Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice says the Kingdom's away win in Donegal is a 'great education' for his younger players, and confirmed that he is awaiting an update on injured defender Shane Enright.
Two goals from full-forward Paul Geaney proved decisive as Fitzmaurice claimed a win on the opening weekend of the Allianz League for the first time in his five years in charge of Kerry.
A number of fresh faces were given a chance to impress in the green and gold, where a head injury suffered by corner back Enright in the opening stages of the game was the only blot in the copybook.
The game was held up after the Tarbert man was involved in a collision with Donegal captain Michael Murphy and was taken to Letterkenny General Hospital.
Fitzmaurice told RTÉ Sport that he hopes the defender will be discharged this evening.
“We’re hoping he’s not too bad. He went to hospital here in Letterkenny and we’re hoping he’s going to go to Kerry tonight,” he said.
“He got a bad bang but in terms of detail, we don’t have anything yet.”
The full-forward line of league debutant Jack Savage, Geaney and James O’Donoghue plundered 2-10 between them and the Kerry boss admitted he was pleased to start the campaign with a win.
"There was an awful lot of positive stuff from us"
“It’s always tough to win on the road,” he said.
“We’re delighted after coming the length of the country yesterday to get two points today.
“There was an awful lot of positive stuff from us. We played a lot of good football, but the last quarter we took our foot off the gas and Donegal really came back at us.
“We were just hanging on at the end, but overall it was very positive.”
Jason Foley and Tom O’Sullivan, members of the victorious 2014 All-Ireland winning minor team, also made their competitive bows at senior level and Fitzmaurice admitted it was a good learning curve for the inexperienced trio.
“They all did really well and it’s great education for the lads. It is a big step –up. No matter how much a player is told that, he must experience it.
The home side threatened to mount a comeback in the final quarter and picked off the last six points of the game, and the lack of Kerry leaders may have contributed to the below-par finish.
“Donegal got a bit of momentum and we were probably tiring. We had a lot of younger lads on the field," he said.
“Maybe there was a small bit of absence of leadership. It’s something we will have to look at for next weekend.
“I don’t want to take from the result though as it was a very positive performance.”
