Dublin legend not buying ‘bulls**t’ Kerry narrative

For most of the season, Kerry have been favourites to regain their All-Ireland SFC crown, which they last won in 2022.

They took home the National League title, dismantling Mayo in the final, before hammering Clare to win a fifth Munster SFC in a row.

All was looking good when they were drawn in an ‘easy’ All-Ireland group, and they cruised through their first two games, beating Roscommon and Cork by 10 and 11 points, respectively.

But out of the nowhere, their credentials took a slight hit when Meath bagged a nine-point win, topping the group, and sending the Kingdom into the preliminary quarter-finals.

While Philly McMahon, an eight-time All-Ireland winner with Dublin, thinks that the talk around Kerry has been wholly negative, the bookies do not a agree, and they remain joint-favourites for Sam Maguire with Armagh.

McMahon believes that talk of Kerry’s demise is rubbish and should not be taken seriously, using the 2009 All-Ireland as an example, where Kerry had to go through the qualifiers before going on to win the tournament.

Writing in the Irish Independent, McMahon said: “Woe is Kerry. They’re goosed, apparently. The princes of the pigskin have never been less princely. Nothing left for them now but to bring further ignominy to the county and lose to one of those northern types they find so distasteful.

“All the symptoms of a quick and painful death are there. The fans aren’t coming out. Half the team are injured. They can’t kick two-pointers. They lost to Meath.

“Spare us, lads.

“But the idea that they are on the green mile, dead men walking towards an All-Ireland quarter-final with Armagh is total bullshit. We’ve seen this movie before. It’s a cliche.”