There are lessons from Kerry’s failed five-in-a-row bid – Sheehy

MIKEY SHEEHY has lauded the quick defensive fix that Peter Keane and his backroom team have been able to bring to Kerry that has propelled them to the top of Division One.

Sheehy was a selector for six years to Eamonn Fitzmaurice and admits their defensive play was an “area we would have been slated for.”

But the improvements in just three games have been noticeable with Sheehy crediting his successors for “taking the handbrake off” on Saturday night as they registered a second win in three League meetings over Dublin.

“Outside of Dublin, I think Kerry have the best forwards in the game. Even last year, I thought we had very good forwards, just didn’t perform.

“The one thing I’d say about Peter Keane, Donie Buckley is involved but a lot of people forget Tommy Griffin is there as well who was involved with Peter at minor. Tommy is a very good defensive coach,” he observed.

“It would have been an area we were slated for, particularly in the league that we conceded 10 goals. But I noticed, particularly in the Tyrone game, very solid at the back. Played quite defensively. Whereas last Saturday night they took the handbrake off a bit more.”

As Dublin gear up for their five-in-arow bid Sheehy recalled some of the pitfalls they faced themselves in the build-up to their 1982 defeat to Offaly, admitting it got into his own “psyche”.

“I missed a penalty at a crucial point in the game. I would have said that day that I just didn’t feel right myself. I felt drained.

“I felt after about 10 minutes in the game, ‘Jesus Christ, have I done any training for this game?’ I was stuck to the floor, it was just a tension, drained. I think the players nowadays are totally different tuned to the way we were.”

Other issues grated away, like the ‘five-in-a-row’ t-shirts on sale before the game and the man from Sneem – where their captain John Egan came from – telling him on the Friday before the game to make sure they were all down in Sneem for the homecoming on the following Tuesday night.

“Coming out after training there were two guys selling five-in-a-row t-shirts. I never in my life saw Micko as animated and as cranky in his life.”

But Sheehy believes Jim Gavin is “on the money” with his approach to these matters and qualifies Saturday night’s win for Kerry by referencing the absence of Stephen Cluxton and Ciaran Kilkenny.

“To me, their key men would be, number one Cluxton obviously. Ciaran Kilkenny. Brian Fenton. Jonny Cooper. And James McCarthy. There’s your spine. Every one of those guys, you’d put them up with the best players that ever played the game.”

With the right conditioning Sheehy is confident Kerry can catch up with Dublin in the coming years.

“That’s maybe too presumptuous but we would like to think so. There’s no doubt that when you win five minor titles in a row you have to have talent.”

Sheehy had strong words for some of the more critical Kerry fans last year, but is adamant that any of the criticism they got as a management team – like Fitzmaurice, he admitted to getting hate mail – didn’t bother him.

“They (letter writers) are sitting down on their backsides in front of the fire watching Champions League games. Then if you play a bad game the following Sunday they are (typing), anonymous names and they are slating you. But they are sad people.”