Kerry captain Gavin White says that Dublin have “changed Gaelic football forever” in the course of their four-in-a-row run.
Oddly, presuming he gets on the field on Sunday, White will have played in an All-Ireland final before featuring in the League for Kerry, and while it will also be his first exposure to Dublin at senior level, he’s watched them with awe in recent years.
“Jesus, there’s a lot there in fairness,” he says when asked to sum up the Dubs. “In the last couple of years they have changed Gaelic football forever.
“Their athleticism, the way they move the ball so quickly, there’s a lot of things to pick out; they’re just a very, very, very good team.
“I think they move the ball quickly, they don’t pack defences, they go man-to-man and their ability to just blow teams away has been mesmerising in the last couple of years.”
White captains the side by virtue of Dr Crokes’ county title win last year and given their dominance in Kerry over the past decade, they’ve had numerous county captains though only Fionn Fitzgerald, in 2014, managed to get his hands on the Sam Maguire Cup.
“I suppose they would have said one or two things to me. I think a lot of the things I would have gotten naturally from watching them growing up, especially having the opportunity to share a dressing room with them.
“I would have gotten a few things from them, whilst being with Gooch [Colm Cooper], with Brossy [Eoin Brosnan], Fionn [Fitzgerald], and Johnny [Buckley] was there, you kind of soak in and soak up the information that they’ve been giving to us while I was growing up on the senior team.
“Yeah, lookit, they had a few pep talks with me, nothing major now, things I would have thought myself, there isn’t anything ground-breaking to be honest.”
It’s Dr Crokes’ club runs in the last two years that have ruled White out of Kerry’s League campaigns and he laments that he didn’t sample the raucous games in Tralee last spring.
“I think the one that sticks out to mind a mile is over in Stack Park, the games in Stack Park against Mayo and Dublin.
“You’re up on in the stands watching the game, itching to be out there and obviously you want to put on a Kerry jersey as much as you can.
“I suppose you are fully committed to Crokes going into an All Ireland club and you’re focus is on that, but in the back of your mind you’re still going to all the Kerry games and there’s maybe something that if you could play could you make a difference and you’d love to be out there.”
It probably hasn’t helped his development and the versatile White isn’t a guaranteed starter on Sunday, despite being captain.
“Obviously everyone wants to start, but I don’t think it makes a whole pile of difference to tell you the truth. If it helps Kerry to win an All Ireland you’re going to do that – if it’s starting on the first 15 or coming off the bench, you’re going to do as much as you can.
“From my point of view it doesn’t really matter if the manager picks me or not,” he added.
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