I don’t know how many times this week I’ve been stopped on the street to listen to criticism about Éamonn Fitzmaurice
Ihave had Páidí on my mind all week as I walked around Tralee with my teeth clenched tight and my tongue bitten through.
This is my first time in 16 years on the outside seeing what the world looks and feels like when Kerry fall splat, and it isn’t pretty.
When you lose bad and big as a player like Kerry did last weekend, you are too consumed by your own disappointment to take any notice, but as a reborn supporter I have had my eyes and my mouth opened wide.
Páidí, of course, had some of my more sensitive and politically correct county folk venting their rage many years ago when he referred to Kerry supporters as “f**king animals”.
It was, in Páidí’s way, both a compliment and a criticism wrapped up in one phrase.
What he tried to explain was that
OTHE erroneous decision to show Darran O’Sullivan a black card in last weekend’s semi-final was compounded by referee David Gough’s refusal to give the player an explanation. People may wonder why Darran was so agitated but if you spend up to five days a week training for over six months and have your biggest game of the season ended within nine minutes of coming on, you might be agitated too. Kerry supporters are extremely demanding, but it was also an acknowledgment that those demands kept the bar raised high.
Nevertheless, it has been a shock to the system to witness some illinformed rage being vented for free.
I don’t know how many times this week I have been stopped on the street to listen to a barrage of criticism, most of it directed at Éamonn Fitzmaurice but I have kept my counsel.
I might just be the first of the Ó Sé’s to have a shot at a career in the diplomatic service which, oddly enough, never came looking to recruit Páidí.
But then I suspect he managed to sleep better as a result of getting it all off his chest.
The number one complaint all week has been directed at Fitzmaurice’s decision to play a sweeper, some even suggesting that it was a stain on Kerry’s tradition.
Perhaps I should have told them that had they bothered to go and support the team in the flesh, they would have seen for the last couple of years that Aidan O’Mahony, before he became a dancer, was better known for sweeping in front of the Kerry full-back line.
But instead we have elements of our support who bellyache from a distance about what we should be doing, but can’t find it in themselves to get out and support the team.
We were outnumbered about 5/1 by Mayo in the stands last week and while that was not the reason we lost, I can tell you as a player you thrive on the noise made by your own supporters.
It influences match officials, too; I read a report a few years back about how home teams in professional sport tend to get the ‘breaks’ as, subconsciously, referees are swayed by those who protest the loudest.
We have always had to deal with that, particularly at the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final stages, where huge sections of our ‘support’ would be in ‘wait for the final’ mode.
That’s not a criticism of all our supporters; we possess a hard core I would not swap for the Stretford End, who defy geography and expense to follow us everywhere we go.
They have Kerry in their soul and loyalty in their hearts, and they have minds of their own to criticise too. I can listen to them all day, but then they also tend to make more sense.
I suppose what has rattled my cage more than anything is the suggestion from some of the whispering classes that Fitzmaurice, after five years, should go. I question the reasoning for this. Some people don’t get what a good job he has done in keeping Kerry so competitive at a time when he has bled once-in-a-lifetime players like O’Mahony, Declan O’Sullivan, Tomás and Gooch.
Our population base is not that big and our resources are not infinite, and the main reason Kerry have remained front-line contenders for the past five years is mainly down to his football instincts and the ruthless streak that I saw and suffered from at first hand.
Mistakes? Of course he has made some, but who hasn’t?
There are all kinds of reasons why Kerry have been laid cold, but ultimately it is because the team has not been good enough. There is a rebuilding job to be done here and it is going to take time, too.
The Kerry full-back line has come in for a lot of heat and I feel for Shane Enright in particular.
He replaced me as chief firefighter in the Kerry defence, which means he is marking the most dangerous opposing forward in every game.
Everyone who has played that role has been torched at some stage, but Enright is made of strong stuff and he has not gone from hero to zero just yet.
There will be retirements, but I would hope panel elders like Killian Young, Darran O’Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy are not among those that will call time.
They have too much to offer still and Kerry will have to make the plunge next year and invest in youth.
The time has come to tap in to those All-Ireland-winning minor teams and give some of those players extended game-time.
Some said that playing a sweeper was a stain on Kerry’s tradition
Someone suggested to me during the week that Kerry should do a 1975 on it, when Mick O’Dwyer’s two oldest players were Brendan Lynch (26) and John O’Keeffe (24), but you wouldn’t get away with the strength and power at the highest level in today’s game.
Those young players will need guidance which is why I hope that trio remain, but otherwise you can expect to see radical changes.
Kerry need to find at least one inside back, an explosive wing-back and a couple of half-forwards for starters.
And they need a man at the helm who can manage that transition.
The best thing Kerry could do in the next month is to give Fitzmaurice, who still has one year left, an extension to his current term that will ensure he is still there in 2019 when we may be ready to contend again.
As for those who would be irked by such a development, they can keep their opinions to themselves because I for one will be turning a deaf ear.