Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice believes his side must counteract Dublin's running game in Sunday's eagerly awaited All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park.
As was evidenced in the drawn Munster final against Cork and the All-Ireland semi against Tyrone, the Kingdom are vulnerable when teams run at them, a point acknowledged by Fitzmaurice when he spoke to RTÉ Sport.
"In the Tyrone game, especially, we would have been disappointed with some of our collective defending at times," he said. “It's an area we have been working on in training since.”
Mickey Harte's side had chances for goals from open play when they ran directly at the Kerry rearguard and the Kingdom boss is acutely aware that the Dubs are more likely to make it count if they adopt a similar approach in the decider.
"Dublin are very good at running in numbers through the middle; it's one of their big attacking planks." added Fitzmaurice.
"They have ferocious power in the middle third of the field when they get going and that makes them very hard to stop."
Reflecting further on the Dubs, Fitzmaurice doesn't think that the two-week gap since their replay win over Mayo will be a disadvantage.
"They will have bangs and bruises but I think a fortnight is enough time for the Dubs to recover. In many ways it's attractive that the final is almost upon you without having the long wait. I'm sure they'll be able to manage things as they did from the draw to the replay.
"Overall, the two games against Mayo will stand to Dublin. They probably needed them from the point of view that they came through Leinster quite easily and then defeated Fermanagh easily enough in the All-Ireland quarter-final."
Kerry are bidding to follow up on last year's All-Ireland success and Fitzmaurice, himself a three-time All-Ireland winner, is in no doubt that the appetite is there among the squad to ensure that the Kingdom can reign supreme again.
"I'm very happy with where the lads' hunger is at. If the hunger levels weren't there, Tyrone would have beaten us in the semi-final when it got back to a drawn game. But the lads showed great desire to kick on from there and win the game.
"When you're playing in an All-Ireland final, and it's against Dublin, I don't think a lack of hunger comes into question."
