Former Laois footballer and RTÉ GAA analyst Ross Munnelly believes that Kerry will target the Monaghan defence and their kick-outs when the two sides meet in this weekend's Allianz Football League Division 1 clash.

Monaghan travel to Fitzgerald Stadium on the back of last week’s narrow defeat to Armagh in which a mistake from a kick-out proved to be the ultimate difference between the two sides.

Armagh’s tactics of pushing up on Monaghan’s kick-outs paid dividends on 27 minutes when Tiernan Kelly pounced on a wayward short pass from Rory Beggan and was able to fire home into an empty net.

Munnelly believes that Kerry will have seen a vulnerability they can exploit and will put real pressure on the Monaghan back line.

"[Kerry] will be hungry and they’ll obviously have seen the error on the Monaghan kick-out last week which led to a goal," he said on 2fm’s Game On.

"The way that the modern game has gone there’s so much of an emphasis of your forwards attacking the opposition team’s short kick-out.

"I think that’s an area that Kerry will target probably Monaghan this weekend.

"From a Monaghan perspective, that was ultimately the difference in the game, Monaghan were going well, conceded a disappointing goal from a kick-out and all of a sudden they’re on the back foot and Armagh took over the game.

"I think Kerry will play on the front foot and will attack everything."

Despite some teething problems with a new tactical approach, Munnelly believes the Farney men are heading in the right direction and regardless of the outcome this weekend, will be a side to watch out for in the championship.

"I’d have a lot of faith in Vinny Corey and the rebuild that he’s doing at the moment," he said.

"They have a good young team and I was very impressed with some of their forwards last weekend in terms of being able to find pockets of space to kick some lovely points despite the fact it was very congested with the way the defensive set-up was in front of them."

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