Minor selector John Galvin is delighted that Kerry's renewed emphasis on underage coaching is paying off.

The Kingdom's appearance in Sunday's All-Ireland MFC final against Donegal is the result of improved underage structures, with Galvin conceding that coaching had been neglected when the senior team was flying high in the 2000s.

"The underage development squads have only been getting serious for the past few years," Galvin tells the Irish Examiner.

"Let's be honest, when Kerry were winning All-Ireland senior titles, the underage wasn't as well looked after. I don't believe the same emphasis was on it.

"In the last four or five years, there was a realisation they had to invest in the development squads, the underage. The structures became far more serious. To be fair to county board chairman Patrick O'Sullivan, he got Tony O'Keeffe involved and set up a sub-committee to look at that area.

"More structure and organisation followed."

Galvin accepts that Kerry will need to improve on their semi-final display against Mayo if they're to end their 20-year wait for Tom Markham Cup honours.

"In the semi-final, we went 19 minutes without scoring. That won't do on Sunday. We looked at it and hopefully we have addressed it. We will have to get going from the off against Donegal," he stressed.

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