Can Kerry seal historic victory?

Kerry will play in their 8th senior All-Ireland Final replay on Saturday evening and their record in final replays is pretty impressive. Kerry won 5 of the 7 replayed finals that they have competed in and Peter Keane’s side will be heading to Dublin this weekend very much buoyed by a positive display in the drawn game against the all-conquering, 5-in-a-row-seeking All-Ireland champions Dublin.

The news coming from both camps has been sparse in the build-up to the replay. Pre-match interviews have been ruled out by both camps as both teams play their cards close to their chests.

Dublin do have injury doubts over defensive duo John Small (head injury) and Cian O’Sullivan (hamstring). Sources close to the Dublin set-up expect there to be changes to both the starting 15 and the matchday 26 with various theories being put forward as to who Jim Gavin will place his trust in.

Changes expected as  rivals search for the winning formula

As we look ahead to Saturday evening’s All-Ireland Final replay, both sets of backroom teams will have spent hours and hours analysing the drawn game and looking for the little nuggets that will give them an advantage in the replay.

One of the lines that will be trotted out in the build-up to the replay is that the team that learns the most will win. Of course, that is sound logic but the reality is that more often than not a replay is so different to the original game.

A different set of challenges will present themselves to both sets of managements on Saturday evening and I would argue that it is the team that learns the most as the game progresses will win the replay.

The big conundrum facing both teams is what changes they should make to their starting 15s. Dublin have probably a little more cause for concern after the drawn game and Jim Gavin has shown in the past that he is ruthless in these situations.