Retaining Sam Maguire has proved difficult since their predecessors did it in 2007, but Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice reckons some of the pieces are in place to give it a good shot.
The All-Ireland champions began the defence of their crown with a six-point win in the Munster SFC over Tipperary in Thurles.
The game saw the return to championship action of Colm Cooper and Tommy Walsh – both forwards who weren’t needed last year as Kerry claimed the top prize.
But their inclusion, after Cooper’s return from injury and Walsh’s comeback from the AFL, means that there is even more competition for places than usual in the Kingdom squad.
Speaking after their 2-14 to 2-08 win, Fitzmaurice told RTÉ Sport that tight games were vital to any ambitions of keeping their trophy.
“That’s what you need the year after winning an All-Ireland, in particular, you need serious competition to try and get as many of the squad [as possible] playing at the top of their game,” he said.
“We’ll circle the wagons for the next three weeks and try out as many of the lads as we possibly can.”
“It was a matter of keep trying to do the right things and we did enough of them"
It was Kerry’s first outing since Easter Sunday, their last league game was gainst Tyrone and Fitzmaurice said that the long break was evident against the Premier County.
“We got a result today but we wouldn’t be overly proud of our performance,” said Fitzmaurice, whose side will face Cork in the Munster final on 5 July.
“We’ve had a long break from [the] league and to be fair to Tipperary you could see that they had a game a couple of weeks ago. They were at a higher pitch than we were really.
“We kept plugging away and thankfully we got the result in the end but not a great performance, no.
“It was a matter of keep trying to do the right things and we did enough of them, while not being great to get the result in the end.
“We’ve a lot of improving to do but it’s great to be on the road, great to have a game under our belt and great to be in a Munster final.”
Tipp boss Peter Creedon was left to rue his side’s easing off when they had Kerry on the back foot in the early stages, thanks to Michael Quinliven’s goal.
He said: “We got off to a flyer of a start and probably didn’t peg on a few scores when we had that dominance when Kerry were a bit sluggish starting off.
“We were still in a good position at half-time but over the course of the game we didn’t kick enough points and our forward play wasn’t as good as what is expected.”
Creedon now has to prepare for the qualifiers but is aiming high.
“I hope we draw a top team, I hope we draw a Division 1 team,” he said.
“I know the likes of Down, Tyrone and Armagh are in our section of the draw, and I just hope we draw one of the top teams and let us see how we perform in another top game.”
