MCSHEA'S SAY: Tough test awaits Donegal in the Kingdom

When Donegal head south on Sunday to play Kerry they will be very aware that this will be a very difficult examination of the team’s ability.

This Kerry side are already very highly rated, without a visit from Sam Maguire since 2014 when a mediocre Kerry team beat Donegal in that year’s football final. This Kerry side are motivated and hungry.

They have produced some moments when they have resembled the merciless machine that ran right over teams in winning eight All-Irelands in the late 70s and mid-80s. When those moments occur people use the word ‘ominous’ a lot, but that great team of the past possessed an inexorable quality which was not apparent in other teams in that era.

The present Kerry side are undoubtedly a talented outfit but have some way to go before they can be compared with their great predecessors. In sport we all have players from other counties who command not just our admiration but our affection.

Kerry forward David Clifford is in that category. Clifford is exceptionally skillful, and, on many occasions, he has been simply spectacular. Even on his quiet days - of which he has had very few - he can elicit a shiver of stunning bliss. Words like ‘enigma’ and ‘inconsistent’ can never be used to describe the Kerry full-forward because he is a skilled merchant, who wins the ball and instantly devises some method of extracting maximum advantage from the possession he has won.

Kerry now do not have the status of a coming team. They are already many people’s favourites to win this year's All-Ireland. David Clifford also has the advantage of having five top class forwards delivering quality ball to him. How can Donegal deal with this multi-talented outfit?

It will be difficult, but Donegal do have many talented players in their ranks, but they have not yet delivered a consistent performance in this league campaign. They have, against both Mayo and Kildare, lost concentration in the third quarter and they cannot afford such a lapse against a team of such fire power as Kerry.

I don’t know who introduced the phrase ‘moral courage’ into the sporting lexicon, where it was instantly seized on by sporting commentators, but Donegal players do not suffer from a lack of moral courage, but they will have to play with their heads up from the word go on Sunday.

Injuries may well be a factor when Declan Bonner sits down to name his team, and the question of Michael Murphy’s availability will be on all Donegal fans' lips this week. I just hope that if the Glenswilly man is not 100% fit, he is not played.

Murphy is far too valuable for any management team to take a risk with his fitness with so much football coming up over the next six weeks. If Murphy is out, it would be great to get Hugh McFadden back after his injury.

Hugh’s ball winning ability would be a real plus and with Michael Langan playing so well Donegal should win quality ball in the middle of the park. Full-back Brendan Mc Cole is playing with confident intelligence, and he will be charged with doing a damage limitation job of David Clifford but because the other 14 Kerry players look for him on every occasion and deliver quality ball to him.

McCole needs all his team-mates to stop this supply. Against good forwards, defenders must attack the ball because standing off and conceding possession is a recipe for disaster. To get anything out of their trip south, Donegal must be very organised and disciplined.

The number of turnovers that Donegal have conceded in their first two games is unacceptable and puts a defence under unnecessary and serious pressure .Those fundamental errors must be avoided on Sunday, while carrying the ball out of defence simply allows the opposition to regroup and get many men behind the ball.

Donegal need to play believing that Gaelic Football is a simple game, with defenders and midfielders winning the ball and letting it go quickly and accurately to forwards who win it, turn and shoot on sight .

When this is done properly there is no meaningful counter to it. A draw in Kerry would be a very acceptable result for Donegal, but it will not be easy.

Tipperary and Kilkenny, those who believe that the league doesn’t matter should have watched the league match between those two great hurling counties on Sunday. Hurlers aren’t mere sportsmen, they are artists and on a winter pitch the skill level of both sides was simply spectacular.

The physical encounters were manly and sporting with some exceptional hits going in. It was to the credit of both teams that in a game of such intensity there was not one bad tackle. This was simply top-class entertainment.