Kerry need to break the spell and finally record a win over Dublin.
It’s what their always-demanding supporters expect and that’s why this game in Tralee was a sell-out weeks in advance.
Dublin are going for an unprecedented 34-games unbeaten in League and Championship. Oh, how the Kingdom would love to put a stop to that trot.
What: Kerry v Dublin, Allianz Football League Division 1, Round 5
Where: Austin Stack Park, Tralee
When: Saturday, 7.00pm
More pressing for Kerry fans is the fact that they have only managed to beat Dublin twice in 12 attempts stretching back to 2010.
That’s a run that includes two All-Ireland finals, a pair of All-Ireland semi-finals and a Division 1 final at Croke Park. Those are all defeats that stick in Kingdom craws.
Their only wins over the Dubs across that period were in 2010 and on March 1, 2015 in the top flight game at Killarney - the last time the Boys in Blue were beaten in either League or Championship.
Games between these two great rivals always take the main billing, but given the subplots that are currently running the importance of this fixture has been amped up.
Jim Gavin has developed a team of winners and they don’t want to settle for second best in any game they play. Just look at their record in the pre-season O’Byrne Cup, they’ve won it two out of the last three years, and you’ll see how seriously they take this. (Just a note - Longford in last year’s O’Byrne Cup were the last inter-county team to beat the Dubs).
They won’t want to surrender their long unbeaten run to anyone and particularly not to Kerry. Gavin will see Eamonn Fizmaurice’s side as one of their main rivals for the Sam Maguire so the more often they can beat them the better.
Kerry routinely won pretty much ever game of consequence between themselves and the Dubs from the late seventies right until the early years of this decade. What’s happening now can’t sit well with them.
When these two counties reached last year’s League final it was said that Kerry needed a win just to restore a little confidence ahead of any later meeting during the summer. As it happened, they were hammered out the gate and they lost the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final.
Kerry aren’t far off getting their hands on Sam Maguire again, their last was in 2014, and to get one over on the Dubs would be a major psychological boost for the Kingdom.
It would also ensure an exciting run in to the end of the Division 1 regular season, with just the top two teams going through to the final.
Dublin weren’t particularly impressive as they drew with Donegal and Tyrone, though they bounced back to top form when they dismantled Mayo by a dozen points at Croke Park last weekend.
Kerry haven’t been pulling up any trees either, with their opening day defeat of Donegal their most impressive display of 2017 to date. Alongside that they lost at home to Mayo and Monaghan, and only squeezed out a win last weekend against relegation-haunted 14-man Roscommon.
This pair have a history of bringing the best out of each other, with all of their recent Championship meetings being filed in the ‘classic’ category, so the full house in Tralee will be expecting both to bring their A games.
