s going to be a real dogfight once the action resumes. Teams you would have expected to have picked up points at this stage are propping up the table as opposed to looking down on the others, so it all makes for an exciting few weeks ahead.
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