When quizzed on the plausibility, at the outset of the league, of a new management and a host of newcomers racking up five wins on the bounce, Keane was coy.

“I wasn’t expecting — or not expecting — anything,” came the response.

“If we had won the first one, it would have been great. But had we lost it, we wouldn’t have been crying. It was about trying to find out where we are with players, trying to build a structure and see could you find a goalie, a corner-back, a full-back, a centre-back and so on. We have been fairly consistent in the teams that we have put out, from 1-9, and are learning from that.

“There is another aspect in that we have a few fellas who are out injured but the fella who is out injured isn’t worth a curse to you because he can’t do a job for you. Everyone else then has been stepping up. Tommy Walsh was mentioned earlier as a bail-out card but sure what the hell is he there for — he is only there because he can do something for us and if he can’t do something for us, someone else will go in there.” Not surprisingly, the Kerry manager was impressed by the contribution of the 31-year old Kerins O’Rahilly’s man.

“He is a big unit and has good hands. There’s no point having a lad with good hands and not playing him.”

Two down at the break, Keane was confident there would be a second-half kick from his charges. He probably didn’t thank them for leaving it as late as they did.

“We weren’t worried at half-time. There was a wind and we knew we’d have that at our back in the second-half.

“It could have gone any way up to the last five minutes. We finished strong. A big factor was the field dried up no end as the second-half progressed. “That helped us and maybe we were that bit fitter in the end.”