How Kerry 'evolved' after false dawn of five-goal splurge against Derry
Having had their opening League game against Donegal postponed due to Storm Eowyn, Kerry opened away to Derry in round two, winning a rip-roaring encounter by 5-15 to 1-24.
A feature of Kerry's League campaign was that they weren't prolific in terms of two-pointers, though there was a notable change in that respect once they hit Croke Park in the summer, particularly in the All-Ireland final win over Donegal, in which they nailed five of them.
Mac Gearailt said: 'I think we were still playing that traditional looking for goals first during the League. Did we get five goals against Derry in the National League, and I think we saw that as this is the way to go after it because teams are going to push out on the arc and they're going to leave space in behind.
'It evolved. It depends on the opposition. Donegal don't push out, they sit back. We obviously got five two-pointers. Against a different team, you wouldn't get as many opportunities. Armagh were similar. They sat back a little bit inside the arc, protected the goal. It's about analysing the opposition and then using the rules to suit what will get you over the line, I suppose, at the end of the day.
'We knew that they'd be very concentrated down David Clifford's side. So, obviously, we had to exploit it on the other side to get them to shift over. I thought Gavin White gave an exhibition bursting through from the seven and we got a lot of joy out of that.'
The An Gaeltacht man believes that Kerry's kicking game stood to them once they played in calmer conditions at Croke Park.
'It's the latter stages of the Championship, when you get into Croke Park, you really see how the rules impact games. In National League, when you might be playing in wet conditions, heavy rain, there's a lot of just piking the ball out the middle, hoping you'll win breaks and try and work from there. Kerry selector Aodán MacGearailt (Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
"But when you get good conditions in an open pitch like Croke Park, you really do see the value of the new rules, what they've added to the game in terms of space and the two-pointers. It took us a bit of time, I won't lie, to adapt to our strategy on kick-outs and even breaking ball. It took a bit of work.
"There's a lot in it, but I think if you have a good kicking game, you can always exploit defences and you can move the ball quicker. It'll obviously move a lot quicker by foot. I think maybe that was an advantage we had, definitely.'
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