Kingdom reaping the rewards of new defensive blueprint

Kerry lost the 2021 All-Ireland semi-final to Tyrone by only one point. So close but not enough for a county that has taken home Sam Maguire 37 times.

On his return to the Kerry manager's hot seat, Jack O’Connor would have made some key observations from that loss.

Kerry gave possession away to Tyrone 35 times in that game. That’s 35 attacks that they lost the ball, the majority of those turnovers in their forward line. Tyrone scored 3-14 in total and 2-09 came directly from those turnovers. Nearly 60% of the Kerry possessions in the game led to them giving the ball back to Tyrone.

While retaining possession may have been poor, Kerry were as efficient as normal when kicking for scores. They had a shooting efficiency of 65%. Compare that to Dublin’s shooting efficiency of only 33% in the second half of their All-Ireland semi-final loss against Mayo.

It wasn’t all negative: Jack would also have observed that in every game Kerry have plenty of primary possession. Their high fielding for kick-outs and ability to win breaking ball is consistently strong. When needed they can press the opposition short kick-outs, man on man or with two banks of four in the forwards to starve the opposition goalkeeper of space to kick into.

The biggest observation he would have made was that Kerry had simply conceded too many goals in allowing Tyrone three.

League 2018: 10 goals conceded League 2019: 8 goals conceded League 2020: 6 goals conceded League 2021: 5 goals conceded (only played 3 games)

Jack O’Connor was proactive with his management appointments. The vastly experienced Diarmuid Murphy rejoined as a selector, Mike Quirke came on board, bringing with him his experience from his Kerry playing days, his basketball career and his time as Laois