On Gaelic Games: Down at the bottom there's only one direction in which movement is possible. Of course Kerry hadn't actually reached the bottom but the nature of their performances in the Munster championship had been sufficient to suggest a crisis of form and more than sufficient to require weightier refutation than an ambivalent win over Longford, writes Seán Moran.

But the consequence of putting a gun to the head of an accomplished team is there is always the risk of an unexpected reaction. We saw something of this in last month's Fifa World Cup with an elderly French team - a lot longer out of the loop than Kerry had been before last Saturday - delivering a swingeing and little-signalled backlash.

Whereas it wouldn't be that illuminating to pursue the parallels too far, there were reasons to doubt Kerry just as there had been - albeit more entrenched - reasons to feel the same about the 1998 world and 2000 European champions.

Jack O'Connor will hope for a happier conclusion to the renaissance than that experienced by Raymond Domenech and in the aftermath of what happened at the weekend the Kerry manager is entitled to be optimistic.

We don't even have to concentrate on soccer for the precedents; it's just the most topical example. Five years ago, in the first year of the football qualifiers, the All-Ireland was won for the first time by a team previously defeated in the football championship.

Those parallels are pretty exact. Galway fell to an unexpected defeat against provincial rivals Roscommon. It wasn't just the defeat but the manner of it that appeared like a death notice for the team that had ended Connacht's long drought in 1998.

Tomás Mannion, a huge influence on that success at corner back, had an awful experience three years later as Galway tried fruitlessly to cope with Nigel Dineen and Frankie Dolan. Surviving a chastening afternoon of such dimensions was a novel, almost embarrassing experience but Galway manager John O'Mahony put the structural reprieve to good use by acquiring a large drawing board and getting back to it.

By the time the teams met again in the inaugural All-Ireland quarter-finals - one of three fixtures that featured rematches from earlier in the championship, a state of affairs so depressing to the GAC and public at large that steps were taken to prevent it happening again - Galway were showing five changes and a clean pair of heels. Leading by 0-9 to 0-1 at half-time, they put the match to bed early, and Roscommon's earlier provincial title success was seen in a new and ambiguous context.

Admittedly some changes were enforced because of an injury to Jarlath Fallon and the return of Kevin Walsh but there had also been tactical tweaking. Most significantly, Mannion had been repositioned at centre back, a move originally greeted by plenty of reservation: how would a player given a runaround in the corner cope out the field in a central position?

Mannion's football ability ensured the transition was a big success. His physical strength ensured the middle would be held comfortably, and his ball skills meant almost flawless distribution.

It's too early to be certain Kieran Donaghy can bear comparison with Mannion but his influence has been immense in the two matches he has played at full forward - a position in which he has thrived at club level and at which he has for a while fancied a crack with the county side.

The switch originally appeared to be a bit of a punt, given for example the travails of another basketballer-turned-footballer, Liam McHale, when switched from centrefield to the edge of the square. Then again, unlike Donaghy, McHale hated playing full forward maybe because the flow of possession almost died when he wasn't there himself to maintain it but also because he wasn't comfortable with his back to goal.

Nonetheless in the 1988 Mayo-Meath All-Ireland semi-final McHale wreaked havoc among the full forwards in a match that looked over, scoring one goal and having another marginally disallowed. Although it was assumed he had been switched to number 14, John O'Mahony (in his earlier incarnation as manager of Mayo) subsequently pointed out that he had shuttled - rather than switched - the player between centrefield and the square depending on the progress of the play.

Just as Galway had some breathing space in 2001, so did Kerry two weeks ago. The challenges posed by Wicklow in Aughrim and Longford in Killarney were similar. Wicklow five years ago weren't as good as Longford this season - although they too had recorded a surprise win in their previous qualifier round, coincidentally against Longford - but home advantage for Kerry made their qualifier more manageable. A further coincidence is that Galway and Kerry both crossed the Rubicon by beating Armagh. Again, it could be maintained that Armagh five years ago weren't as formidable as Joe Kernan's team this season. But that would be arguable.

It was the year before Kernan took over but Armagh had been Ulster champions in the previous two years and had in 2000 pushed eventual champions Kerry to a replay and extra time.

It's worth bearing in mind now, with Armagh's veterans pondering their future and Kernan himself deciding whether to proceed with his current three-year appointment and prolong his five-year stretch as manager, that the county's record is remarkable.

Should Kerry, as expected by the bookies, head home with the Sam Maguire next month it will be the sixth time in eight years that Armagh have been eliminated by the eventual All-Ireland winners. One of the remaining two occasions saw the county win it themselves and only two years ago when Fermanagh sensationally bundled them out at the quarter-final stage have they been farther than one remove from the champions.

Given the experiences of Galway, Tyrone last year and Kerry at present it could be argued that part of Armagh's problem has been they haven't lost enough over the years. Six Ulster titles has meant a good few seasons with only one lifeline.

It's a consensus that teams learn more from defeat than from victory, so Armagh have denied themselves that diagnostic over the years. It could be argued that the team's success has been built on a consistency of performance that never needed radical tweaking.

But equally it would have been interesting to see how Joe Kernan would have responded to last Saturday had he been given the opportunity.