Beating Cork will be Kildare's pinnacle as Kerry possess too much class to be caught

Sligo's defeat of Roscommon a few weeks back got the ball rolling but it took until last weekend for the first real shock result to appear. Of course, with hindsight there have been plenty of rational reasons to legitimise Kildare's defeat of Cork in their Qualifier match last Saturday in Thurles, but by any yardstick the Rebels going down and out (by eight points, mind) to the Lilywhites was a major upset.

It's only last year that Kildare were rubbing shoulders with Cork (and Kerry) in Division One of the League, which suggests that the Leinster county aren't that far removed from the top echelons of football. But that they will be playing two division below Cork and Kerry next year simply highlights how the mighty(ish) have fallen.

Having been relegated from Division One in 2014, Jason Ryan's team managed just two wins in Division Two this spring and dropped down another division as the bottom ranked side in the second tier.

Of course, as it is well appreciated in Kerry, the League and the Championship are two entirely different animals, so perhaps it's no surprise to see Kildare in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, even if it is at Cork's expense.

After a replay win over Laois followed by a 5-18 to 0-14 defeat to Dublin in the Leinster Championship, Kildare have regrouped admirably in the Qualifiers with wins over Offaly (1-15 to 1-13) and Longford (2-24 to 0-11) that brought them to Thurles last Saturday evening.

Whatever excuses can be laid at Cork's feet for a terrible performance, it cannot detract from the fact that Kildare posted another big total and ran Cork ragged with a well executed and patient game that saw the Lilywhites pick out their inside forwards with sharp passing and then let their marksmen finish the job repeatedly.

It's doubtful Ryan's men - midfielders or inside forwards - will have the luxury of such time and space against Kerry on Sunday, but their performance against a Cork team that asked plenty of Kerry this month, will have given Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his selectors much food for thought this week.

Fitzmaurice (and Diarmuid Murphy) took the calculated option of attending the Fermanagh v Westmeath qualifier in Cavan on Saturday, while Kildare native Cian O'Neill and Mikey Sheehy were in Thurles to cover the eventuality of Kildare turning over the Rebels. Since Sunday morning the management have been doing their video analysis on Kildare and O'Neill's local knowledge will play an important part in this week's work.

Speaking on Monday, Fitzmaurice suggested that team selection will, again, be based on a combination of training form, performance in recent competitive matches and on a 'horses for courses' basis, with some regard for the particular opposition.

That in itself raises two main questions: given that the Kildare attack prefers pace to power (Tomás O'Connor is no longer there) will there be a requirement for Aidan O'Mahony; and now that Kerry are back in Croke Park, can we expect to see Colm Cooper (pictured) in action from the first whistle?

On the first point it was clear that O'Mahony was drafted in for the replay against Cork to lend power and aggression to the Kerry defence, to rough things up with regard to Alan O'Connor and others spilling through the centre channel, and to be a safe and experienced pair of hands if and when the going got tough.

Of course, all those things will matter and be necessary again on Sunday, but while the Rathmore looked more than comfortable in the downpour against Cork, there might be a doubt about his ability to chase one of the Kildare forwards around Croke Park for an hour.

The two obvious replacements would be Peter Crowley or Fionn Fitzgerald (either in the half back line with Paul Murphy dropping back alongside Marc Ó Sé and Shane Enright), but the management might feel the six backs that started against Cork the last time out are to be trusted from the outset on Sunday.

The second question - to start Cooper or not - is possibly a tougher one for the management to get right. Despite his quick free that set up Paul Geaney's goal against Cork, there remains some doubt about Cooper's ability to be a great impact sub. It can't be much fun for a tiring defender to see the Gooch coming in off the sideline but it does take some time for a substitute to get to the rhythm and pace of a game, and maybe Cooper - and the team - would be better served by him starting.

If so, does that mean he starts in the corner, and who loses out on the starting team? Either he goes to no.11 with Bryan Sheehan and Donnchadh Walsh either side - with Johnny Buckley to drop out - or he reverts to no.13 with Paul Geaney and James O'Donoghue alongside - with Kieran Donaghy losing out. There is a growing consensus that the team get lazy and one-dimensional with Donaghy at full forward, but then you think back to the captain's contributions in Croke Park last year (against Mayo and Donegal) and it's very difficult not to make a case for starting him.

Either way, be it Cooper on the bench or Donaghy, it's a sobering prospect for Kildare to know that one or the other is coming at you at some point in the contest.

One thing we can be certain of is that David Moran and Anthony Maher will retain their midfield partnership and we also know that they will get their toughest test of the year from Paul Cribbin and Tommy Moolick.

We're not sure if it's the all white strip and the chunky white socks but there's something about Kildare that makes most of their players look tall and mobile and very athletic. We're thinking of past players like Martin Lynch and Niall Buckley and Anthony Rainbow and Dermot Earley, and into that bracket you can put Cribbin and Moolick. Great fielders, powerful runners with the ability to kick points, Moolick and Cribbin should be a far tougher proposition for Moran and Maher than anything Cork threw at the Kerry pair.

If Kildare are to have a match winner it could well be Niall Kelly, who ran the Cork defence ragged and scored 1-4. Kelly is a fine footballer but the feeling is Kerry will have a specific plan for him, and despite the big scoring totals Kildare have been putting up it's difficult to see Kerry (despite their leaky defence in the League) coughing up 17 or 18 scores to this team in Croke Park.

Despite the win over Cork we remain unconvinced of Jason Ryan's ability on the sideline, and despite building up some decent momentum in the last few weeks we have doubts over Kildare's mental fortitude in the white heat of knockout Championship football.

Kerry have momentum, too, and a far shrewder sideline. Not to mention better footballers.

Verdict: Kerry