The future is now as U-21s face Tipperary

MCGRATH CUP, FIRST ROUND

Kerry v Tipperary Sunday, January 8 Austin Stack Park, Tralee at 2pm Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)

TWELVE months ago the Kerry senior panel had just about touched down in Ireland on return from their team holiday when Clare came to Killarney for the McGrath Cup opener against the natives.

The Kerry management had assembled a very experimental team for that fixture and displaying all the signs of a team put together with little collective glue they fell apart.

Leading 0-7 to 0-3 at half time Kerry were in a good place but all that inexperience - against a far more mature Clare team - told in the second half as the hosts were out-scored by nine points to two and bowed out of the competition on the back of a three-point loss.

Twelve months on and the Kerry seniors haven’t been on a team holiday over the New Year and therefore are available (and more ready) for early January action.

Nonetheless, between them, Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his U-21 counterpart Jack O’Connor have decided to field an U-21 team for the opening game against Tipperary with the seniors to fulfil the second game against Cork.

It’s a scratching backs exercise that should benefit both parties. O’Connor’s U-21s will benefit from what should be a very stiff test from a Tipperary squad emboldened by their Championship run in 2016, while Fitzmaurice gets to look at the county’s younger talent from a useful remove. Thereafter, with O’Connor’s blessing, Fitzmaurice can cherry pick a couple of U-21s for the National League games in Donegal and at home to Mayo, as he did with Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Tom O’Sullivan last year.

It remains to be seen what team and panel the U-21 management pick for Sunday, but suffice it to say it will draw largely from the All-Ireland winning minor team from 2014, with the obvious exception of Mark O’Connor who has gone to the AFL in Australia.

Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Tom O’Sullivan are two of that 2014 minor team that will form the spine of this year’s U-21 team - and possibly Sunday’s team to face Tipp - while Andrew Barry, Barry O’Sullivan, Matthew Flaherty and Killian Spillane are some of the other talents to look out for.

Widening the net, the senior management report a full bill of injury-free players (Anthony Maher is expected to shake off a “niggle” according to Fitzmaurice) for the trip to Mallow the following Sunday.

Players not long out the U-21 grade who have been called into the senior panel for now include Jack Savage, Gavin Crowley, Shane Murphy, Adrian Spillane, Jack Barry, Kevin McCarthy and Ronan Shanahan, and they should get the opportunity to show their potential against Cork.

First there’s the business to hand for the U-21s against Tipperary but it’s impossible to make any sound predictions about a result.