Ancient rivals meet again in latest battle of the GOATs

At an elite sports level, emotional motivational approaches are said to be of limited use. In their place, from golfers to rugby players, there is instead 'process'.

Repeatedly we hear of either ‘sticking to’ or ‘trusting in’ the process. It's cliché surely but inevitably, Gaelic football followed suit. The blood and thunder of old was being replaced by the methodical process and systems of the new age.

Study the mechanics of the door rather than take it from the hinges! The new rules though have, to an extent, removed some of those notions. You either get out and play and go hard after it or you get caught.

So, while genuinely fascinated this weekend about how Dublin attempt to crack the Kerry kickout or how much Kerry try to disrupt Dublin’s likely keep-ball approach, the motivational mindset being fostered within the camps is well worth consideration. The famous ‘why?’

When Dublin kicked off their golden era, we nor they probably saw the extent of it coming.

Back in the early years of the last decade, doing what they ended up doing, was unthinkable. In doing it they moved the goalposts of what is deemed great achievements of a great team.

They also dethroned none other than the Kerry golden years team from the 'Greatest Of All Time' pedestal. Kerry people carry themselves with a lightness and likeability that continues to cast a spell on us all.

The lilt of their brogue, the quickness to compliment others and their graciousness when those occasional defeats do occur are a brilliant veil to what lies beneath.

Kerry players have a burning pride in their jersey and history. While outwardly they will congratulate their victors, inside the county they tear themselves apart when they don't land Sam.

The fact that their golden years team lost their mantle, might have felt to the rest of the country as ‘just one of those things’, I have no doubt in Kerry it hit them and hit them hard.

Jack O’Connor has made a lot of Kerry’s record against the Dubs. Even painting their one victory in the past decade as lucky – being as it was down to a Sean O’Shea wonder kick.

In saying so, it gives a glimpse that one occasional victory is not what Kerry are after, they are after a more emphatic restoring of status. David Clifford gave an indication of this mindset too when he spoke last year of this group of Kerry players needing to get going as, sitting with one or two All-Irelands at that stage, wasn’t good enough.

His employment of a personal trainer over and above the set-up within the Kerry team, is the palpable action of a mindset that was not settling for where he or they were. Dublin today represents a chance to emphatically show there is a changing of the guard at foot and announce the return of the kings.

And Dublin? Well while Ger Brennan has been busy paying the Kingdom the nicest of compliments, I’m 100% sure he has been stoking the fire in his troops. There is certainly ample fuel around. For the majority of this season the obituary was written on this Dublin set-up.

Brennan has been clever in some of the experience he has built around him, not least the inimitable Niall Moyna, but, for a young manager in charge of his own county, those were as tough an initial six months in the job as you could get.

It’s a very fine line, but when a team and their new manager comes through adversity and emerges intact, it forges a bond that little else comes close too.

Between the losses, the comments on the quality of the new players, the questioning of the hunger of the old guard and Brennan’s own harsh suspension, there is easily enough to fire a title charge. But those types of things are common gardener type motivations. Let’s not forget who we are dealing with here.

Several of these players and their management team are from the greatest group to ever play the game, who set standards thought unachievable before them. These are not common gardener type players.

To have had the careers these players have had, to have travelled such a road together and now face a team against whom they are been given little chance.

I can only imagine the relish those players are greeting the opportunity Sunday represents. The pressure, as Brennan rightly said, is on Kerry, but the opportunity to stun us all and copper fasten legacies that don’t need copper fastened, that rests with Dublin.

For all my want to give Dublin a chance, though, I just can’t see anything else than this Kerry team taking another step on its coronation.

Yes, I’m being ‘certain’ in a year where there are no certainties left. And, yes, that is exactly what Brennan and Dublin want the narrative.

The problem is, I don’t think Kerry mind that. I think this Kerry team know exactly what it wants and know they have the arsenal to get it. Dublin will be no powerless victim. There is steel and craft there and to their eternal credit, their warriors have risen from the dead to remind us all about their remarkable qualities.

They were generational. The problem is, from what we have seen, the next ‘greatest’ generation could well have arrived.

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