Fitzmaurice: Kerry won't be baited into kick-out press

Former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice believes that the Kingdom should forget about an aggressive press on the Galway kick-outs in Sunday's All-Ireland final, instead opting to try and close down a few key gaps and battling for possession in the middle of the pitch.

Pádraic Joyce’s side have not been afraid to go long in the All-Ireland series, winning nine from 12 against Armagh and five of nine against Derry in the semi-final. In that last-four triumph, they opted for a long kick 60% of the time.

Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, Fitzmaurice said that Galway goalkeeper Conor Gleeson will be happy to punt long, and won’t be too phased if there is a flood of green of gold jerseys in close proximity to his goal.

"As always, the kick-outs are going be huge," he said.

"I think Kerry’s approach to Conor Gleeson, I’m going to be interested in it early on because basically Conor Gleeson is most comfortable going long.

"He has a big boot, Galway plan for it. They have one that they kick out to [Paul] Conroy and they get a bit of an overload, [Matthew] Tierney helps them out, they get the bodies around the breaks.

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"Even though they’re at just over 50%, they’re happy to do that and if they lose it, lose it long.

"They’ve another one that they like to go straight down the middle to Damien Comer, high or sometimes a low scud thing.

"They do go with the short ones but it’s only if it’s really obvious, they’ll chip out the short one.

"Another one they have is they come in for the bunch and rather than