Kerry team: Michael Francis Russell has failed to regain his place for Sunday's All-Ireland football final. The former All Star was dropped for the Derry semi-final and despite a good display when introduced in the 22nd minute, will start on the bench this weekend.
John Crowley starts his first All-Ireland final in four years. There had been speculation the vacancy created by Darragh Ó Sé's injury would be between Russell and Crowley and, sure enough, the Glenflesk man got the nod. At the most recent training session practice match Crowley played at corner forward for the first half with Russell playing the second half.
All year manager Jack O'Connor and his selectors have gone with the players in form and obviously it is felt Crowley's form is better at the moment.
There is also the possibility Russell is believed to be a more potent weapon to introduce as a replacement. In the Kerry-Mayo final of seven years ago, Russell was also a replacement. He was a teenager in his first season and then-manager Páidí Ó Sé used him sparingly but he made a major impact as a replacement, scoring the goal that sealed the semi-final win over Cavan and coming on in the final.
Crowley was controversially substituted in the drawn 2000 All-Ireland final against Galway to make way for Maurice Fitzgerald despite playing quite well and he attracted widespread sympathy for the substitution. After displays that brought him close to footballer of the year in 2001, Crowley's form dipped and he will be very fired up to make the best of this opportunity.
Otherwise the team is along expected lines. Eoin Brosnan drops back to centrefield to replace Darragh Ó Sé and his place on the 40 is filled by Declan O'Sullivan, who lined out at right corner forward in the semi-final but moved to centre forward in the rearranged attack after Ó Sé's injury. He partners William Kirby who is one of only three survivors from the 1997 team in the starting line-up, with Liam Hassett and captain Dara Ó Cinnéide at full forward.
Another survivor, and a welcome addition to the panel, is former captain Séamus Moynihan, who, after a tremendous start to the season, sustained a foot injury in June and has been out of action since. He has been named on the bench and is expected to see action at some stage. He spoke about the frustration of coping with the injury.
"I've obviously got ankle injuries before and got out of them very fast. So I thought I'd do the same with this and was probably over-enthusiastic to get back for the Limerick game. Unfortunately that backfired. Talking to players who have suffered the same injury in other codes I found that it takes seven or eight weeks to recover.
"I had to bite the bullet and take the medical advice and give it time. You're letting the team down if you try and play when you're well off the races. I knew I wasn't right and saw the bigger picture and trained with Pat (Flanagan, trainer)."
He would be a major addition if and when introduced. As a reluctant observer for most of the season he feels Mayo will pose a greater threat than they did seven years ago and pays tribute to the role played by former player, now selector Liam McHale.
"There's no comparison between Mayo now and then. They're a way more balanced team, with vastly experienced players and younger fellas up front. They've a great work ethic. I've seen Brian Maloney back taking the ball in front of his own goal . . . Liam McHale has done great work and taken some of the pressure off John Maughan."
He is anxious at what he sees as the contrasting path to the final of the teams: "I still feel we didn't get as hard a campaign as Mayo got. But Kerry players will be judged on what they do in an All-Ireland final."
