Eamonn Fitz. Not up to his ratings?

[Il Bomber Destro]

It's at the back where Kerry are goosed going forward. O'Mahony and O'Se are still two very important players for them and will likely call it a day. Young is hitting near 30 as well. Crowley is the only one of the younger generation I rate and I felt he looked well off his 2014 form this year.

[AZOffaly]

I don't think Crowley is a centre back. There was a weakness at the centre of that Kerry defense all year. Killian Young might have to go back into full back for a year or two. He used to play in the corner fado fado, so maybe he'd be able to adapt.

[Il Bomber Destro]

I don't think Crowley is a centre back. There was a weakness at the centre of that Kerry defense all year. Killian Young might have to go back into full back for a year or two. He used to play in the corner fado fado, so maybe he'd be able to adapt.

Young is a decent player but he's a wing back. Have they anyone would be comfortable marking guys like Murphy, O'Shea, O'Gara on the edge of the square if O'Mahony retires?

[AZOffaly]

Young used to play in the corner, I'm nearly sure. He's from the same club as my wife below in Renard, but I'm nearly sure I saw him play with South Kerry in the corner. That said, I'm not sure how he would react to full back alright.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Young used to play in the corner, I'm nearly sure. He's from the same club as my wife below in Renard, but I'm nearly sure I saw him play with South Kerry in the corner. That said, I'm not sure how he would react to full back alright.

Young has and can definitely play in the corner, I just feel he's more suited and more comfortable in the half back line. There seems to be a big absence of natural defenders down the middle with Kerry at the minute which is why they split open when teams run at them.

[Angus]

I think Fitz got a little bit confident with his tactics, especially now that they are comparing him to Billy Morgan and his records as manager. Fitzmaurice shouldn't be complacent, though.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

There's legit criticism to be thrown at Eamonn after Sunday, but some of the nonsense I'm reading here..

"Young at fullback"? Jesus AZ I thought you'd know better than that? His disastrous stint as a corner back almost ruined his county career. He is not a good man-marker. I thought after the way he ended 2014 Killian was going to kick on again but he hasn't. Was poor in the 2 biggest games unfortunately.

Il Bomber cracks me up..doesn't rate Paul Murphy or Shane Enright apparently?

Enright could end up fullback, unless they decide to work on Griffin or something.
Pa Kilkenny is a fine player but needs to put on a bit of bulk. Paul Murphy has been plagued by injury this year and hasn't been great, he'll be back. There are several decent young backs from the Junior All Ireland winning squad like David Culhane and Gavin Crowley who will get a run soon.
Then on top of that you have the likes of Cormac Coffey from last years minors along with Andrew Barry, Darren Brosnan and Jason Foley from this years minors who all look like they will push into Senior squad in 2-3 years or so.

Next 2 years at u21 level will hopefully be a launching pad we've lacked for several years..since 2008 in fact.

[AZOffaly]

Wouldn't be ideal alright, but I think he'd be worth looking at for more mobile full forwards. It's probably Griffen or Enright.

[Il Bomber Destro]

There's legit criticism to be thrown at Eamonn after Sunday, but some of the nonsense I'm reading here..

"Young at fullback"? Jesus AZ I thought you'd know better than that? His disastrous stint as a corner back almost ruined his county career. He is not a good man-marker. I thought after the way he ended 2014 Killian was going to kick on again but he hasn't. Was poor in the 2 biggest games unfortunately.

Il Bomber cracks me up..doesn't rate Paul Murphy or Shane Enright apparently?

Enright could end up fullback, unless they decide to work on Griffin or something.
Pa Kilkenny is a fine player but needs to put on a bit of bulk. Paul Murphy has been plagued by injury this year and hasn't been great, he'll be back. There are several decent young backs from the Junior All Ireland winning squad like David Culhane and Gavin Crowley who will get a run soon.
Then on top of that you have the likes of Cormac Coffey from last years minors along with Andrew Barry, Darren Brosnan and Jason Foley from this years minors who all look like they will push into Senior squad in 2-3 years or so.

Next 2 years at u21 level will hopefully be a launching pad we've lacked for several years..since 2008 in fact.

Murphy doesn't have the physicality for the the top level forwards, just look at what happened when McBrearty came on last year, with a few minutes he had a couple points off him and had to be switched. He's decent if he's up against some one of his own stature even though young Bradley gave him a horrid time of it in the semi. He also picks up an awful lot of black cards as he gets caught the wrong side a lot.

Enright is not very good at all and Kerry are in trouble if he is the main man in the full back line. If Brogan could hold on to the ball on Sunday he would have destroyed him as he was out in front for every single ball.

[ck]

Kerry loose 1 game in 2 years and all the muppets are saying Fitzmaurice is overrated. Absolutely ridiculous.
All the "expert" tacticians now know where it all went wrong. Hindsight makes everyone think they are a tactical expert. The reality is that Fitz remains the best manager in the country and Kerry would be my favs to win the All-Ireland in 2016 with Dublins hunger reduced for another while.
Fitzmaurice remaining at the helm for Kerry is a massive boost and should not be underestimated.

[AZOffaly]

Kerry loose 1 game in 2 years and all the muppets are saying Fitzmaurice is overrated. Absolutely ridiculous.
All the "expert" tacticians now know where it all went wrong. Hindsight makes everyone think they are a tactical expert. The reality is that Fitz remains the best manager in the country and Kerry would be my favs to win the All-Ireland in 2016 with Dublins hunger reduced for another while.
Fitzmaurice remaining at the helm for Kerry is a massive boost and should not be underestimated.

He's a good manager, and has got far more right than wrong, but I think it's reasonable to question a couple of things from the final, and the year in general. I'm certainly not calling him overrated, but I do think he'd probably do a couple of things differently if he had to do it all again tomorrow.

[Zulu]

In fairness calling him the best manager in Ireland is as ridiculous as calling him overrated. Who's to know who is the tactical brain in a managerial set up? The manager automatically gets the credit or blame but I'm sure most managerial set ups are a collective and different people may come up with the primary tactical approach in different games just by virtue of having suggested something the others felt was the best way. Besides, give any half tuned in manager one of the best squads and he'll go close every year, give them one of the worst and no manager will look very astute.

[twohands!!!]

It's at the back where Kerry are goosed going forward. O'Mahony and O'Se are still two very important players for them and will likely call it a day. Young is hitting near 30 as well. Crowley is the only one of the younger generation I rate and I felt he looked well off his 2014 form this year.

I think the problem in the backs is more an issue with Kerry not having full and corner backs, but having more in the way of natural half-backs. For me Fitzgerald and Murphy are better half-backs, while Crowley, Young and Lyne are all half-back men - I think Crowley would be more suited to being a wing-back than a centre-back (he seems to roam a bit much for my liking for a centre-back spot, but is probably the best for the spot in terms of what's available) Enright is the only one who is likely to be there who I would say is a natural corner man. Griffin is surely likely to come into the reckoning if/when O'Se and O'Mahoney depart

I was very impressed with the Kerry minor backs this year - they will take a bit of time to come through but looked like some very serious prospects there.

In fairness calling him the best manager in Ireland is as ridiculous as calling him overrated. Who's to know who is the tactical brain in a managerial set up? The manager automatically gets the credit or blame but I'm sure most managerial set ups are a collective and different people may come up with the primary tactical approach in different games just by virtue of having suggested something the others felt was the best way. Besides, give any half tuned in manager one of the best squads and he'll go close every year, give them one of the worst and no manager will look very astute.

He clearly has a seriously decent tactical understanding - his columns in the Examiner when he was writing for them were really top notch stuff. Also I've heard lots of very positive stuff about his man-managing ability which is always going to be vital in a county like Kerry, where managing the lads who aren't getting game-time is a huge part of the gig. Put those two abilities together and you're a long way along the road to having the makings of a decent manager.

Probably worth having a look at the list of who Kerry lost in the last few years

Declan O'Sullivan 2014
Paul Galvin - missed 2014
Colm Cooper missed 2014
Tomas O'Se - 2013
Eoin Brosnan - 2013
Seamus Scanlon -2012
Tom O'Sullivan -2012
Tommy Griffin -2012
Mike McCarthy -2011
Darragh O'Se - 2010

That's a serious chunk of quality experienced to lose out of a squad - odds are I'm forgetting about a couple of squad players. In championship terms under Fitzmaurice Kerry have won it one year, lost a final and lost a final to the winners which is fairly solid stuff, especially when you consider the number of players he has brought through.

Odds are you will have Marc O'Se, Aidan O'Mahoney and Paul Galvin all joining that list for 2015. Looking at that you wouldnt have fancy a challenge game between a retired Kerry lineup and the current one in a few months.

[Nihilist]

It's at the back where Kerry are goosed going forward. O'Mahony and O'Se are still two very important players for them and will likely call it a day. Young is hitting near 30 as well. Crowley is the only one of the younger generation I rate and I felt he looked well off his 2014 form this year.

I think the problem in the backs is more an issue with Kerry not having full and corner backs, but having more in the way of natural half-backs. For me Fitzgerald and Murphy are better half-backs, while Crowley, Young and Lyne are all half-back men - I think Crowley would be more suited to being a wing-back than a centre-back (he seems to roam a bit much for my liking for a centre-back spot, but is probably the best for the spot in terms of what's available) Enright is the only one who is likely to be there who I would say is a natural corner man. Griffin is surely likely to come into the reckoning if/when O'Se and O'Mahoney depart

I was very impressed with the Kerry minor backs this year - they will take a bit of time to come through but looked like some very serious prospects there.

In fairness calling him the best manager in Ireland is as ridiculous as calling him overrated. Who's to know who is the tactical brain in a managerial set up? The manager automatically gets the credit or blame but I'm sure most managerial set ups are a collective and different people may come up with the primary tactical approach in different games just by virtue of having suggested something the others felt was the best way. Besides, give any half tuned in manager one of the best squads and he'll go close every year, give them one of the worst and no manager will look very astute.

He clearly has a seriously decent tactical understanding - his columns in the Examiner when he was writing for them were really top notch stuff. Also I've heard lots of very positive stuff about his man-managing ability which is always going to be vital in a county like Kerry, where managing the lads who aren't getting game-time is a huge part of the gig. Put those two abilities together and you're a long way along the road to having the makings of a decent manager.

Probably worth having a look at the list of who Kerry lost in the last few years

Declan O'Sullivan 2014
Paul Galvin - missed 2014
Colm Cooper missed 2014
Tomas O'Se - 2013
Eoin Brosnan - 2013
Seamus Scanlon -2012
Tom O'Sullivan -2012
Tommy Griffin -2012
Mike McCarthy -2011
Darragh O'Se - 2010

That's a serious chunk of quality experienced to lose out of a squad - odds are I'm forgetting about a couple of squad players. In championship terms under Fitzmaurice Kerry have won it one year, lost a final and lost a final to the winners which is fairly solid stuff, especially when you consider the number of players he has brought through.

Odds are you will have Marc O'Se, Aidan O'Mahoney and Paul Galvin all joining that list for 2015. Looking at that you wouldnt have fancy a challenge game between a retired Kerry lineup and the current one in a few months.

You forgot to mention that Kerry won the All Ireland in 2014 without the 2 payers mentioned above.
They were back this year along with Tommy Walsh and Darren O'Sullivan

If anything he had a better squad this year than before.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

There's legit criticism to be thrown at Eamonn after Sunday, but some of the nonsense I'm reading here..

"Young at fullback"? Jesus AZ I thought you'd know better than that? His disastrous stint as a corner back almost ruined his county career. He is not a good man-marker. I thought after the way he ended 2014 Killian was going to kick on again but he hasn't. Was poor in the 2 biggest games unfortunately.

Il Bomber cracks me up..doesn't rate Paul Murphy or Shane Enright apparently?

Enright could end up fullback, unless they decide to work on Griffin or something.
Pa Kilkenny is a fine player but needs to put on a bit of bulk. Paul Murphy has been plagued by injury this year and hasn't been great, he'll be back. There are several decent young backs from the Junior All Ireland winning squad like David Culhane and Gavin Crowley who will get a run soon.
Then on top of that you have the likes of Cormac Coffey from last years minors along with Andrew Barry, Darren Brosnan and Jason Foley from this years minors who all look like they will push into Senior squad in 2-3 years or so.

Next 2 years at u21 level will hopefully be a launching pad we've lacked for several years..since 2008 in fact.

Murphy doesn't have the physicality for the the top level forwards, just look at what happened when McBrearty came on last year, with a few minutes he had a couple points off him and had to be switched. He's decent if he's up against some one of his own stature even though young Bradley gave him a horrid time of it in the semi. He also picks up an awful lot of black cards as he gets caught the wrong side a lot.

Enright is not very good at all and Kerry are in trouble if he is the main man in the full back line. If Brogan could hold on to the ball on Sunday he would have destroyed him as he was out in front for every single ball.

As twohands (who probably, you know, actually watches games) notes above..Murphy is a natural half-back. Shouldn't have been doing a man-marking job on a good inside forward like McBrearty. Your "analysis" of the final last year conveniently ignored how good Murphy was for a lot of the game though, not to mention how well he did for most of last year.

Your stupid sweeping statement on Enright is hilarious, especially given the form Enright is in. Work away though. Keep writing lads off as much as you want.