work. He did look Kerry's best player and most definitely the Kingdom's top forward. A major fillip for the squad and with Kilkenny star Willie O'dwyer yet to make his Kingdom debut things can only get better.

Kerry's other forwards will get better too. They were a little patchy on Sunday. Aidan Boyle was shifted from the full-forward line to the half-forward line to try and curb the growing influence of IT Tralee's centre-back Mark Deegan and despite trying hard never really settled.

His brother Mikey wasn't at his best just yet, but he just oozes class. You might think he's having a quite game, but up he pops to score an absolutely beautiful point. He remains on of the jewels in the Kingdom's crown. The two starting corner-forwards, Pa Joe Connolly and James Flaherty didn't get a huge amount of ball in the first half and struggled to get into the game – both were replaced at half-time, with Shane Nolan showing his brilliance in his second half cameo.

John Egan, meanwhile, looked sharp and scored two fine points (including the game's opener). The return of Brick and the coming of O'dwyer will obviously put guys like him under pressure for places so a strong start to the season was no bad thing from his point of view.

Despite their eventual loss IT Tralee's scoring prowess looked even greater than that of their inter-county opponents at times. Their spread of scorers was greater than the Kingdom's with eight seperate scorers to Kerry's five. There were Kerry men on the scoreboard for the IT too, Matt Lynch scored two from play and Barry O'grady one.

That would suggest that Kerry were in a little bit of bother at the back. They were. The full-back line was shuffled a couple of times to try and cope with the play of classy Cork forward Eamonn Brosnan – Paud Costello and Rory Horgan were both tried on him.

Kerry's half-back line was more assured. Newly appointed Kerry captain Liam Boyle played his usual blinder, Tom Murnane was very solid and John Griffin did as John Griffin does, worked his socks off to great effect. The positioning of Griffin at wing-back is a little bit of a surprise, however.

Not because he can't play there, he's more than capable, more so because of the fine partnership he struck up with Darren Dineen at midfield in the latter stages of the Christy Ring. If it ain't broke surely one shouldn't try and fix it, but then you have to consider that places in the attack are set to become very scarce indeed.

By playing Darragh O'connell at midfield, John Meyler is trying to give himself options. You always want a guy of O'connell's ability in your side, but with Brick back and O'dwyer to come who loses out? If the O'connell at midfield experiement works out then you've got another option in your arsenal.

That's the thing isn't it? Kerry mightn't be at the races against Cork next weekend, but at their own level they're looking increasingly formidable. Losing a Gary O'brien (to emigration) or a Mike Conway (to injury) is a bad blow, but Kerry still have plenty of strength in depth in a lot of positions.

You wouldn't have been questioning Kerry's halfback line too much on Sunday. It looked strong and experienced, but it didn't have Jason Casey on it, who picked up a Christy Ring All Star award last weekend for his brilliant displays at centre-back.

Colin Harris, meanwhile, started the game on the bench (and steadied the ship upon his introduction). Ally O'connor and John Fitzgerald likewise. Kerry really do seem to have options and not just up front where Brick and O'dwyer are capturing the headlines.

John Joe Canty and Mark Power are obviously doing great work at the IT. They were well drilled, confident, aggressive and came closer to winning this game than the final score suggested. With fifteen minutes to go they were the ones in the driving seat. Had they pulled out the victory they would have made history by winning their first ever game in the competition.

As it was Kerry had the honour of claiming their first success at this level and thanks to John Joe Canty's men they did so after a very welcome battle that revealed some good, some bad and gave John Meyler plenty to work on in the weeks ahead.

Not to mention a weekend fixture against the Rebels.