All-Ireland SFC Semi-final Derry v KerryGavin Cummiskey talks to Kerry's manager Jack O'Connor and selector Ger O'Keeffe about their need to reassess at the beginning of the year after last year's championship disappointment

After last year's traumatic defeat to Tyrone at the All-Ireland semi-final stage, Kerry football was forced to stop and take stock. Nobody in the Kingdom ever wanted to be removed from the championship in such a manner again.

Their open, flowing football that has dominated the game for generations was suffocated almost out of existence.

Armagh had done likewise in the second half of the 2002 final. An obvious pattern was developing in Ulster as through their vice-like defensive grip - employed by physically stronger players - they seemed to have wrestled Sam Maguire north for the foreseeable future.

Whether the rest of the country has wised up will become abundantly clear by Sunday night. Armagh and Tyrone have been banished but the Ulster domination of the modern game will continue if Fermanagh and Derry progress. Mayo and Kerry may still be favourites but that tag has become almost redundant this year.

Kerry didn't go back to the drawing board but a new management team under Jack O'Connor did reassess the manner in which the top-level opponents are to be approached.

For starters, half forwards became defenders when devoid of possession. However, the former under-21 trainer has been at pains to stress that traditional methods are not being tossed on the scrap heap. Instead, they are evolving.

"Every manager wants his players working hard when they don't have the ball. It's not as if I consciously went out and changed Kerry's style. That's not what I'm at. I just want my team to be working very hard."

Well and good but the Kerry public never want to see a repeat of last year when a swarm of Tyrone footballers crowded out the influence of players like Darragh Ó Sé in his very own midfield domain.

One hectic passage of play from early in that game springs to mind. It was like watching a pride of lions isolating and bringing down a water buffalo. Séamus Moynihan famously compared midfield to Times Square during rush hour.

According to selector Ger O'Keeffe, sentiment and tradition can wait until Sam is retained.

"Northern teams have won the last two All-Irelands playing a particular type of football. Kerry unfortunately succumbed to both Tyrone and Armagh. We felt that we needed to strengthen up certain areas of our game; to take a different approach," he said.

"It's not as if they are asked to play defensively. Teams now play with a lot of players going forward together so effectively your half forwards have to go back to cover the additional players. This is how the game has developed.

"You couldn't play the old style against the modern type of football. It's played on the basis that bodies are all over the central third of the field. If you start kicking long ball your full forward line is going to be 60 yards from goal and that's no good to you either because you can't score.

"The game has changed and teams like Kerry must adapt and devise a game plan that suits Kerry best. We try to play a traditional way while taking into consideration what other teams are doing also."

This week, O'Connor showed his ruthless streak by leaving Mike-Frank Russell on the bench, with a preference towards the more abrasive Declan O'Sullivan at corner forward, while bringing in Liam Hassett at half forward. Also, William Kirby's experience got the nod over 20-year-old Paddy Kelly in midfield.

In short, Kerry are leaving nothing to chance. Hassett's selection, albeit indirectly, over Russell is an indictment of the seriousness with which they are taking the Derry threat.

"He is a very experienced player and is suited to the type of game Derry play," added O'Keeffe. "They break out of defence quite quickly and get the ball fast into their full-forward line. Liam will put pressure on their half backs."

Derry claim to be more open a team than what has travelled south in recent years. Maybe, by Ulster standards. But Westmeath discovered otherwise in the closing stages of the quarter-finals.

As the Leinster champions came in search of scores they found only an impenetrable red wall.

O'Connor concurs: "I feel that they play quite a defensive game. They certainly get a lot of players working back when they are not in possession, they create a lot of space up front and that's close enough to what the Tyrone's and Armagh's were doing.

"To be honest, we are concentrating on our own game. We were disappointed with our own performance against Dublin the last day, especially in the first half.

"We feel we have to up that next Sunday. We gave the ball away rather cheaply."

One suspects the lessons from the previous Ulster encounters have been learned.