Kieran Donaghy joined Ger Gilroy and Eoin Sheahan on Monday's OTB AM to give his revised analysis on where it went wrong for Kerry in their Munster semi final defeat to Cork yesterday.
After impressive displays against Monaghan and Donegal in the Allianz League, an unrecognisable Kerry looked sluggish against their Munster rivals, even accounting for the desperate weather conditions.
Four time All-Ireland winner Kieran Donaghy says the tactics employed by Peter Keane's side didn't change much over the course of the last few weeks, but that the personnel picked to implement the tactics was just too defensive.
"I look at the shape. Was it so much different to what we did versus Monaghan and Donegal? I don't think so. It was a solid enough 12 or 13 behind the ball trying to leave David Clifford or Tony Brosnan close to goal, trying to push people down the sidelines, like most people are playing really.
"I don't think it's necessarily a huge change of style. Kerry are following their men, and that's the way the game is played. Half backs and fullbacks are expected to bomb forward. I think when you look at the shape versus Donegal and Monaghan, I don't think it was overly different yesterday.
"I think where Kerry management got it wrong was the personnel, possibly showing them too much respect. And that's beat into us because we're going against Cork for 100 years, and it's not easy.
"The personnel change of Brian Ó Beaglaoich for Stephen O'Brien was a backstep, Ronan Buckley starting was a backstep in my eyes because he's seen as a third midfielder or workhorse. And that's fine for teams that don't have quality forwards, but we have quality forwards.
"Kerry's subs yesterday were negative. Maybe they were forced by the situation with the black cards on management. The only positive sub we made was Kilian Spillane, everything else was defensive," Donaghy said.
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Donaghy also added that the defensive personnel eventually led to the team staying in their shell, something that eventually came back to cost them as they wasted a number of gilt-edged chances to see out the game.
"There wasn't a spark there, there wasn't too much fight there with Kerry yesterday, there was no edge. Our defensive mindset kind of looked like it infected Kerry yesterday. We were so concentrated on getting back that we couldn't get forward.
"We had too many fellas that aren't natural forwards on the pitch. If your natural tendency is to go back, well then that's what you do. You drift back and you drift back. When you get the ball you're cautious, whereas if that's a half forward and you get the ball you just break out. You saw Mayo yesterday when they got turnovers, three and four fellas bombing out and hitting the angles wide. Kerry just didn't seem to have that energy yesterday."
Keep up to date with everything that Kieran Donaghy has to say throughout the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship on OTB Sports.com.
