Any fears that Kerry could be in relegation danger were eased on Saturday evening as the Kingdom overcame Roscommon, 1-12 to 0-12 in Tralee.
Jack O’Connor’s charges look all but safe, and could even return to the Division 1 final if they beat Galway next week and other results go their way.
And while they are far from the finished article for the season, captain David Clifford says they are making progress.
“A good win. Tonight was about getting the two points and not really anything else. It’s great to have Gavin [White] and a few of the other lads back. The panel will be getting stronger now all the time. Hopefully this will really kickstart it,” he told TG4 after the victory.
“We’ve had to do our training a bit later than we would have done other years. Trying to train through the league. We feel like we’re getting there. Hopefully we will. I suppose time will tell!”
Despite injuries to Stefan Okunbor and Darragh Roche, there have been some new faces making waves for the Kingdom.
“Definitely. There’s been a lot of finds there, as you need when you’re looking to build. So definitely, the panel has been a massive positive,” Clifford noted.
The Division 1 race is going right down to the wire, with the Fossa man explaining why teams are neck-and-neck:
“A lot of games take on a similar pattern in terms of teams getting men behind the ball. It’s very hard to get momentum up. Every game ends up fairly close, just with the nature of teams conceding kick-outs and stuff. It’s hard to know. We’re relatively happy with some elements of our performance, and other stuff need a big improvement.”
And there are twists and turns remaining ahead of round seven.
“We’ll have to see how the other results go (for Kerry to secure Division 1 status). It looks like we’ll still need a win in Galway. A very important game,” Clifford added.
