“Fellows are putting up their hands and ultimately that is all we can ask for. It means that when we sit down to pick teams, we have more choices and more headaches.”

It’s an approach that has served the new regime well, as the Kingdom boasts a perfect record from three games this spring, including a victory over Dublin early this month. And he made no secret of his delight about how the side coped with both the opposition and the occasion.

“What pleased me most is that the lads went out into what was a cauldron, there is no question about it, there was a tremendous atmosphere. They did not back down from it, they embraced it and they went about their business in the best possible way they could.

“Yes, it was tight enough near the end as the legs were tiring but we stayed the course. I know ( Dublin) were after getting four points to get them back to level the contest but prior to that we had a few opportunities that we should have possibly taken to get ahead even more ahead.

But we stayed calm, remained cool and kept chipping away, got the winner and that was very pleasing. One of the big things we have been working towards is increasing the work rate around the field and I think that is happening so we are happy with that.

Kerry already have a settled look about them with Keane keeping changes to a minimium from game to game. An the manager admits that there is a logic to such an approach: “If you are trying to put any structure together in terms of a team, you have to give them the confidence they get from playing with each other and familiarise themselves with each other. Now some of that has been forced upon us by the fact that we have had so many games going on with colleges and injuries and stuff like that. But thus far we have been reasonably happy with what has been put out”

Despite having full points after three games Keane refuses to talk about qualifying for a league final later next month.

“I will go back to what I said last November at my first media briefing, the ambition remains the same. We are using the league as a learning curve but we are not sure where we are just yet.

“You can say we have three wins but we still do not know where we are at. It’s a young team and with a young team, you can have highs and lows. You saw a good performance in Killarney against Tyrone, we had a poor first half against Cavan, so you will find troughs along the way so we are going game-by-game and seeing how we get on.”