Kerry will end Tipperary’s provincial dreams this weekend, but need to show a marked improvement defensively if they are to be considered as genuine All-Ireland contenders, says Tómás Ó Sé.
The Kingdom’s annual rivalry with Cork was broken up by the Premier County when they plundered a famous win over the Rebels last time out.
Liam Kearns’ side were full value for their win, but travelling to face Kerry on their own patch at Fitzgerald Stadium with a host of players unavailable for various reasons, the bookies make Kerry 1/25 odds-on favourites.
The RTÉ pundit agrees with the short price and expects his former team-mates to land their 78th provincial title.
“No disrespect to Tipperary, but a Cork game would probably test you a little more,” he told RTÉ Sport.
“Tipperary deservedly beat Cork...but it will be a tough ask for them to come down to Killarney and win, but Liam Kearns isn’t afraid of taking on the big bucks.
“The fear factor isn’t there in Kerry at the moment, and teams won’t be afraid to come to Killarney and have a cut off them, but I think Kerry are ready for this Munster Final.
“Kerry will pull away in the second half, they just have too much quality.”
Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s side were expected to show signs of improvement following last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin, but the comprehensive 11-point defeat in the League final to the same opposition was a sobering experience for all concerned.
Ó Sé, who won five Sam Maguire medals in a teak-tough Kingdom rearguard, says he hopes to see tactical changes which were not evident this season to date if they are to stand any chance of challenging for top honours in September.
“I think people were disappointed after the League final. We possibly didn’t show anything different in terms of trying to beat the Dubs and were well beaten in the end," he said.
“We know that we’re not fully at the pace that Dublin are and that there is work to do defensibly and offensively."
The post-mortem to that defeat has not been pretty, but Ó Sé doesn't buy into the doom and gloom surrounding the team and believes there is an upset or two in the team before the campaign is over.
The GAA analyst however is particularly concerned by a brittle defence that was ripped to shreds by Dublin and looked porous again the semi-final defeat of Clare.
Again he looks to the Dublin template and sees a need to break away from Kerry's traditional approach.
“The last day against Clare we left in 17 points. They ran at us and caused us a few problems. A lot of people put it down to the fact we have players who are “too old” but I don’t really buy into that as such.
“I think we have enough pace in our team to penetrate and hurt teams.
“I do think we need to change our tactics. Kerry aren’t traditionally a defensive side, but if you look at the way the Dubs played...The Dubs will play Cian O’Sullivan as a sweeper, they will play Brian Fenton as the man holding the middle completely and they will have that cushion.
“We have to tweak it a small bit. I was hoping to see those tweaks against Dublin in the League, but the summer is long.”
