Jim McGuinness on Kerry's All-Ireland bid, added pressure on David Clifford and the kick-out conundrum

Kerry and Cork are the last two teams to enter the fray in this year's Football Championship, and all eyes are on the Kingdom.

Jack O'Connor's charges swept through Division 1 in the National League and are favourites to land the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time since 2014.

Their awesome springtime campaign culminated in a final hammering of Mayo as David Clifford led the rout of the Westerners as they won 3-19 to 0-13.

However, they should not be getting too carried away with that result, according to Sky Sports pundit Jim McGuinness.

"They were really impressive," he said. "Obviously, the line of form, running through Mayo. It's always that time of year, you don't really know what's going on in everyone's camp. Who is doing what? At what intensity? How much is in the legs? How hard are they training?

"Kerry can only attack what's set out in front of them. They did a really good job throughout the league on that front.

"For me the big thing with Kerry, what I'm looking forward to is looking at David Clifford because the sense of responsibility that sits on his shoulders is absolutely huge. Can the young fella carry that responsibility and carry that team to the All-Ireland final?

"Obviously on the back of the league final, if it wasn't clear before that, he's going to be a marked man.

"Every [opposition] game plan will be drawn up around him, and then the secondary thing will be the team.

"I'm looking forward to watching him, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he carries himself and if he can continue to find space and hurt teams even though the spotlight is very much on him."

Areas to improve

There were no doubts about the Kingdom's firepower up front coming into 2022 but many were intrigued to see if Jack O'Connor could improve the side further back the field.

"I think in the middle of the park we did [see improvements]," said McGuinness.

"There's question marks at the back potentially, because they haven't really been fully tested. I do know the structure is better than last year. But in terms of the overall package, I'm not sure if it's 100 per cent there yet.

"Then the goalkeeping situation is not 100 per cent clear down there. And the goalkeeping strategy is very traditional.

"Last year when the pressure went on, it [struggled]. Teams are very switched on to things like that. If they can get a high press going on them, and force it long, then there's a good possibility that they know where it's going. Then you're starting to get your midfielders, half-backs to attack that really aggressively, breaking ball.

"The team with the right physical profile could create a situation where they could pen them in on their own kick-out, push up. Dublin could definitely do that. We've seen that many times, in terms of 15 out the park and asking that question."

And the burden of ending the county's eight-year wait for an All-Ireland title weighs heavy on this team's shoulders.

"There's a lot of pressure on the team. They haven't won one, these younger lads. It's a hard thing to do. They've got to do it and they've got to win it. I'm sure they'll feel that they're ready to do that," added McGuinness.

"But at the same time, it's never done until it's done. It's going to be fascinating to watch that, and see how Jack O'Connor manages that."

'Cork are very off it at the moment'

Kerry open their championship campaign against the Rebels on Saturday at Páirc Uí Rinn, live on Sky Sports Arena.

And despite their shock win over the Kingdom two years ago, the Leesiders have since regressed.

"The last game of the National League against Offaly, it was an unbelievable game of football in many respects," said McGuinness of Cork.

"So there's a couple of positives there. But they seem to be very, very off it at the moment. It's hard actually to get the head around how far off it they are, in terms of the national stage.

"They're a huge county with huge potential, and a huge number of clubs. So it's one of those where I think football needs Cork going well, and I think Kerry need Cork going well also to be honest, to give them a litmus test early in the season in their own province.

"But there wouldn't be a lot of expectation around the team at the moment, and it's going to be difficult for them to manage that forward line that Kerry have.

"Stranger things have happened. But the negative from a Cork point of view is that they caught Kerry on the hop two years ago, so Kerry will be very tuned into that."

Watch the Munster SFC semi-final between Cork and Kerry at Páirc Uí Rinn live on Sky Sports Arena from 5:30pm Saturday.