DO YOU KERRY?
Kingdom legend Sheehy blasts apathetic fans as he labels them an ‘embarrassment’
KERRY legend Mikey Sheehy has rounded on Kingdom fans for skipping last summer’s Mayo dates and labelled the support ‘embarrassing’.
Kerry drew with Mayo last August in their first All-ireland semi-final meeting before losing the replay at Croke Park.
A 53,032 crowd watched the second date though current selector Sheehy said it was clear that Mayo supporters outnumbered Kerry folk.
The eight-times All-ireland medal winner acknowledged that Kerry were tactically beaten for the replay and that this was the management’s fault.
But he insisted the Kerry supporters were to blame too for not bothering to travel to Croke Park.
Sheehy said: “People in general don’t give Mayo the credit they deserve - they’re relentless and their supporters are unbelievable. The amount of support they had both days against us was powerful.
“Actually, I felt the Kerry support was embarrassing – there were so few Kerry people there.
“I would feel that, yeah, I would have been very strong about that, particularly for the replay. Jesus, they didn’t travel at all, whether it was because it was a Saturday afternoon or what, I don’t know.
“The team deserves that support. With Mayo, look how many times they have lost All-ireland finals and then you go outside and see the crowd there for them.
“Of course the players would be aware of it. Absolutely they would be. I saw something in the paper during the week, was it 2,500 at one Mayo game, an FBD League game?
“Now, Jesus, to be fair, you’d have to admire them. Those guys back their team. They have nearly as far to travel to games as the Kerry supporters geographically. That wasn’t an excuse for why we lost. We lost because we were beaten by a better team. But the support was shocking, shocking.”
Sheehy made his name during Kerry’s golden era of the 1970s and 1980s.
Mick O’dwyer was in charge for all those wins and a TV documentary chronicling the 82-year-old’s Gaelic football career was aired recently.
Sheehy’s missed penalty in the 1982 All-ireland final defeat to Offaly, when Kerry failed to win the five-in-a-row, featured in the broadcast though the Tralee man said last year’s Mayo loss was nearly as bad.
He added: “One of the biggest disappointments I would have had outside of 1982 would have been our performance against Mayo last year, it was shocking, it was so flat.
“They were far better than us on the day and deserved to be beat us
by five or six points more than they did for a finish.”
He acknowledged that Mayo manager Stephen Rochford got all of the big tactical calls spot on and added: “We got it wrong on the day, just hold up your hands. There’s certain days that happens.
“We got it totally wrong, not alone on the field but off the field and we just had to take the criticism for that.”
Sheehy said criticism of Kerry’s management team was ‘ferocious’ afterwards but admitted much of it was warranted.
He said: “We got it wrong on the line and they got it 200 per cent right on the line in fairness to Mayo.
“And I think they were chomping at the bit from 2014 when we beat them in Limerick.”