Kerry will 'sharpen the knife' against Dublin

RTÉ GAA analyst Dessie Dolan believes Kerry manager Jack O'Connor will "sharpen the knife" as his side travels to Croke Park on Saturday evening to face Dublin.

When it comes to football’s most storied rivalry, this weekend’s league fixture doesn’t match the anticipation that often surrounds the game.

Kerry are slowly cranking through the gears on the back of last year’s All-Ireland triumph while Dublin, under new manager Ger Brennan, are struggling at the wrong end of the Division 1 table.

Still, it’s a game that provides opportunity and for Dolan, he feels that might arrive in the form of a more formidable green and gold machine than we have seen in 2026 to date.

"Jack O’Connor, what’s his mindset coming into this game?" asked the 2004 Westmeath All-Star on the RTÉ GAA Podcast.

"Roughly you’re talking five, six, seven of last July’s All-Ireland starters have started all the games.

"Interestingly the David Clifford one when they were going up to (Ballyshannon v Donegal), they didn’t bring him.

"Heading to Croke Park, I don’t think Kerry teams ever like losing in Croke Park so I think he might sharpen the knife a little bit, bulk up with a little bit of quality."

On Dublin, Dolan watched their hard-fought win over Monaghan in Round 3 and while it was a first two points banked of the league season, it did little to convince him that the fear factor around the Leinster side is vanishing.

"I thought they were shaky out, Monaghan had an ocean of space back in the full-forward line.

"Dublin’s defensive system, their set-up, looked like it was lost for large parts of the game.

"Monaghan could have easily gotten four or five goals, easily two or three certainly very strong goal opportunities when they were really in the ascendency in the second half.

"Ger’s kind of retracted his statement a little bit in terms of what he said about the panel and cutting it and stuff like that. He did mention though that’s he’s trialled 164 players to be involved with the Dublin squad, which is absolutely phenomenal.

"I’d love to get a list of those players and offer them around the country to some of the other teams and see could they get them because it seems like a phenomenal amount of players that Dublin have at their disposal."

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"There’s a lot of questions; their better players - Ciarán Kilkenny hasn’t really got to the levels we expect him (to), Brian Howard similarly, Niall Scully similarly," Dolan added.

"Seán Bugler did decent enough but Con (O’Callaghan) saved them, he got two rakers.

"Apart from the quality that he brought, you wouldn’t fear Dublin like you'd use to."

Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch Tipperary v Limerick in the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1

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