Only once in the last 37 years have Kerry retained an All-Ireland, and Diarmuid Murphy is the sole link to that achievement in 2007 and the side now seeking to emulate it.
Sixteen years ago, Murphy was the Kerry goalkeeper as they backed up the previous year’s demolition of Mayo by beating Cork comfortably in the first all-Munster All-Ireland final, making it the first time that the Sam Maguire Cup had been successfully defended since Cork themselves did it in 1990.
Murphy is now in his second stint as a Kerry selector having retired as a player after the 2009 All-Ireland win and while current manager Jack O’Connor was in charge in 2006, he stood down in the aftermath, with Pat O’Shea at the helm when they retained the title the following year.
The changeover is something that Murphy believes gave the players an edge ahead of their two-in-a-row tilt.
He said: “You gained in the sense that everyone had to prove themselves again and you were starting from scratch but maybe you lost a bit from the continuity side, focusing on the positives from when you won the All-Ireland and building on those and kicking on from it.
“I just think our key focus last year was on performance and the lads being as good as they could be on a given day or game and that will still be the same this year.
“We just have to work hard to make sure we are in a position to perform every game.”
Still, Murphy concedes that they’ll have to bring something different to the table this year if they are to succeed once again, as they open their Munster Championship campaign with a semi-final against Tipperary in Killarney on Saturday.
And after a so-so League campaign, he admits they have “work to do”.
“After our League there are some positives there but there is definitely room for improvement there.
“Sometimes yes, you do need something different but it could be with the same personnel - you might do something different with the same personnel that are there and have fresh fellas coming through as well so it is a mixture of both.
“But yeah, coming back with exactly the same thing probably wouldn’t get the job done. You probably do need to have something up your sleeve as the year goes on.”
One load that Kerry have shed, at least to some degree, is the pressure that went with the eight-year gap, one of the longest in their history, to their previous All-Ireland and there may be a sense of liberation to their play as a result of no longer being nearly men.
“You probably won’t really know until we get to the big games but you’d like to think having won, you would hope that our lads having won their first All Ireland would take a lot of confidence and belief from that.
“You’ll see that coming into play when we get to the big games, especially in the last 10 or 15 minutes, I think it’s a big thing that you’ve done it before and you’ve won those big matches before and seen them out in the past and that confidence should stand to you when you get to the cutting edge of the big games later in the year.
“From a pressure side of it, you are probably under more pressure to win your first All-Ireland than you are after that so you would think it would be a little easier but being in Kerry you are always under pressure I suppose to perform do well and win.”
And while Murphy and Co scratch around for something new to bring to Kerry this year, Dublin, arguably the greatest threat to their status as All-Ireland champions, have taken the opposite approach in many ways, most recently with the decision to bring back 41-year-old goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton.
“It caught everyone on the hop really,” said Murphy. “I don’t really know the ins and outs of their squad, have they injuries or not, but if he is still performing anywhere close to the levels he was before that’s bound to be a massive positive for them for their team and their squad.”
As a former goalkeeper himself, it’s put to Murphy that it’s easier for someone who plays in that position to make such a comeback though he stated that the player’s hunger will dictate how successful it will be more than anything else.
“We certainly don't have the physical training to do that maybe some of the other lads do even though now the goalies train as hard as most of the rest of the players.
“It’s a very individual thing, everyone is different. The key thing is for someone coming back into a squad, like what I saw Mike McCarthy coming back in with us in ‘09, is that they have the hunger for it themselves because you are not going to come back into a scene like that unless you are pushing it yourself and you’re keen to get back in there and you are ambitious.
“I’m sure all those boxes have been ticked and that’s it’s a huge positive for Dublin.”
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