Fitzmaurice pleased with contribution of Unders-21s as League opener comes into focus

HAVING watched Kerry’s first McGrath Cup match at a remove as Jack O’Connor led his U-21 into that fixture, Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his selectors were back on the sideline in Mallow for an up close hands-on approach for what was, essentially a ‘winner takes all’ contest with Cork. Strictly speaking a draw would have been enough for Cork to top Group One and qualify for Sunday’s final. Their 15-point demolition of Tipperary last Wednesday, three days after Kerry’s 14-point winning margin over the Premier county, gave Cork the advantage in the scoring difference column, but there was never a sense that neither team didn’t want to win this match.

While Cork were trouncing Tipperary mid-week a Kerry senior selection were taking on an Under-21 selection in a robust challenge match in Tralee, but Fitzmaurice didn’t have to be present in Templetuohy to know what to expect in Mallow.

“Any time you play Cork there’s always going to be an edge to it, it’s always going to be a tough game,” he said on Sunday. “It didn’t take the result on Wednesday night to make us stand up and notice.

“It is great to have won the game and have another game next weekend. Today I felt we did a lot of good stuff especially in the first half, but we didn’t play great in the second half. The (under-21s) had the game last week and we (seniors) played them ourselves during the week in a challenge game. A couple of them played today and we’ll have a couple more of them for next weekend so it’s great for those lads to be getting game time and they acquitted themselves very well.

“What we want is to try and keep as many of the squad as we can healthy and when you do that you’ll have a strong squad going forward. Obviously it’s early days yet but as I’ve said, it’s good to have won the game and have another game next week which will help with our preparation for the start of the League. A lot of positives but as is normal at this time there’s plenty of things to be working on as well.

“The U-21 players will be available to us for the first two League games and after that then they’ll go back in with the U-21s as has been the plan all along. In any squad you want everyone to feel like they’re under pressure for their place in the squad and that’s always the environment you try to create and this year will be no different,” Fitzmaurice said.

Jack Savage’s performance was the stand-out one of the match, while Kerry were forced to play a young and novel pairing at midfield after David Moran was a late withdrawal from the team.

“(Jack) trained with us all last summer, and is often the case after you’ve spent a summer training and made it onto the squad that you want to put down a marker early in the year when you get a chance and Jack did that today. Hopefully he’ll build on that again next weekend,” the manager said.

“David (Moran) had a bit of a back strain so we left him out. Jack Barry came in, he’s been training with us, and he did very well. He’s been playing with UCC as well. Tadhg (Morley) is one of those natural footballers who could play anywhere in the middle eight for you.

“James (O’Donoghue) has had a frustrating couple of years with injury and it’s good for us and good for him that he’s back early in the year. He’s fit and has worked hard over the winter time, and he’s only mad for football and mad to get going. The thing he loves most is to be playing matches and both seasons he’d to do an awful lot of one on one rehab work, which can be lonely and not that enjoyable. He’s delighted now to be back in the fold from the start and to build for the League.”