Information can come from any direction these days, although when Mike Frank Russell tells you he played alongside Eamonn Fitzmaurice from minor on upwards, and also alongside Jim McGuinness for a couple of years in college, no one can argue with the strength of the source.

With that comes a deep insight into Kerry’s All-Ireland football showdown against Donegal on Sunday week, and what both managers share more than anything, says Russell, is their unwavering level of professionalism: indeed Gaelic football is at the stage where it cannot possibly get more professionalism – at least not without going professional in the strictly professional sense.

“Every year it’s lifted to another level,” he says, “and at the stage where it’s not just gone to nearly professional, but that it is a professional set-up. Donegal are going away for five days this week (to the Lough Erne resort), and you can’t get any more professional than that.

Resources

“And yet McGuinness was mentioning the Dublin team, and the resources they have, which is a very ironic. But I think Dublin, Mayo, and Kerry have all brought it up a level as well. With Dublin there was obviously a bit of money, with AIG there, but everyone else had to bring it up a level I suppose.

“And Kerry are going away to Fota Island, this weekend, for two days. It’s only a couple of days but there is a bit of money involved there too. It’s such a pressurised game now as well, everything is scrutinised, and with social media in the last five or six years that’s gone up a level. That’s why I think the time span for players is getting so much shorter. There’s such a headspace required for it.”

Five titles

Russell enjoyed 13 senior championships seasons with Kerry, winning an All-Ireland in his debut season in 1997, before retiring in 2009, with five titles in total, and one All Star. He also played on the last Kerry minor team to win an All-Ireland, in 1994: Fitzmaurice was also on that panel but was an unused sub in the final win over Galway (although he did win two under-21 All-Irelands alongside Russell, in 1996 and 1998).

In 1998, Russell also won a Sigerson Cup with Tralee IT, this time with McGuinness as one of his team-mates: Russell saw something in McGuinness back then which marked him out as different, not just the long, back locks that the Donegal man wore at the time.

“People were maybe fooled a bit by the long hair,” recalls Russell, “but he had a sharp brain. Even at that time, he was doing Health and Leisure, but he was always talking about going further ahead to do PE teaching, always seemed to have a plan in his head. He was a very deep thinker. And he was always a good man to train.

“You hear about these stories about the hard training sessions they have in Donegal, so I’m not surprised. He was always a talker in the dressingroom, too. He commanded respect because he was such a good speaker. To me, he came across to me as a man who thought a lot about the game. He always seemed to have plan, wanted to go on further, and had that vision, as I said.”

Yet Fitzmaurice shares that trait too, says Russell, who was speaking in Croke Park at the launch of the GAA’s coaching resource package for primary schools: Russell teaches and coaches at Holy Cross Mercy, Killarney, and at 37, is still playing with Laune Rangers.

‘Hard luck’

“At the start of the year, you were thinking Eamonn has run into fierce hard luck with the injuries, but I actually think it’s helped him. Against Cork, Kerry were written off, so I think he was able to work away quietly in the background with the younger players.”

Tactically, however, Donegal present Kerry’s most difficult challenge – and Russell hardly disguises the idea he would rather if Kerry were playing Dublin: “It will be very tactical, and that will come down to the two managers. Although maybe Kerry’s bench might be a bit better. Having said that I think Eamonn will have to come up with something a bit different. Because speaking to a well-known Donegal player during the week, if you look at the Dublin team, they had similar good forwards like Kerry. Yet even when Donegal went behind that blanket still didn’t come out. They have total trust in it.

“So are Kerry going to kick over it, or are Kerry going to try to keep Kieran Donaghy inside? It’s something Eamonn will think about, and he might have to try something completely different, like bringing James O’Donoghue out to the half-forward line. It’s going to be very tough, because I think Donegal in the final has changed the whole picture for us.”